Thursday, June 18, 2009

Who?....Why?....What?....

Here are three questions that help define this new spirit in our lives so we can experience an ever-new creation within us:

1) Who is it that we are inviting?
2) Why are we inviting this Spirit?
3) What are we inviting this Spirit to do?

Who is it that we are inviting? We must be consciously aware that we are inviting the power of love into our lives. It is a love that, like all healthy love, and of it's essence created. It is, a Creative Love, bringing a oneness into a world of chaos, disunity and disharmony. It is a Creative Love that makes all things work together for good. And, I mean here, ALL THINGS, not just the things we are comfortable with! Like healthy love, it transforms us, ever so slowly, ever so gently into an ever-renewing creation. This is the love that we are invited to sow in the place where we see no love right now.

The result is what? Where before there was anger toward oneself, now there is compassion. Where before, there was fear, now there is freedom of living life as a beloved son/daughter. Where there were hatred and violence, there is slowly growing a shy, quiet flower of peace. Where there was death, new life has appeared. A life full of energy, enthusiasm and hope. A life that is now able to cry out in a very loud, exalted, big voice -- "YES."

Our lenses are now being changed and refined. We are now able to see life and all of creation through the lens of love. I like the following from Anam Cara:

"To the loving eye, everything is real. This art of love is neither sentimental nor naive. Such love it is the greatest criterion of truth, celebration, and reality. Kathleen Raine, Scottish poet, says that unless you see a thing in the light of love, you do not see it at all. Love is the light in which we see light. Love is the light in which we see each thing in its true origin, nature, and destiny. If we could look at the world in a loving way, then the world would rise up before us full of invitation, possibility, and depth.

“The loving eye can even coax pain, hurt, and violence toward transfiguration and renewal. The loving eye is bright because it is autonomous and free. You can look lovingly upon anything. The loving vision does not become entangled in the agenda of Power, Seduction, Opposition, or Complicity. Such vision is creative and subversive. It rises above the pathetic arithmetic of blame and judgment and engages experience at the level of its origin, structure, and destiny. The loving eye sees through and beyond image and effects the deepest change. Vision is central to your presence and creativity. To recognize how you see things can bring you self knowledge and enable you to glimpse the wonderful treasures your life secretly holds."

Why are we inviting this Spirit? Why are we inviting this power of strength and transformation? We have come to realize from our personal encounter with the power of death and destruction in all its forms that left to ourselves, we are powerless. We need a power, a spirit, greater than we are, so we will not be suckered into fatalism, lack of confidence and despair. We have come to accept what the scripture says and what has become so true for us, "Of ourselves we can do nothing, but we can do all things in Him who strengthens us."


Yes, we need a Savior. We can no longer survive as an “I,” it must be a “We.” Lately, I have been telling people, including myself, that unless we make it, a “we“ effort, then we will “wee-wee” on ourselves and blame God and others!

What are we inviting this Spirit to do? To open our eyes, so we can see life where seemingly there is none. To open our eyes to the new life that is now emerging, where outwardly we see only loss and death. To strengthen our faith that in this place of loss and death, a new and deeper connection is evolving within ourselves, with others, with humanity, and all of creation. The preface of the funeral Mass stands as a reminder of our evolution -- "Death is not an end, death is a beginning."

All of our new understanding we now carry into ordinary time. Maybe it is wise to come up with something to usher us into mystery-laden time, which is not really ordinary.

The dreamer’s journey continues…

2 comments:

  1. okay Fr. Joe. This one is beautiful. I want love like that.

    Jacqueline

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  2. very good joe ! the "wee - wee" anology so true.

    ReplyDelete