Aisling on Earth

   " Catholicism, is a thinking person's, religion." G. K. Chesterton

        " The Risen Christ, continues to take flesh, in a living body." Anonymous.

    " AI, might imitate meaning, but it does not suffer, love, repent, or wonder." The New Yorker. 

     "Humans must remain subjects, not data objects" Pope Leo, X14

 

 As I was reflecting on these days, and these times I was hit by this unsettling thought, all reality, all of humanity is being hit by a tsunami. That meant very high and destructive waves. Have the experience of being in one, is beyond my experience. Living in this desert, it is very safe to predict, my experiencing a physical tsunami is preposterous.In is even the nightmare That shall never be mine. Oh! Oh!, Joe you said that awe-full word, never. I may never fall asleep again !!!! We have been in a spiritual tsunami. Wave, after wave of awe-filled, mysterious laden grace has hit the shores of all, human souls, all humanity. It is up to each one to unpack the personal impact that has occurred,  and  is currently shaping our thinking and behaviors. "As we think. so, we act" do you find any existential truth in those words ? Nothing is going to change communally, unless the is change in the foundational cell. This is where you, are the designated, hitters. So let us go, faith-fully.

       One, of the many spiritual tsunami wave we have experienced , lead to an ever deepening journey is into the encounter that happened on the road to Emmaus. That reality, is our reality today hidden in the right now. Most of us can relate with the thinking of the two disciples. They had tremendous expectations, but the reality of Calvary, changed all of that.  ( Remember expectations are PLANNED resentments )They were disheartened, a discouraged as walked, and talked. Then without the being aware of it, the Risen Christ, full-filling His role of being Good Shepherd mysterious wove His presence, into their existential reality. Then through formation, and participation in The Eucharist, their doubts were transformed into new, and enthusiastic belief, which motivated them to, action. This resulted in they sharing their transformational experience. Are you responding to the awakening being offered, in these sacramental moments ? The mystery of Emmaus, right now. What awakening ? The awakening to the reality of, " as it was, so it is", to day and every moment we are gifted with.  Is faith-filled living to be our chosen destiny, or will we surrender to the safety, and security of the non-challenging, non-threatening, familiar? We again return to the insidiousness, of complacency. Uncomfortable ????

I was a body surfer in my younger days. As you joined the other surfers, in waiting out the best approaching wave, you listened for the magic words, " outside". As you looked out here was an approaching wave to be entered into, and surrendered to the outcome. Sometimes it was a short ride. Sometimes you got caught in a pretty violent run, ride, to the shore. Then sometimes you looked around and in the interest of self-preservation, cried, "Where is my, boogie board." then I found myself turning, and heading back out, to join the waiting welcoming community. On the way out I would duck and swim under the smaller waves. In the waiting there was no ability to touch sand. You were really supported by the power of the ocean. This is the first time, I have ever reflected on, what I am awakened to, as  a mystical, graced experience. Turning around and going back out, was the power of grace working. The AI would keep me on the shore. Leading to this challenging thought, grace is circular, the AI is linear. Well what does that mean ?

      "Grace is circular. Grace operates  as a continuous, flowing current that endlessly returns to renew, sustain and expand. Grace is an ongoing cycle of receiving, transforming, and giving back." The mysterious element in all of this, grace is not bothered with stumbling and falling. Our ego driven false self is. The false self has tremendously, powerful weapons at its disposal. The toxic trinity,  comprising of guilt, fear, and shame. These have been dealt with previously, so, in the interest of time, let's move on. Why ? The Feasts of,  Paschal encounter, Good Shepherd, Christ The King, and Corpus Christy offer us such deep insights as we celebrate each feast. They are repeated each year and each year due to the circularity of grace. Each year we are OFFERED the graced opportunity to return to be further renewed in our depths.. We are again uniquely graced  with The Gift that offers mysterious sustenance that sustains us for immersion into The Unknown, and Unknowable. Combined by the graced tsunami of the above feasts, we find we are experiencing expansion. We are now, the living body chosen, from eternity, to be the enfleshment of The Risen Christ. 

