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Story
A member of a mainline denomination spoke to her Bishop. “Bishop,” she asked, “are you a universalist or the opposite?” The Bishop replied, “Neither.” “Why neither one?" asked the lady. The Bishop answered, “First, because of Grace and, second, because I am not God.”
Truth always rests between the extremes.
Quote: Vladimir Lossky
Without the heart, which is the centre [center] of all activity, the spirit is powerless. Without the spirit, the heart remains blind, destitute of direction.
(The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church)
Comments
We are persons made of individual parts. These parts are a whole. However, we speak of the whole as having parts. Rather, we would speak more accurately of processes or aspects.
Two aspects of the whole we are is heart and is spirit. What is the heart? The heart in Christian theology is the center of intellect and will. All spiritual vision and aspiration proceeds from the heart. Any will to act finds its source in the heart. The spirit is the innermost aspect, where we are capable of seeking God, the principle of freedom and conscience. Through the spirit Grace is administered to the total person.
Therefore, Grace comes from the seat of freedom within, the point of fellowship and union with Deity, not the intellect or will. But, how does this pertain to prayer and spiritual practice?
Spiritual practices must address the spirit, for communion and union with the Triune Deity can only be nurtured and matured through living in constant contact with the spirit, the innermost aspect. The spirit is the fount of Spirit.
A monk spoke to the abbot. “Father, what must I do to be a spiritual man?” The abbot replied, “Where, my son, does the ray of light find the possibility of being a ray of light?” “From the Sun,” answered the monk. “Likewise,” said the abbot, “to be a spiritual man, you must find the source of all your being in the spirit. Keep in touch with the spirit, and you will be a spiritual man. What is spiritual flows from spirit, what is other flows from somewhere else.”
However, ancient Christian theology teaches us that the spirit is in a unitive relationship, or koinonia, with the heart. The laziness or misdirection of the will and intellect can have a negative, reflexive influence on the spirit. Spirit can be hampered or closed off through the choice of will or the act of intellect. This is a reason our beliefs are vital. Some beliefs, and some in our churches, are counter to an opening to allow grace to flow through the spirit. If our thoughts about God, for example, contradict spirit, then, we cannot be spiritual men and women. Such unspiritual thought, as well as unspiritual action, damns up the flow of grace. Take the story above. Suppose the rays of the Sun had the gift of free will. The rays could say, “I want just to be myself. I can shine without the Sun.” Then, such self-will, divorced from reliance on the Sun, would cut off the very light that makes the rays called sunshine.
This is one reason the Wesleyan tradition teaches we can fall from grace, in the sense of choosing against grace. That is, as a Christian I can choose against my Christian confession, for spirit does not negate the will that resides with the heart. Having chosen grace, I can denounce grace. If I cannot, then, I am a captive to grace, rather than one cooperating with grace.
Therefore, our confession and action must be rooted in the spirit, for from the spirit flows the springs of Grace. We must have spiritual practices that take us underneath the mind and will, so the thought and will can be transformed to see and act as the Holy Spirit, who acts through our spirit. That makes us one of the “spiritual ones,” what St. Paul and the early Church Fathers called one of the pneumatikoi. Possibly, one of the greatest fallacies of the Church today is that we can grow spiritual Christians at the level of the heart. That is impossible, for the heart only finds vivifying and informing Grace through the Center, the spirit.
Therefore, it should not surprise us that many Christians, persons who have long-been confessing Christ and members of our churches, should seem befuddled, and some times hostile, and speak of heresy, of any person or teaching that addresses the essentiality of “spiritual” practice and the inadequacy of the level of preaching and teaching and action in many churches. Indeed, many Christians have never received a clear teaching on Christian “spirituality,” as opposed to Christian “religion.” So, no wonder it shocks them, after so many years of sincere confession and aspiration for Christ.
However, again, as in the writing yesterday, this is essentially no elitist teaching. The teaching is grounded in the Bible and Church tradition. Every person, even the atheist, has spirit, for it is a natural endowment, even as the heart is. Every person can receive Grace, as a daily flow of Love, Joy, and Peace, from the spirit. Any church can be a spiritual one.
In uniting heart and spirit, grace enables the will and mind to manifest the fruit of the Spirit, or the fruit of the spirit: for the Greek does not distinguish between Spirit and spirit. The fruit of your spirit is the fruit of the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of your spirit. Why? They are the point of unitive contact between God and the Center within us each. The fruit of one must be the fruit of the other. The will and intellect can diverge from the Spirit, but the spirit cannot. The human spirit will always agree with the Holy Spirit, even when the mind and thought does not. And, therefore, peace with God comes only in agreement of the person with the spirit and Spirit. Thus, hell is the total absence of response to the Spirit, a total being cut off from spirit. And, where the self is receiving the prodigious flow of Grace from the spirit, by the Spirit, there is heaven.
Finally, herein rests my writing on the Christ transcending historical Christianity. It is not grounded in the opinion of Brian, but rests in the Scripture and tradition of the Church. Spirit, that Center, where some of our Church Fathers identified the image of God, precedes all religion, all faith, for it arises immediately as the expression of the Eternal Spirit, Itself not confined within time. Whatever will and thought we have about Christianity is rooted in the spirit. There is no, absolutely, Buddhist spirit, Christian spirit, Hindu spirit, human spirit, animal spirit, good spirit, bad spirit, male spirit, female spirit … Spirit, like spirit, is free of all identification and philosophies and religions. Spirit is simply spirit, the aspect where undifferentiated Grace pours forth into the total self. We cannot confine Christ in any religion or anything exterior to or following in time spirit, for Christ, the Word, though manifesting in time, also precedes and transcends time. Thus, when living from spirit, we, as Christians, will see Christ acting freely in places and persons that the person trying only to live his or her Christianity from the heart will not see Christ, and cannot see Christ. For we see Christ free only through the grace that flows from the place of freedom within us, the spirit. Therefore, this teaching of the Church regarding spirit frees Christ Jesus from the idolatry that seeks to make Christianity another philosophy or tribal religion (such religion has a god, or God, only for itself), and this makes clear that Christianity follows Christ to transcend itself, or it ceases to follow Christ.
Reflection
What do you see the opening story teaching?
Consider, if you are not already, sponsoring a child through Compassion International. You can find out more about Compassion International by going to www.compassion.net to read about sponsoring, in the name of Jesus, children living in poverty. Thanks! Brian K. Wilcox
To contact Brian, write briankwilcox@comcast.net .
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