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Wisdom Story
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes had a reputation for being absent-minded. One day on a train out of Washington, he was studying a pending case. The conductor asked for his ticket. Holmes searched each pocket, but without finding the ticket.
The conductor spoke, "Don't be concerned, Mr. Justice Holmes. We know who you are. When you return to Washington, you can send us the ticket at your convenience."
The jurist lowered his eyes and shook his head sadly. He said, "Thank you, my good man, but you don't seem to understand the problem. It's not question of whether I'll pay the fare. The problem is: Where am I going?"
Wisdom Quote
For our lives to have meaning, we behave in such a way that our actions are not merely a succession of events related only by chance and accident, but construct a meaningful pattern of behavior. ... For this to occur, for there to be a meaningful pattern, there must be one thread that somehow [ties] our actions to each other and dyes them all with a common color of meaning. We grab this thread by connecting ourselves to an end, a destiny that we sense will give us ultimate meaning. From this telos, we draw the string backwards and, anchored to our final destiny, it binds all our actions into one meaningful whole. If the thread breaks, or if the end point shifts or is no longer considered absolute, we have a crisis of meaning.
*Ronald Rolheiser. The Shattered Lantern.
Comments
Advent Season is a time of looking. We celebrate the comings of Christ by a faithful looking. We look backward to the incarnation of Divine Presence as Jesus of Nazareth. We look inward to Christ Within each of us and creation, One coming to fruition as we grow into intimacy with God in the present. We look forward to what persons often refer to as the Second Coming, but this is really only continuation of the comings of the Word in our space-time but arising from beyond our space-time. In this beyond is the Absolute, the Infinite, the Godhead, the Source of all causes and effects.
The Christian vision integrates these three lookings as essential to meaning from a Christian worldview. There is an evolutionary pull to history, and this pull is grounded in the comings of God within creation. The so-called Second Coming is the arrival of the fullness already inherent in creation but awaiting full fruition; this fruition is the working of the Christ Presence in all space-time, and this porousia, or arrival or coming, is what is meant in Scripture as a new heavens and new earth.
Therefore, my every behavior, which includes all physical and emotional action, is joined to an absolute evolution of nature, including you and me, or such action is not one with that embodied emergence of Pure Love.
I am not required as a Christian to agree with any one interpretation of these comings of Christ. I, being a Christian, however, hold to the thread witnessed to in the Gospel and spoken of in many symbolic and sometimes hard to decode ways in Scripture. This is that the absolute claims of Christ are essential to the meaning of the Christian and no counter claims are sufficient; however, the preciseness of interpretation of the vision no person can fathom.
Here, as often in the Christian faith, faith is proven more important than dogma and confidence in the face of Mystery more mature than beliefs about the same. This inner certainty in the Absolute Meaning of the advents allows me to affirm that I know Whom I am coming from, going with, and going toward. The inner faith in the relationship releases me from the arrogance that throws facile projections onto the wall of Mystery. Here, the darkness of faith teaches us much more than the light of intellect.
This faithing in the ongoing relationship with Christ is a growing into deeper union with God. This growth is grounded in history past and moving toward history future ~ and beyond history ~ and gives us what Rolheiser calls a "symbolic hedge." He notes that within a symbolic hedge, which we make choices by, waiting is "meaningful activity." There is "something to wait for" and we "experience the flow of time meaningfully, despite our tension and incompleteness." The symbolic hedge is a story we live within. The story provides the reference point and contours of our lives.
Within the symbolic hedge, to grow well toward the consummation in Christ, we must honor what Rolheiser reminds us is the present condition of our selves. In the age of the coming of Christ here-and-now, we have awareness that arises at times to disturb us. Likely, for many of us this awareness is the subtle background of our lives. The sense is of present tension and incompleteness.
However, this tension and incompleteness is not antithetical to the coming of Christ. It, rather, is the energy we embrace to act toward the final advent, the telos. By the graceful acceptance of and working with and through our incompleteness, we participate with Christ in bringing about the completion, the telos, of history.
Advent, consequently, lifts me from the narrow focus of purely individual salvation, or evolution to full Christlikeness. The individual aspect is important, but emergence into maturer unions with Christ is one with evolution of nature toward the consummation of all in Christ. If my spirituality focuses on my salvation as all-important, then, I lack the symbolic-hedge essential to find and live absolute meaning. This means that my own Advent finds consummation in union with the whole Advent that Christ is bringing to fullness within space-time.
Advent invites us, then, to discern tracings of Christ in the complimentary patterns embedded in nature and history. Within this invitation is prayerful, loving discernment of how God providentially manifests Christ, as the Wisdom of God (I Cor 1.30), in diverse religions and philosophies.
What is it that blocks our discernment of these hints of how Christ is coming in our world? The answer: beliefs. Deepak Chopra, in the Essential How to Know God, observes that our belief is where the real change must happen. "A belief is like a microchip that keeps sending out the same signal over and over, making the same interpretation of reality until you are ready to pull out the old chip and install a new one."
This raises a final question for the Christian. Are you prepared and ready to integrate the symbolic hedge with a maturer, more spiritual Christian vision, to see more clearly the advents of Christ?
Reflection
What are the three comings of Christ? How do these comings fit as one in Christian faith?
Is there one of the comings that tends to be more a focus for you? If so, explain why.
Do you feel it okay for you to have faith in Christ while having uncertainty about the precise nature of the so-called Second Coming?
What is meant by "the darkness of faith" as contrasted with the "light of intellect"?
Does your Christian experience ground you in the comings of Christ? If so, explain how. If not, explain your response.
What is the difference between "belief" and "faith"? How has your beliefs changed as you have grown in your experience of Christ? Are there any beliefs you hold that might be limiting your vision of Christ?
Brian will respond to requests pertaining to seeking a Spiritual Mentor. He offers retreats, workshops, and classes in such subjects as Contemplative Prayer (he trains in Visualized Praying, Centering Prayer, Christian Meditation, The Jesus Prayer, ...), Contemplative Living, A Spiritual Understanding of the Lord's Prayer, and Spiritual Use of the Scripture. See any major on-line bookseller for his book An Ache for Union.
For bibliographical data, submission of replies, and biographical information, see next page:
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