Brian’s Reflection: Monday, April 30, 2007
This has been a most wonderful evening. Gertrude has said things
tonight it will take her 10 years to understand.
- Alice B. Toklas, lover of Gertrude Stein, born on this day
in San Francisco, 1877
Bless her heart, Alice published a memoire of her life with the wildly eccentric and genius Gertrude Stein. (Who famously said or Oakland CA, her birthplace, “There is no There There”.) When Stein wrote her autobiography in 1933, she called it “The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas”. In 1954, Alice published her own memoir, called “The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook”. It contained a recipe for brownies that contained Pot - and those Alice B. Toklas brownies were to become famous!
I have met many people who have said things of a wonderful evening that it will take them ten years to understand! Profound things about themselves that they have no clue about at the time. Longings that they have no conscious awareness of - but which will trouble them and drive them for years. But the interesting thing is - I “heard” it! I understood. We often know so much about the people we love, so often see what the problem is, so often can see what a person needs to deal with - but of course we can’t say anything. They aren’t ready.
The Church celebrated today Good Shepherd Sunday. At the heart of this feast is the God Who knows us so intimately and desires so much to help us to be free. God, in s many ways and venues, says things to us that we may not understand for ten years! But if we stick with it, God’s wisdom and love will break through.
We can say anything to God, at any time. It doesn’t matter whether we understand it or not. Then we listen, and trust. God will speak the truth in love to us - and when we are ready, we will hear it. And we will be liberated. We will become the person we were meant to be.
God’s unconditional love is like Alice’s brownie. Hidden, unsuspected. But when it hits us, we are transported to a whole new dimension of Life!
Brian+
Monday, April 30, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, April 25, 2007
When two people love each other, they don't look at each other,
they look in the same direction.
- Ginger Rogers, terrific dancer and entertainer, who died
on this day, age 83, in 1995
Oh, come on Ginger! Give us a little break here. When two people love each other, of course they look at each other. It would be silly to pretend otherwise, or that it should be otherwise. They look with amazement, with wonderment, with sometimes unbelief. As the old song, sung so wonderfully and in a glorious slow tempo by Bette Midler, says, “that’s the story of, that’s the glory of Love”.
But after that Ginger is right. Love is not just about two people. In the Christian tradition, there is always three – the Mystery of the God of Love is always present. But - more than that. True lovers look out, Ginger’s right. They look out to see who needs love. By nature Love is inclusive. It wants to invite people in, to enlarge the circle.
Inclusivity is a good sign: if it isn’t there, it isn’t love. And “inclusive”, by definition, opens up to those we might be inclined to judge and reject, out of our own fears or ignorance.
Brian+
When two people love each other, they don't look at each other,
they look in the same direction.
- Ginger Rogers, terrific dancer and entertainer, who died
on this day, age 83, in 1995
Oh, come on Ginger! Give us a little break here. When two people love each other, of course they look at each other. It would be silly to pretend otherwise, or that it should be otherwise. They look with amazement, with wonderment, with sometimes unbelief. As the old song, sung so wonderfully and in a glorious slow tempo by Bette Midler, says, “that’s the story of, that’s the glory of Love”.
But after that Ginger is right. Love is not just about two people. In the Christian tradition, there is always three – the Mystery of the God of Love is always present. But - more than that. True lovers look out, Ginger’s right. They look out to see who needs love. By nature Love is inclusive. It wants to invite people in, to enlarge the circle.
Inclusivity is a good sign: if it isn’t there, it isn’t love. And “inclusive”, by definition, opens up to those we might be inclined to judge and reject, out of our own fears or ignorance.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Love is like any other luxury. You have no right to it unless you can afford it.
- Anthony Trollope, English novelist, born on this day, 1815
One can only, I have discovered by personal experience, read so much Trollope. (The same with Dickens.) But none the less, I thoroughly enjoyed Trollope, primarily because of the eccentricity of his characters. I try to remember that, essentially, most human beings are characters.
When it comes to Love, I don’t agree it is a luxury. Luxuries are usually limited to a few. Love is unlimited to whomever wishes to give or receive.
Nor do I agree that anyone has no right to Love. It is like saying that a person has no right to breathe. Human life does not exist without Love, not recognizably.
But I do agree that one has to be able to afford it. That is, willing to pay the cost. And the greatest cost is the acceptance of little deaths, until one understands the Mystery Jesus spoke of when He said, “The person who hates her life will gain it”. The death and resurrection of Jesus is an image writ large of the principle St. Paul voiced about followers of Jesus: “We are accounted dead, and yet we live”.
