Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, May 1`5, 2008


Is it not worthy of tears that, when the number of worlds
is infinite, we have not yet become lords of a single one?

- Alexander the Great, born on this day, 356 BCE



Plutarch records, in his “On the Tranquility of the Mind”, that Alexander wept when he was told that there were an infinite number of worlds. And said the above quoted words.

I’m into metaphors this week. Perhaps I am doing him a disservice, but I suspect that Alexander was being rather literal in his response. It is easy to be certain that Alexander simply meant that he had yet to conquer the Earth he knew. But ….. maybe not! He was, after all, an intelligent man.

So folks, here’s the skinny. There is indeed an “infinity of worlds”. An infinity of what it means to be a human being. But we know none, or at least most of us don’t, beyond the “first dimension” - how to begin. We can’t get beyond our un-lovingness, beyond our failures, beyond our guilt. We hear the words of the Gospel, but we don’t believe. We really don’t believe that we are “saved”. What does that mean? That we are no longer slaves to anything, because of Jesus’ message and His Life. We need never be slaves to the power of sin and death ….. but we don’t embrace that truth completely and live it out.

Including our sexuality, as a fellow worshipper said at Vespers the other night. We are mostly dualists. We separate “flesh” and “spirit”. We allow ourselves to be enslaved by thinking that denies that God made us sexual, to enjoy sex, to revel in the pleasure, and to use it to enhance love.

My advice: Believe in Repentance and Forgiveness. Be clear about the truth of being human. Be fully human! Hold to the glory of being true to Self, and to God’s wanton gift of freedom.

Be honest. Admit failure. But for God’s sake, storm the gates of Life! The chains are broken.

Brian+