Jan 07, 2018

And the Word became flesh

And took up residence among us. (3)

John 1:14

If the Word (the Christ) is part of the Trinity, and we are One with Jesus (the Christ), how does that translate into our creative being? Religion has been trying to answer that (not very successfully) since the dawn of humanity 70, 000 years ago. The first signs of religious symbols date back about 60,000 years, and since symbols mean that a definitive body of work is present, it is clear that the question Who am I?, and What am I?, and Why am I here?, arose very early after the first of modern humanity began to question everything. Many profound answers to these questions have been formulated over the past 7000 years that we have records, but, as Christians and followers of Jesus believe, the most profound answer came through Abraham starting about 3800 years ago. That thread peaked with the coming of Jesus, as proclaimed in the Prologue of John’s Gospel: “And the Word became Flesh.”

The Word (or as St. Paul puts it many times, the Christ) is that creative spark of the Trinity, that Ring of fire we call Love, that has been said: .  “All things came into being through the Word, and apart from the Word not one thing came into being that has come into being.” (John 1). Just as a note, this agrees with the study of Cosmology that states that at the Big Bang some 13.7 billion years ago, all matter that exists came into being and nothing has been added over the billions of years, including all dark matter. Rearrangement, yes, but not new. All matter making the 100+ billion galaxies, each with 100+ billion stars, all matter making every cell of your and my body, and everything else was present at time t=0. Thus indeed, “apart from the Word not one thing came into being that has come into being.”

But that Word, the Christ, is infinite Love that is alive. We, you and I and all 7 billion others, are formed from Love and will go back to Love, and we can rephrase that saying “Dust thou art and to dust thou shall return” to say “Love thou art and to Love thou shall return”. This change that I found quite internally profound indicates the Truth of the Prologue of the Gospel of John in its very essence. We are Love, a part of that fiery ring of Love we call the Trinity, and while we struggle to taste that Love that is our very Being while in our physical experience it is Who We Are. Indeed, “We are Spiritual Beings having a physical experience, not physical beings having a spiritual experience”, as expressed by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Indeed, Jesus expressed the Good News that we are one with him, and that makes us one with the Trinity. This news is truly the Good News that seems too good to be true. All Christian religions have not just shied away from that news, they have run as fast as they could from it. I have never heard expressed in a sermon or talk, apart from listening to Fr. Richard Rohr expressing the Alternative Orthodoxy taught by the Franciscans after the teachings of St. Benedict and John duns Scotus of the 12-13 century. Yes, this is another way to view the coming of Christ, but not actively talked about in any mainstream church. After all, such a teaching opens up all kinds of things, including if indeed we are foundationally part of the Trinity and are only Love personified, how would they (the leaders of religions) control us and be superior?

So dwell on that possibility: we are, as Jesus said one with him, one with the Father, and one with the Trinity.

Meditation

Font of Wisdom, my internal flame that has called me all my life, I sit in gratitude for all the amazing truths that You seem to open up with each moment. I ask that You continue to guide me, to see the wonders of Your life, and be one with all that exists, whether I see it or not. The profound Love that creates this universe is filling my spirit at all times and in all ways. I am grateful each day to arise and greet Your Love, and am full of then joy of just life as it rolls on.