Well, maybe Love is a luxury, in that most of us think we can’t afford the cost. But for the pearl of great price, one sells all.
Brian+
Love is like any other luxury. You have no right to it unless you can afford it.
- Anthony Trollope, English novelist, born on this day, 1815
One can only, I have discovered by personal experience, read so much Trollope. (The same with Dickens.) But none the less, I thoroughly enjoyed Trollope, primarily because of the eccentricity of his characters. I try to remember that, essentially, most human beings are characters.
When it comes to Love, I don’t agree it is a luxury. Luxuries are usually limited to a few. Love is unlimited to whomever wishes to give or receive.
Nor do I agree that anyone has no right to Love. It is like saying that a person has no right to breathe. Human life does not exist without Love, not recognizably.
But I do agree that one has to be able to afford it. That is, willing to pay the cost. And the greatest cost is the acceptance of little deaths, until one understands the Mystery Jesus spoke of when He said, “The person who hates her life will gain it”. The death and resurrection of Jesus is an image writ large of the principle St. Paul voiced about followers of Jesus: “We are accounted dead, and yet we live”.
Well, maybe Love is a luxury, in that most of us think we can’t afford the cost. But for the pearl of great price, one sells all.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, April 23, 2007
The Vision of the Archangels
Slowly up silent peaks, the white edge of the world,
Trod four archangels, clear against the unheeding sky,
Bearing, with quiet even steps, and great wings furled,
A little dingy coffin; where a child must lie,
It was so tiny. (Yet, you had fancied, God could never
Have bidden a child turn from the spring and the sunlight,
And shut him in that lonely shell, to drop for ever
Into the emptiness and silence, into the night. . . .)
They then from the sheer summit cast, and watched it fall,
Through unknown glooms, that frail black coffin -- - and therein
God's little pitiful Body lying, worn and thin,
And curled up like some crumpled, lonely flower-petal -- -
Till it was no more visible; then turned again
With sorrowful quiet faces downward to the plain.
- Rupert Brooke, English poet, who died on this day, 1915,
on a ship in the Greek isles
I can never resist quoting Rupert Brooke. While I was wandering the Greek isles in ’89, sandals, shorts, a t-shirt or two stuffed in a backpack with the bare other necessities, I did not, alas, know of Rupert Brooke. I would have made a pilgrimage to his grave. I will do that before I die.
But. Can you think of a more moving image of God leaving the glory of Eternal Light to be present in the Human Condition? Of the sorrow of the Heavenly Host at their loss? Of the acceptance of those sorrowful quiet faces that with humanity is where God must be?
And we human beings - have we welcomed and honoured “God” among us” as we ought? Or, have we too often kept God in the little dingy coffin by refusing to live in love?
Brian+
The Vision of the Archangels
Slowly up silent peaks, the white edge of the world,
Trod four archangels, clear against the unheeding sky,
Bearing, with quiet even steps, and great wings furled,
A little dingy coffin; where a child must lie,
It was so tiny. (Yet, you had fancied, God could never
Have bidden a child turn from the spring and the sunlight,
And shut him in that lonely shell, to drop for ever
Into the emptiness and silence, into the night. . . .)
They then from the sheer summit cast, and watched it fall,
Through unknown glooms, that frail black coffin -- - and therein
God's little pitiful Body lying, worn and thin,
And curled up like some crumpled, lonely flower-petal -- -
Till it was no more visible; then turned again
With sorrowful quiet faces downward to the plain.
- Rupert Brooke, English poet, who died on this day, 1915,
on a ship in the Greek isles
I can never resist quoting Rupert Brooke. While I was wandering the Greek isles in ’89, sandals, shorts, a t-shirt or two stuffed in a backpack with the bare other necessities, I did not, alas, know of Rupert Brooke. I would have made a pilgrimage to his grave. I will do that before I die.
But. Can you think of a more moving image of God leaving the glory of Eternal Light to be present in the Human Condition? Of the sorrow of the Heavenly Host at their loss? Of the acceptance of those sorrowful quiet faces that with humanity is where God must be?
And we human beings - have we welcomed and honoured “God” among us” as we ought? Or, have we too often kept God in the little dingy coffin by refusing to live in love?
Brian+
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: April 18, 2007
As a boy I remember how terribly real the statues of the saints
would seem at 7 o'clock Mass - before I'd had breakfast. From
that I learned always to conduct hungry.
