Brian’s Reflection: The Weekend, Saturday, April 10, 2010

[ Easter II in the Christian Kalendar ]

[Thomas] said to them, "Unless I see the mark of
the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark
of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.

John 20 – the Gospel reading for Easter II, Year C RCL


Actually, I’ve gotten rather tired of the “usual stuff” that I and others have said about Thomas. Doubt is important; seeing for yourself is important; Thomas was just looking for assurance; etc. That sort of thing.

What this says to me today is, No one else can live your Life for you. The encounter between Jesus and Thomas is a powerful symbol of a foundational Mystery about Life. Every one of us must find our center, must find whatever it is that is the fullness of Life unique to each of us, and in which we all share as living beings. Many call this this Energy of Being, this Energy of Life, “God”. Every human being must merge with “Jesus” – or whatever or Whoever “Jesus” may be in the World’s faiths and philosophies – in order to achieve Wholeness.

Sometimes, like Thomas, we are not “there” – not on the path of convergence for whatever reason. Usually this is our own choice, consciously or unconsciously, though the circumstances of Life can and do certainly lead us away, lead us to Avoidance, to Fantasy, to Fear. In the story, Thomas was later present, and so did have a personal encounter with Life. I suppose the lesson is, Engage as often as possible – “Lay hold on Life”, to quote the old hymn.

The marks on Jesus are marks of authenticity. I think we know them when we see them.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, April 9, 2010

Everything for me becomes allegory.

Charles Baudelaire, poet, translator,
literary critic, born on this date, 1821

Yes. Me too. The longer I live, the more allegorical Life becomes. The word “allegory” has its roots in late Middle English, from Old French, via Latin and Greek. It means “speaking other”. This is what I find as I get older: Everything speaks of deeper, other meaning. This does not surprise me at all. It is as it should be, as it is meant to be.

“I” speak of “other”. Who I am as an individual being reveals more and more about the majesty and mystery of being Human. “The World” speaks of other dimensions of Being. “God” speaks of other, vaster Mysteries, of Unknowabilities. “Black and White” loses meaning; “facts” speak of other more vivid, rich truths.

There is an evil power taking over in America. Things are being reduced to a poverty of meaning. Religion, politics, culture, education: they all are being reduced to a kind of sour stark meanness. If it goes on, it will destroy American life. In fact, it has rotted away much already – and the effect is palpable. America is becoming a pinched, moralistic, narrow, joyless, suspicious society.

My hope is for a reawakening of Allegorical Life. And I intend to embody it.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, April 8, 2010

Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.

Pablo Picasso, artist; he died on this date,
1973, in Mougins, France


And so is Religion.

Ponder.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, April 7, 2010

A Gravestone Upon The Floor In
The Cloisters Of Worcester Cathedral

'MISERRIMUS,' and neither name nor date,
Prayer, text, or symbol, graven upon the stone;
Nought but that word assigned to the unknown,
That solitary word--to separate
From all, and cast a cloud around the fate
Of him who lies beneath. Most wretched one,
'Who' chose his epitaph?--Himself alone
Could thus have dared the grave to agitate,
And claim, among the dead, this awful crown;
Nor doubt that He marked also for his own
Close to these cloistral steps a burial-place,
That every foot might fall with heavier tread,
Trampling upon his vileness. Stranger, pass
Softly!--To save the contrite, Jesus bled.

William Wordsworth, poet, born on this date,
1770. Poet Laureate of England (1843-50)


In the Christian “season”, it’s the Fifty Great Days of Eastertide. Celebrating the power of Life over Death in all its glorious dimensions for a “Pentecost” before Pentecost!

“Miserrimus” – translates as “Most Miserable”. How very very sad. And beloved elegant Wordsworth has a clear and (I think) important point to make.

No Christian, no solidly grounded Christian, could possibly think of themselves as “Misserimus”. As Wordsworth points out: symbolically, the “Blood of Christ” signifies that Christ’s shed blood represents the freedom all have from the power of Sin to forever condemn any human being from the status of “Most Miserable”. And of course, to think of oneself as “Miserrimus” is the height of Pride!

“Stranger, pass softly”! The message of the Gospel is that none of us ever need think of ourselves as condemned to Misery. By honest awareness and repentance, we are all set free to surge on into deeper and deeper Life.

If you contemplate a gravestone marked with “Miserrimus”, you haven’t “heard” the Gospel message.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Humanity has the stars in its future, and that
future is too important to be lost under the burden
of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition.

Isaac Asimov, author, visionary, scientist,
philosopher; he died on this date, 1992,
age 72


To be candid – you will note that I have made an advance; I didn’t say “perfectly” candid; I’m learning, I’m learning! – I find an enormous amount of superstition in the World. And in Religion in particular. I won’t go on to list all of the things I think are Superstition. It wouldn’t be “nice” in Eastertide. But I assure you that the List would be quite long.

