Hevajra Mandala (detail) by Wonderlane
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
"Wholeness"
"Being-in-God"
Thursday, 13 November 2014
The Biblical revelation is about awakening, not accomplishing. You cannot get there, you can only be there, but the foundational Being-in-God, for some reason, is too hard to believe, and too good to be true for most people. Only the humble will usually believe it and receive it, because it affirms more about God than it does about us. Proud people are not attracted to such explanations.
Here is what St. Bonaventure tells us about God: “By God’s power, presence, and essence, God is the One whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. God exists uncircumscribed in everything.” In other words, it’s all sacred. You can find God everywhere. You don’t have to go to monasteries. As Francis of Assisi said, “The whole world is our cloister.”
Bonaventure goes on to say, “God is, therefore, all inclusive. God is the essence of everything. God is most perfect and immense: within all things, but not enclosed; outside all things, but not excluded; above all things, but not aloof; below all things, but not debased. Finally, therefore, this God is all in all…. Consequently, from him, through him and in him, all things exist.” That is not simplistic pantheism (everything is God), but it is a much more profound pan-en-theism (everything is in God and God can be found in everything). This is Christianity's great message, which it has, in large part, found too good to be true and too hard to believe!
Our outer world and its full inner significance must come together for there to be any wholeness—and holiness—in our world. The result in the soul and in society is both deep joy and a resounding sense of coherent beauty.
Adapted from Things Hidden: Scripture As Spirituality , pages 29-30; and an unpublished talk on Franciscan Mysticism; and Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi, page xiv
Gateway to Silence: Wholeness holds you.
____________________________
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
"Wholeness"
"Being-in-God"
Thursday, 13 November 2014
The Biblical revelation is about awakening, not accomplishing. You cannot get there, you can only be there, but the foundational Being-in-God, for some reason, is too hard to believe, and too good to be true for most people. Only the humble will usually believe it and receive it, because it affirms more about God than it does about us. Proud people are not attracted to such explanations.
Here is what St. Bonaventure tells us about God: “By God’s power, presence, and essence, God is the One whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. God exists uncircumscribed in everything.” In other words, it’s all sacred. You can find God everywhere. You don’t have to go to monasteries. As Francis of Assisi said, “The whole world is our cloister.”
Bonaventure goes on to say, “God is, therefore, all inclusive. God is the essence of everything. God is most perfect and immense: within all things, but not enclosed; outside all things, but not excluded; above all things, but not aloof; below all things, but not debased. Finally, therefore, this God is all in all…. Consequently, from him, through him and in him, all things exist.” That is not simplistic pantheism (everything is God), but it is a much more profound pan-en-theism (everything is in God and God can be found in everything). This is Christianity's great message, which it has, in large part, found too good to be true and too hard to believe!
Our outer world and its full inner significance must come together for there to be any wholeness—and holiness—in our world. The result in the soul and in society is both deep joy and a resounding sense of coherent beauty.
Adapted from Things Hidden: Scripture As Spirituality , pages 29-30; and an unpublished talk on Franciscan Mysticism; and Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi, page xiv
Gateway to Silence: Wholeness holds you.
____________________________
Center for Action and Contemplation
Albuquerque, NM 87105 United States (physical)
PO Box 12464
Albuquerque, NM 87195-2464 United States (mailing)
(505) 242-9588
cac.org
____________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment