May 07, 2017

 Easter, 2017 (4)

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying.

—at this she turned around and saw Jesus

Standing there, but did not realize it was Jesus

         John 20:11-14

We are all called to have a resurrection after spending our time in the depths of our personal hell. Our resurrection is not one of the body but is even more exciting: a resurrection of the spirit. As Teilhard de Chardin put it: We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a physical experience.” Our problem in ‘the first half of life’ is that we need to find our way in the physical world so we are created with what we call the ‘ego’, that part of our existence that appears to make ‘me’ me, and ‘you’ you, separate from me. We adopt many masks that we learn are acceptable to (those we think of as) others, none of which truly reflects who we really are.  While these masks contain a portion of who we are, they rarely embody the richest part of our being: that part that is the image of God, as promised in Genesis 1:27. We forget that we are a spiritual being having a physical experience, but firmly believe we are a physical being having an occasional spiritual experience. Our ego, that part meant only to help us integrate us in the physical world that we seem to experience through our senses, comes to dominate us and becomes who we think we really are.

It is only through the crucifixion of pain where we experience that this physical world cannot heal us that can remove our set of masks that seem to tell who we are, and discover Who We Really Are, that spiritual being that lives in the love of God. This is our personal resurrection. This is the moment that we have waited for all our life, usually never dreaming that out of a totally despairing moment we would rise like a Phoenix into a glorious life of consciousness with our God.

We have died in our pain, and lie dead to all around us, crying out to God to free us from the depths of despair. This is the moment where we see that all those masks that we created to please those we see as others become useless and burdensome. We find ourselves stripped of all that we thought supported us, buried in the moment, and wonder how we will keep living.

       This is the moment where the cross we bear leads us to see that God truly loves us. The burdens that we have deemed impossible to live with have become the stepping stones to finding that ‘peace that passes understanding’. If we are open to the grace of God that is there, we will see that the road we are on is the only sure way to find the oneness that removes the bottomless well that we have been standing over. The painful event(s) are still there, but the burden is eased we can find that this is the only road to truly seeing our God that exists. Jesus showed us that God comes only through the bottom; only the cross is truly redemptive in our life. As Fr. Richard Rohr has said explaining the “Alternative Orthodoxy” taught by St. Bonaventure and John duns Scotus in the 13^th century, Jesus did not die on the cross as a payment for our sins (what type of God would demand that of anyone? Certainly not a loving God, or a God I want to follow.), but Jesus died on the cross to show us the Way, the Truth, and the Life. God is a God of pain, of finding that joy and peace through the pain, not in spite of the pain. This is the moment of resurrection; that time that we can see through our brokenness that the love of God forms all that is. God works downward through the bottom of pain and death, not upward through worldly success and glory.

So celebrate! Celebrate your release from the shackles of grasping for fulfillment. This is a gift of time, a true moment of resurrection. God is offering you freedom fr0m the tyranny of the world, and our true nature, our spirit nature, is revealed.

Meditation

Oh Eternal Wisdom, I am grateful for these moments where Truth is the only road to internal peace. Nothing else will suffice, nothing will ease my internal pain but surrender to Your love. I can now see that Your love fills all that empty space in me, and I know that I am nothing but empty space. I am thankful for this moment of resurrection that eases the pain in my life, and I ask only to be a gateway of love to ease the pain of all that is around me. I let the glory of life fill my being and ease the pain, knowing that life is synonymous with God, and I can now see Your glory in the fullness of all that surrounds me. I am Yours, my Love, only Yours.

 

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