Sep 20, 2015

Ponderings

I am worthy

One of the prayers of the Roman Catholic Church that I find that sets the wrong level of Who We Are is the prayer that is to be said just before the reception of the Eucharist: “Lord I am not worthy that thou should enter under my roof, but only say the word and I shall be healed.” I, though a Roman Catholic, have not said that prayer for several years before receiving the Eucharist, and have disagreed with the sentiment expressed by this prayer for many more years.

I know we are supposed to believe that this prayer is supposed to suggest our humbleness, but I find it dwelling on our supposed sinfulness, and seems to aim to grind us down into the mud, so that only those chosen ones, the male priesthood, can offer us redemption, that is, all we poor sheep are supposed to do is “pray, pay, and obey” as the old saying goes. What is forgotten (or ignored) is the original words as expressed in Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in God’s own Image, in the image of God, God created them, male and female God created them.”

The Image of God

These words are mind-boggling. While this verse is purported to be the most quoted verse in the bible, it is also one of the most ignored and whose direct meaning has been violently twisted to serve the needs of those who wish to control others. We are created in the Image of the Eternal Wisdom, the All in All, the I Am, —– No name can encompass the Being we glibly named “God.” And we are Created in that Image! What more can be said to show the majesty of the human being, this spiritual and physical creature that seemingly can be such a twisted being as well as the essence of beauty and love?

We are the image of God. Each of the 7 billion persons is the Image of The Eternal Wisdom. Each individual is separate from every other individual only in that they, each and every one, reveal a distinct and wholly separate image of God. But in the essence, we are all the Image of God, revealed in the Lives of all on earth and all that have ever been on earth. Each image is whole and distinct, never to be repeated again, even when that soul recreates itself again, still that soul is but a different Image of that Being who is the All in All. We will, no matter how many times we recreate ourselves, be a distinct and new Image of the Supreme Creator. Yes, we will be the same but different, in that our physical being will behave in a different manner and reveal new and different facets of the Eternal Wisdom, every day of our life, just by our existence. Each day, for all 7 billion humans alive today, we reveal 7 billion new Images of the One we call God.

 

Each of us is an Image of God

 

How can the Image of God not be pleasing to that God? God sees and understands all that we do, and fills our being with the Love we call Life, the essence of God Itself. As long as we have Life (which is all eternity), we are pleasing to that Eternal Being we call God, and can never, under any circumstances, be considered unworthy in the ‘eyes’ of God.

And we will have Life for eternity, and have had Life for Eternity, in the evermore we call “Now”. Life, another Name of God, (for God is Life in all its forms) never ends, and never began, as Life is eternal. This physical interlude that we have on a periodic basis is but a period wherein we move from the ‘times’ (there is nothing like what we call ‘time’ in the world of Eternal Now) of understanding what bliss is, as differentiated from the times without bliss when we are in the physical realm, for only by seeing the negative side can we truly know the positive side. That is, only be seeing the “not-bliss” of the physical life can we, and therefore God, appreciate the Bliss of Eternity, the period of ‘not-time’, but only the everlasting Now.

Life is Good

Christianity has concentrated on the death and resurrection of Jesus, but Jesus admonished us to live the Life of Jesus, Now, not in the some future time. By concentrating on the death and resurrection of Jesus, the church could then tell us how unworthy we are, sinners all, worthy only to suffer for our sins, unless we bowed to the mighty wisdom of the church for our future happiness.

That is not what Jesus said.

Jesus said: “The Kingdom of God lies within you“. (Luke 17:21)

Jesus said: “And I say, Greater than this shall you do.” (John 14:12)

Jesus said: “And if you say to this mountain ‘be cast into the sea” and if you believe, it shall be so“. (Mark 11:23; Mathew 21:21)

Jesus was constantly telling his followers how worthy they were, “If you only believe.” That is the key: you are what you believe. If you believe you are unworthy, then you are unworthy. If, however, you believe you are worthy of God’s Love, then you are worthy. It is not a matter of the truth being this or that, it is what you believe to be true, is in fact true.

I want to repeat that statement, for it tells us the truth of the universe: It is what you believe to be true, is in fact true.

 

We are what we Believe We Are

 

We are what we believe we are. It is as simple as that. Jesus made it very clear: “If you have no doubt, it will be done.” Nothing could be clearer than that statement. And Jesus said: “The Kingdom of God lies within you.” You are what you believe you are. Oh it is true, that if you are a 5 foot tall woman you can not will yourself into a 6 foot muscle man, but that is partly because you have chosen, coming into this opportunity of the physical life, to be a 5 foot woman, and partly because you know you are a 5 foot woman, and you can never arrive at the point of “having no doubt” about the simple fact that your are a 5 foot woman, not a 6 foot muscle bound man.

But you can arrive at the point of knowing you are a Beloved of God, Loved in all ways possible, a holder of the Life of God, having “The Kingdom of God within you. What more could you have to have to be worthy of the Love of God? How can you not be worthy? God has told us in so many different ways that we are the Beloved of God’s Being, the Beloved, the one who can do no wrong in the eyes of God, the holder of the Kingdom of God Itself. Yes, the Kingdom of God lies within you. Jesus did not tell this only to a select few, he told this to the masses around him, the good and the bad, the “saints” and the “sinners”. And to tell the truth, once you arrive at the point of seeing the truth that God Loves you, yes the real you that you are, just as you are, without any caveats, with no changes, how could you not be worthy? Is there any way that you are not worthy? As the holder of the Kingdom of God? Yes that is you; since the Kingdom of God lies within you, always and ever, as Jesus gave no caveats to that statement.

The Love of the Eternal Being is alive in you, as given by the simple fact that you are alive and thinking. You are alive: the beloved of the Eternal One. No matter what you have done in your life, you are the Beloved One of God, searching through this physical life to ultimately reach the epitome of bliss in union with God, eventually in the physical realm as well as in the time after passing from the physical life into the eternal Now that is the Ultimate realm of what we call God, for want of a better term, before reentering back into the physical life once more to continue the journey from where we left off. And when we will have arrived at the point that we truly realize deep in our being that, indeed, we are the Image of God, the Eternal Being, the I am, and live that knowledge in the physical world, then when you leave this physical world of slow vibrations, you will have the choice of starting the chase all over again, to enter into the process of growth and re-memberance (that is, the Joy of Discovering, or remembering, that you are truly a Member of God, the very Image of that Eternal Being, the All in All) that is the joy of Being the Image of God Itself.

Meditation

My Beloved One, I am grateful for knowing, deep in my heart, that I am truly a being made in the Image of You, the Eternal Spirit that is the All in All throughout eternity. You have been patient with me, telling me over and over for more than 80 years that indeed You and I are One in Being, and are worthy of being one with Your Being, just as Jesus spoke of being One with You, acknowledging that with a firm belief I am capable of the same or even greater presence in our world. I also understand and accept that my task here in this time of physicality is to be Your Presence in our world, to be the gift through which You can ‘speak’ to that portion of humanity that are placed in my existence, whether in words or actions or presence. I offer my being back to You, to be that Presence in our world, to work with others that You bring into my path, until the day comes that I return to the Everlasting Now of eternity.