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1I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had disappeared, and so had the sea. 2Then I saw New Jerusalem, that holy city, coming down from God in heaven. It was like a bride dressed in her wedding gown and ready to meet her husband.
3I heard a loud voice shout from the throne:
God's home is now with his people. He will live with them, and they will be his own. Yes, God will make his home among his people. 4He will wipe all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain. These things of the past are gone forever.
Revelation 21.1-4, CEV
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God, of your goodness,
Give me yourself, for you are sufficient for me.
I cannot properly ask anything less, to be worthy of you.
If I were to ask less I should always be in want.
In you alone, do I have all.
*Julian of Norwich (1342- c. 1416), www.julianmeetings.com
The present-day concept of reality is best expressed in the idea of relationship and networking. We are all interconnected and interdependent. Everything in the universe needs everything else. We are all part of the whole. This may be a challenge to our concept of self-sufficiency and personal achievement - what Americans call 'bowling alone', doing your own thing. Yet the greater need is for communication and openness: the need to listen and to enter into dialogue without agenda. Here, the symbol is not the 'Cartesian wheel', made up of independent parts and separate functions, but the 'luminous web', as it has been called: a radiation of light and energy coming from within the whole, in which everything is connected and interrelated…today the search is for a world of both/and: one that can hold a balance of opposites, embrace paradox and be comfortable with differences.
*Father Eugene McCaffrey OCD, Tabor Carmelite Retreat Centre
www.contemplativespirituality.org
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The above quotes of Julian of Norwich and Father Eugene McCaffery, might seem to lack agreement. One articulates, in traditional religious terms, of needing God. The other, in nontraditional language - though by a religious -, speaks of the oneness in Nature. Is there any connection between needing God and the oneness of all things in Nature?
Then, we have an cryptic, apocalyptic scripture opening our reading. How does that fit with our theme? Well, we will return to that later.
The need of touch is a natural sign of our innate need for communion in a network of living interchange, not only of goods but of ourselves. In a South American orphanage, Rene Spitz observed and recorded what happened to ninety seven children deprived of emotional and physical contact. Because of a lack of funding, there was not enough staff adequately to care for the children, ages three months to three years old. Nurses changed diapers and fed and bathed the children. But, there was little time to hold, cuddle, and talk to them. After three months many of the children showed signs of abnormality. Besides a loss of appetite and being unable to sleep well, many of them lay with a vacant expression in their eyes. After five months, serious deterioration was clear. They lay whimpering, with troubled and twisted faces. Often, when a doctor or nurse would pick up an infant, it would scream in terror. Twenty seven, almost one third, of the children died before age one, but not from lack of food or health care. They died of lack of touch and emotional nurture. Because of this, seven more died the second year. Only twenty one of the ninety seven survived, most with serious psychological damage.
*Charles Sell. Unfinished Business.
Physical touch is a sign of our need for community. We are beings, shaped to live and thrive by emotionally touching and being touched.
James and I were good friends in high school, back in the 70s in Georgia. He was black, I white. Years later, James did some work on our house. My mother prepared a meal for his co-worker, also a black man, and James. James politely declined to enter the house, due to the racial divide. My mother convinced the two men to enter and gather at our table. Doing this, she was practicing communion, calling two men who were excluded by differences to be included as one with us. My mother was being a christ person, summoning differences to gather around a common Center, the Christ Presence. Our table became the Altar of Christ, a meal a holy communion.
We are a network of living creatures. We are together Nature. We are dependent, contributing beings, fully present to the Presence of God, Who is everywhere. We are a luminous unity, vibrate throughout. You could say, "But, that is not what I feel myself to be?" Well, possibly, that honesty is the place to begin in exploring what is true community.
Yet, let us be assured that our unity does not rest in any part of Nature. The God-centeredness of our union derives from God, as Omnipresence, filling all things. We each are part of all, for we are part of God:
24 Can anyone hide from me in a secret place?
Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?”
says the Lord.
*Jeremiah 23.24, NLT
Jesus began gathering followers around himself, early in his ministry. This is a sign of the attraction of Christ to the center, where we are all one in our differences.
Often we are not aware of this attraction, for we are so focused on the illusion of our separateness. Love is the attraction that illuminates our union, and we are graced with glimpses and sensations of spiritual oneness in our common Creator.
Weekly, my congregation gathers at the Table, or Altar, of Christ. I invite all who respect Christ and seek to live in harmony with others to come forth and partake of the elements of Holy Communion. This is a rite that signifies the union we are and to which everyone, of all faiths and peoples, is called to actualize more fully.
Christ is the sign of Presence that makes unity possible and actual, even as Eucharist is a manifestation of the spiritual Presence of Christ, Who calls us all to the center where we are one and, yet, contributing through differences.
Yes, I need God. I am coming to know that I most discover God in discovering spiritual community. For spiritual community is a more whole expression of God than my self alone.
To be in spiritual community means a measure of suffering. To be in sacred communion means we cannot close our hearts to the suffering entailed in getting to know others and sharing their presences and life-experience. We are not to seek only pleasures of togetherness.
I find it very difficult to help a faith community move to this sacred communion. We live in a culture of quick service suited to our specifications. Holy communion does not work that way. Our will and love must be taken up into the whole, then the whole becomes a sacramental sign of the unity of all Creation.
This week I had an extended visit with a couple praying about joining the membership of the congregation I serve. When it came to talking about what they are looking for in a church, what they most expressed was not what they wanted from the congregation but how they wanted to serve through it. This couple exemplifies the Spirit of Communion. Rather than getting disturbed for the group does not meet our needs, as we esteem our needs, we can discover the joy and meaning of serving in a communion that is a sign of the oneness of all things, centered in Grace.
The "New Jerusalem" in our opening scripture is "coming down from God in heaven." This is saying that the newness spoken of is a gift of Grace, with the qualities of heaven, or "Spirit, spiritual consciousness, of spiritual experience." The unity of this, to which we are destined, is signified in the words: "God's home is now with his people. He will live with them, and they will be his own. Yes, God will make his home among his people."
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*How does spiritual community nurture you spiritually? * What challenges do you find being in sacred communion with others? *Share a recent time when you felt your oneness with others.
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*For submission of prayer requests, write to Brian at barukhattah@embarqmail.com .
*Charitable contributions would be appreciated to assist Brian in the continuance of his work of ministry. For contributions, contact Brian at barukhattah@embarqmail.com .
*Brian's book of spiritual love poetry, An Ache for Union: Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major booksellers, or through the Cokesbury on-line store, at www.cokesbury.com .
*Brian K. Wilcox lives in Punta Gorda, FL, and Clearwater, FL, with his wife, step-son, and two beloved dogs. Brian has an independent writing, workshop, and retreat ministry focused on Christians living as spiritual disciples of Jesus Christ in everyday life. He serves the Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL. Brian is vowed at Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in South Georgia. He lives a vowed, contemplative life and inspires others to experience a more intimate relationship with God-in-Christ. Brian advocates for a spiritually-focused, experiential Christianity and renewal of the focus of the Church on addressing the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons.
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