- Leopold Stokowski, musician & composer, born
on this day, 1882, in England
Satiety dulls reality. That seems to be Stokowski’s message. According to all great teachers of the soul’s truth, he is correct. Morning is a spare time. I remember how I would go down to the crypt to “serve mass” for some of the older fathers at Holy Cross. Spooky. And you know what? I have always appreciated spooky! I have both of my congregations ringing bells at the Elevations. Alas, I can’t have the place foggy with incense; a couple of people say that they will collapse and die of throat clogging – and I in my pastoral concern “give in”. But there is a part of me that says, “Crap!”. Wear a mask! Allergies, for me, are just a work of the Devil keeping people (and through them, the rest of us) from plunging into the Mystical. If you remove the senses from experiencing the Divine ………. trouble!
One should live one’s Life “hungry”. Just as Stokowski conducted hungry. Because ….. “hungry “ means “wired”, attune to Mystery, because one is not dulled by Satiety of mind, spirit, heart - dulled by the soddening effect of the claims of complacency, of the glazing effect of sensory overload.
“Statues” (i.e., Life) look(s) “terribly real” before breakfast - when we are cleansed, before we are clogged with spiritual “fat” of all sorts.
It is with, and from, this clarity that we should conduct our Life. The results are to be longed for. Listen to Stokowski. The music crackles, freed from the fatty occlusions of sentimentality.
Life is meant to crackle.
Brian+
As a boy I remember how terribly real the statues of the saints
would seem at 7 o'clock Mass - before I'd had breakfast. From
that I learned always to conduct hungry.
- Leopold Stokowski, musician & composer, born
on this day, 1882, in England
Satiety dulls reality. That seems to be Stokowski’s message. According to all great teachers of the soul’s truth, he is correct. Morning is a spare time. I remember how I would go down to the crypt to “serve mass” for some of the older fathers at Holy Cross. Spooky. And you know what? I have always appreciated spooky! I have both of my congregations ringing bells at the Elevations. Alas, I can’t have the place foggy with incense; a couple of people say that they will collapse and die of throat clogging – and I in my pastoral concern “give in”. But there is a part of me that says, “Crap!”. Wear a mask! Allergies, for me, are just a work of the Devil keeping people (and through them, the rest of us) from plunging into the Mystical. If you remove the senses from experiencing the Divine ………. trouble!
One should live one’s Life “hungry”. Just as Stokowski conducted hungry. Because ….. “hungry “ means “wired”, attune to Mystery, because one is not dulled by Satiety of mind, spirit, heart - dulled by the soddening effect of the claims of complacency, of the glazing effect of sensory overload.
“Statues” (i.e., Life) look(s) “terribly real” before breakfast - when we are cleansed, before we are clogged with spiritual “fat” of all sorts.
It is with, and from, this clarity that we should conduct our Life. The results are to be longed for. Listen to Stokowski. The music crackles, freed from the fatty occlusions of sentimentality.
Life is meant to crackle.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, April 17, 2007
"The moon and the sun are eternal travelers. Even the years wander on.
A lifetime adrift in a boat or in old age leading a tired horse into the years,
every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home."
- Basho: Narrow Road to the Interior
Born Matsuo Munefusa, in 1644, the poet Basho is considered one of the finest writers of Japanese Haiku. He lived to be fifty. He lived in “blissful poverty”, supported by his students. And he travelled a great deal - wish I could learn that art - being poor and a traveler!
“The journey itself is home”. I believe this, essentially. Essentially, we are not “good” to be rewarded. Essentially, we do not love to be loved. Essentially we do not follow the divine path in order to go to Heaven. Essentially we do not compromise the present moment in hopes of redeeming the past or of guaranteeing the future. Jesus said, Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow has enough troubles of its own - that is, the Journey is Now. The Journey is, as Basho says, Home. I have made wandering somewhat of a Call. It has been a good Home, with many fine waystations.
Basho also said: “Do not follow in the footsteps of the old masters, but seek what they sought.” Wise. Don’t be a slave to another’s journey. We each have our own to claim.
What better company to be in, than the moon and sun, the years. Adrift, leading a tired horse - or even whooping it up until we drop dead!!
Brian+
"The moon and the sun are eternal travelers. Even the years wander on.
A lifetime adrift in a boat or in old age leading a tired horse into the years,
every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home."
- Basho: Narrow Road to the Interior
Born Matsuo Munefusa, in 1644, the poet Basho is considered one of the finest writers of Japanese Haiku. He lived to be fifty. He lived in “blissful poverty”, supported by his students. And he travelled a great deal - wish I could learn that art - being poor and a traveler!
“The journey itself is home”. I believe this, essentially. Essentially, we are not “good” to be rewarded. Essentially, we do not love to be loved. Essentially we do not follow the divine path in order to go to Heaven. Essentially we do not compromise the present moment in hopes of redeeming the past or of guaranteeing the future. Jesus said, Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow has enough troubles of its own - that is, the Journey is Now. The Journey is, as Basho says, Home. I have made wandering somewhat of a Call. It has been a good Home, with many fine waystations.