I do however agree wholeheartedly with Asimov about the danger of “ignorant superstition”. Also, I hold a “high doctrine” of the nature of humanity – silly me, I suppose, given the evidence! I believe we do have “the stars” in our future – historically, mentally, “spiritually” - but I’m beginning to understand that it’s going to be a very long time in coming. I was always optimistic when Star Trek said that superstition and violence (and “God”) had been banished from human behaviour by the 24th century. I’m holding out for the 40th these days.

Much of the extremism rampant at the moment in the World, especially that based in religious fanaticism, is, I’m convinced, based not in “religion” but in Superstition – plain ignorant addlebrained dumb juvenile infantilism when it comes to science, philosophy, imagination, wisdom, you name it. We might as well be living still in the age of mountain gods and human sacrifice.

Today, in honour of Asimov, it might be interesting to think about what we “believe” – and whether it’s Superstition or not. In fact, magic as well.

Downright refreshing, I would think! Freedom from Ignorance always is.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, April 5, 2010

Hollywood always wanted me to be pretty, but I fought for realism.

Bette Davis, artist & actress, born on this date, 1908, in Lowell MA


So. Whad’ya think?? Yep, on the top is Bette when she first started in Hollywood. From the American “standard” point of view – and I could be faulted since, as a Gay man, what do I know about pretty women?? – I would say that she is “pretty”. On the bottom, she’s a little “less” conventionally pretty perhaps? (After all: it is I think still conventional macho American thinking that a pretty woman can’t be “tough”!)

So, maybe Bette was on the dime about herself?? After all, she is also reported to have said, “Psychoanalysis. Almost went three times - almost. Then I decided what was peculiar about me was probably what made me successful."

It/She’s a perfect metaphor for each of us, I think. The metaphorical choice between “pretty” and “real” lies right in the tangled core of becoming one’s authentic Self. One can be both “pretty” and “real”. But Bette is implying that being “just” pretty is a metaphor for inauthentic – and I think that that is often what “show business” is about – as perhaps Ricky Martin has finally grasped, God bless him. Alas, Life in our culture is too often like show business.

I would say that the Gospel (I’ll stick here to that since I know it best), and any truthful philosophy or psychology or religion, is about the choice between the metaphorical pretty or real. The Christianity I know is relentless about self-awareness, about “truth”. Jesus never let anyone get away with lying to themselves. Nor did Aristotle or Jung. The God of Christianity doesn’t either – and the force behind it is Love.

Bette poses the question for each of us today: “pretty” or “real”?

She was a brave and self-respecting woman to choose realism.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, April 2, 2010

[ Good Friday in the Christian Kalendar ]

The essence of that by which Jesus overcame the world was not suffering, but obedience.
Yes, men may puzzle themselves and their hearers over the question where the power of
the life of Jesus and the death of Jesus lay; but the soul of the Christian always knows that
it lay in the obedience of Christ. He was determined at every sacrifice to do His Father's will.
Let us remember that; and the power of Christ's sacrifice may enter into us, and some little
share of the redemption of the world may come through us, as the great work came through Him.

Phillips Brooks, Episcopal bishop of Massachusetts, born 1835


“Obedience” has a "bad rap” in modern usage. It smacks of a lack of self-respect, of a negative form of servitude, of unwillingness. In the best of Christian theology, however, Obedience is a very positive virtue. It means a willing response in love, in response to Love. It means having discovered Wisdom, Grace, Compassion, and having been freed to respond in the same context.

Look. Yes Jesus suffered. But the suffering is not at the core of the meaning of Jesus. In my opinion, there has been no more (to use an “old” term) blasphemous event in the last many decades concerning Jesus and the Gospel that Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion of the Christ”. It profoundly distorted the Gospel – in support of a false understanding of the Passion that has been promulgated by the Roman Catholic and many reformation churches for centuries.

Jesus’ suffering on the cross does not define His work, His gift. His suffering did nothing to liberate humankind. What liberated humankind was His Love. His love for God. His love for humanity. His love for fragile Us. His love for the World. Yes Jesus suffered – as we all do, some of us as hideously as He is portrayed to have suffered, racked with the misery of chemo or Alzheimer’s or the assaults of aging, by the insults of society on the aged, by the indifference of government. Believe me, I have seen many human beings suffer the agony of the Cross as they approach the end of their earthly life!

What defines Jesus is Love. He ended upon a Cross because he chose to love. Love everything. Everyone. Because He knew that this is what His heavenly Father did. And His ultimate determination was to emulate that Deity.

To love is to be Obedient. In Obedience is the ultimate path to Freedom – obedience to Unconditional Love Itself.

“You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.”

Obedience to Love is Truth.

This is the meaning of the Cross.

Brian+