We are now longer just individuals. We are no longer valueless objects, to be used, abused and set aside when we no longer have  temporal, quantifiable value. According to who, according to some inanimate, feeling deprived algorithm. This decried by Pope Leo. Where will this transformative understanding, find support ? How will it be promulgated?  By whom will it be embraced and championed?  It will take those with lives who first of all are messy. Messiness, and the more messy the better. It will be lives who are are not confined by rigid formulas. It will be lives who are reluctantly committed to, at first, non binary thinking. It will take brave individuals who are responding to the prophetic call of, Confirmation. The call to be soldiers of a new, vibrant, vivifying army who are prepared to risk. Risk the disapproving looks and shaming words of those  fragile security, based on ego, will be threatened. Lives built on ego, are built on a dangerous, destruction  prone foundation, like it is built on shifting sand. They are curated lives.
   Are what ? curated lives, bolstered by self centered, egotistical lives. Lives that have chosen a lifestyle that is, carefully, selected. Constantly being polished within non binary safety, all for ? All for public display. The gods of" power, property and prestige " (Rohr) are worshipped with assiduous care, and supreme attention. The insatiable god of perfection is in close proximity waiting its turn for reverential, and preferential, supreme ,undivided, attention. No deviation is allowed. deviation from the prescribed way of thinking and living leads to physical, and, or, psychological abuse. The lives finding existence in this hell are truly life-less. We who have chosen, and have chosen to respond we through "radical grace" come to believe and accept a startling reality. It is the reality that without  equivocation states we, are The Body of Christ. NOT somehow like in some way. No, like, we just, ARE. The read, deal.

 Mysterious, through the continuous action of grace, we are the contemporary. Corpus Christy. Meaning what ? We called to be, as Christ was, " chosen, then taken, blessed, broken and given". The Risen Christ, present in the consecrated host, of Eucharistic Presence,  the ritual breaking is essential, so the destiny of Risen Body may be fulfilled.  Being The Living Body of Christ our lives of their essence cannot be curated. This reality we grow in acceptance of. That has been, and currently my story. This effort is the sharing of that story. In the sharing the existing pain is somehow lessened. Freedom is never free. We have to respond to grace, and freely accept the invitation to chose healthy physical and spiritual actions, that can lead only to ever deepening  freedom. Living lives  replicating  the life The Beloved Son, in a a contemporary, alien environment. The chosen, are called to see the reality behind  and beyond our moments of rejection, dejection, abject failure, moments of repetitive falling,  alienation, and betrayal, a mysterious life, whose existence is slowly revealed through the challenge of, acceptance. 

  This happens through that familiar word, yes . We are constantly called to repeatedly repeat, that yes. This is a ye grounded in and through an ever evolving faith. This faith generated acceptance  leads us to see  deep beyond what the critical, and judgmental see. These eyes do not see that behind and beyond the unmentionables of  family, church, and society a miracle of grace is occurring. Transformation and transformation is now operative, where before there was, perceived failure.   Grace, the workings of The Creative Spirit, does not happen without the cooperation of each, pre-uniquely chosen and gifted human being. We are not a human being carved out of stone, we are evolving human beings, been awakened to the essence of, Who, it we are. The linear abilities are impotent, dis-connected from connecting with inner reality, so with Real Reality ?? The non-binary way of seeing and acting is, the chosen way, of The Chosen One. We all are His  Body, his reality, is his way of living in the process of our way of seeing and acting ? The question is asked, the answer is revealed in living, authentically. The tsunami of grace, does not leave wreckage. At those moments of grace, have gifted you with ???  Being the contemporary,Body of Christ has led where? Curated lives frustrates to working of grace. What is the resolution to act, have you been led to make ? Proclaim your gospel. A gospel that will alleviate so much of the current sufferings, of The Body of Christ.