Thursday, March 22, 2012

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, March 23, 2012


Both dreams and myths are important communications
from ourselves to ourselves. If we do not understand the language
in which they are written, we miss a great deal of what we know and
tell ourselves in those hours when we are not busy manipulating
the outside world.

Erich Fromm, German-born American psychoanalyst and social philosopher;
he was born on this date, 1900



Ah, Erich Fromm … a man after my own heart! It has long been my theological insight and my psychological experience … prompted by the Bible, I might add! … that what Fromm says is “on the money”. The story of Abraham talking with the three Angels … Abraham talking with himself about the presence of God within. Jacob talking with God as he slept on the plain … Jacob talking with himself about the presence of God within his own deepest Being. Joseph hearing the message to go to Egypt … Joseph talking with himself about the deep inner instinct to preserve one’s inner being (represented by the “child of God” in his care) from the “wrath” of those who seek to destroy that divine presence in us. Peter dreaming of the “sheet let down filled with unclean creatures” and being told by God not to permit such “man-made” distractions to distract us from God’s generous and all-encompassing Love.

Literalist and “fundamentalist” Christians today do not understand this critical level of understanding. They are victims of a deaf heart. They do not hear the messages that the God Within is sending. They become unable to hear the message of Devine Compassion or of Unconditional Love…and, to put it in anthropological terms, they “join the Devil”. The “devil” is, of course, pleased.

I had an interesting dream last night. I was in a huge church building. I was aware that the building was normally sparsely filled. And that it was an old, traditional “Anglo” parish. But this morning, it was packed to the walls … and there was a large group of Hispanic kids singing and dancing … and the Anglo congregation was clapping and responding positively. I was walking around … wearing a black shirt and a collar, which I haven’t done for years now. People were pressing huge amounts of money into my hands. There was so much that it was slipping out of my hands. Every few minutes, I had to run to the altar, where I dumped the money into a beautiful, very large, gold and jeweled bowl, and then run back for more.

I understood the dream instantly, both while dreaming it and when I awoke. First I knew it was Me talking to Me … talking to myself about the soul’s of us all needing healing and nurturing; and, secondly, about the riches that come to the soul when human beings love each other, are not judgmental, open themselves to our Oneness with each other.

If we can step back from those moments when we are “busy manipulating the outside World”, can listen to our dreams and myths, we can finally hear the Gospel.

We are all “made in the image of God”.

God is Love.

As we sow, so shall we reap.

Brian+

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