15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
*II Corinthians 5.15-17, NLT
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Andor Foldes is now age seventy-two, and he recalls how praise made all the difference for him early in his career. His first recollection of an affirming word was at age seven. His father kissed him and thanked him for helping in the garden. He recalls it over six decades later, as though it were yesterday. But the account of another kiss that changed his life says much about our inner need for purpose.
At age sixteen, living in Budapest, Foldes was a skilled pianist. He, however, was at his personal all-time low because of a conflict with his piano teacher. In the midst of that very troubled year, one of the most renowned pianists of the day came to the city to perform. Emil von Sauer was not only famous for his abilities at the piano, he could claim the notoriety of being the last surviving pupil of Franz Liszt.
Sauer asked that young Foldes play for him. Foldes played for the master some of the most difficult works of Bach, Beethoven, and Schumann. When he finished, Sauer walked over to Foldes and kissed him on the forehead.
"My son," he spoke, "when I was your age I became a student of Liszt. He kissed me on the forehead after my first lesson, saying, 'Take good care of this kiss ~ it comes from Beethoven, who gave it me after hearing me play.' I have waited for years to pass on this sacred heritage, but now I feel you deserve it."
*Tim Kimmel. Little House on the Freeway
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25 Brothers and sisters, pray for us.
26 Give each other a holy kiss when you meet. 27 I tell you by the authority of the Lord to read this letter to all the believers.
*I Thessalonians 5.25-27, NCV
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In our churches we do not practice the holy kiss. The closest rite we have to a holy kiss in most of our churches is Passing of the Peace. The blessing "Peace be with you" appears four times in the New Testament.
The Peace of Christ be with you
And, also, with you
Passing of the Peace can be sign of reconciliation or love. We affirm those present as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are blessing them.
There is deeper import to Passing of the Peace than the present. Passing of the Peace is affirmation of a common heritage and Person. The Church is the Body of Christ. Christ lives in the Church and as the Church: past, present, future.
The Church, by Grace, is Person of Christ. Christ meets us in each member of His Body. Person derives from His Person. Person here means communal essence, not individual self. I meet Person in the transcendent Otherness of the other; I am met by the other in the transcendent Otherness of my being. The Otherness is the same Otherness, though configured differently through the aspects of individuated expression. The transcendence is not of space; transcendence of Otherness is inaccessibility of the Mystery of the Otherness that makes the other the distinct God-Expression he or she is. The Other, due to Person, or Otherness, is who my Person is; thus, he or she, as Otherness, cannot be fully known by me, nor me by him or her~not in the Otherness that is the mystery of individuated-communal~participation in Being.
All worship rites in community can take on richer meaning, and be more encouraging, when we see them in their mystical depths. In the rich symbolism of rite, we engage in acts potential to transcend self, time, and place and, thereby, connect us with a living tradition and a Living~Communal Christ.
Such a connection is a connection with all other in the Church, "living" and "passed on." In the words of theologian John Z. Zizioulas, in Being as Communion: The hypostasis [essential nature, substance] of ecclesial existence [existence in and as the Church] is constituted by the new birth of man, by baptism. Baptism as new birth is precisely an act constitutive of hypostasis.
While his affirmation of baptism itself being the moment of new birth is highly debatable, the implications of Zizioulas' words for heritage and community, Church and rite, or noteworthy. He affirms, with the New Testament, that entrance into the Body of Christ is formative of a new person, the person is no longer seen as defined by natural family heritage: the destiny of genes or family history.
He continues, [N]new birth from the womb of the Church has made him [the Christian] part of a network of relationships which transcends every exclusiveness ... salvation is not a matter of moral perfection, an improvement of nature, but a new hypostasis [essential being, substance] of nature, a new creation.
The Living Christ is present as Spirit and as the members of His Body. Truly, when I pass the peace to my brother or sister in God, I bless Christ with peace, for that person is the Body of Christ. I can see the rite as my being blessed to offer blessing to all who are new creations in the living Body of Christ.
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*Brian K. Wilcox lives with his wife, Rocio, their two dogs, St. Francis and Bandit Ty, and their fish, Hope, in Southwest Florida. Brian is vowed at Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in Georgia. He lives a contemplative life and inspires others to experience a deeper relationship with Christ. He advocates for a spiritually-focused Christianity and the renewal of the focus of the Church on addressing the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons and empathic relating with diverse spiritual traditions, East and West. Brian has an independent writing, workshop, and retreat ministry, for all spiritual seekers.
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