Basho also said: “Do not follow in the footsteps of the old masters, but seek what they sought.” Wise. Don’t be a slave to another’s journey. We each have our own to claim.
What better company to be in, than the moon and sun, the years. Adrift, leading a tired horse - or even whooping it up until we drop dead!!
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, April 16, 2007
I have no further use for America. I wouldn't go
back there if Jesus Christ was President.
- Charlie Chaplin, actor, born on this day, 1889
Well, to me this is a quote filled with great sadness - as well as great truth re. our dear land at this time in history. I kind of laugh with a sense of “Oh Lord”! Whose Jesus Christ?! If it were the Jesus Christ of many of the loud, outspoken “Christians” in America these days, I wouldn’t stay here. Living under some of the “Christs” projected by many of the professed Christians these days would be like living under Hitler, or Caligula, or a crazed version of Shiva. There was another name I was going to mention – Grace has preserved me!
I preached today about the beauty and the glory of God. Seen in that awesome figure that John the Evangelist describes in the Revelation - a figure I saw in an icon in the monastery on Patmos where John is reported to have penned the Revelation. The figure that represents God’s desire that all people should know the power and peace of God’s amazing Compassion and Peace.
The principles of America’s founding are high, lofty, inspirational. In many ways I believe that they do represent what God would want for Her people. Freedom (in the most profound sense). Compassion. Acceptance of God’s spectacular diversity. Accorded dignity. Honour. Acceptance of new truths.
I reject the Jesus Christ that many today would have as “President”. It is a perverted picture. Let us enshrine as “President” the radical Love that is seen in the Son of Man that John saw in his visions. Glorious. Beautiful. Shining. Radiant with Love.
Brian+
I have no further use for America. I wouldn't go
back there if Jesus Christ was President.
- Charlie Chaplin, actor, born on this day, 1889
Well, to me this is a quote filled with great sadness - as well as great truth re. our dear land at this time in history. I kind of laugh with a sense of “Oh Lord”! Whose Jesus Christ?! If it were the Jesus Christ of many of the loud, outspoken “Christians” in America these days, I wouldn’t stay here. Living under some of the “Christs” projected by many of the professed Christians these days would be like living under Hitler, or Caligula, or a crazed version of Shiva. There was another name I was going to mention – Grace has preserved me!
I preached today about the beauty and the glory of God. Seen in that awesome figure that John the Evangelist describes in the Revelation - a figure I saw in an icon in the monastery on Patmos where John is reported to have penned the Revelation. The figure that represents God’s desire that all people should know the power and peace of God’s amazing Compassion and Peace.
The principles of America’s founding are high, lofty, inspirational. In many ways I believe that they do represent what God would want for Her people. Freedom (in the most profound sense). Compassion. Acceptance of God’s spectacular diversity. Accorded dignity. Honour. Acceptance of new truths.
I reject the Jesus Christ that many today would have as “President”. It is a perverted picture. Let us enshrine as “President” the radical Love that is seen in the Son of Man that John saw in his visions. Glorious. Beautiful. Shining. Radiant with Love.
Brian+
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Holy Saturday, April 7, 2007
While here I stand, not only with the sense
Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
That in this moment there is life and food
For future years. And so I dare to hope .....
And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.
- From William Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey”. He was born
on this day, 1770, at Cocker-mouth, England
… I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts, of something far more deeply interfused ……
I believe that this is what the women and the apostles experienced when they came upon the empty tomb. More so when Mary Magdalene saw the mysterious figure in the garden Who spoke her name. And the disciples in the upper room. And the fishermen as they gazed at the figure by the fire on the shore.
The resurrection, the “being alive” of Jesus is not strange. Wordsworth experienced the reality, the truth, in the Mystery of Nature a few miles above Tintern Abbey. I have experienced it in countless places, ways, modes, landscapes, holy places - and in my own life and in the lives (and deaths) of others. “….. something far more deeply interfused …..”.
The “presence that disturbs me with joy” is everywhere. Through the stance of faith, all tombs are empty.
Brian+
[ The whole poem can be found at http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww138.html ]
While here I stand, not only with the sense
Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
That in this moment there is life and food
For future years. And so I dare to hope .....
And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.
- From William Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey”. He was born
on this day, 1770, at Cocker-mouth, England
… I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts, of something far more deeply interfused ……
I believe that this is what the women and the apostles experienced when they came upon the empty tomb. More so when Mary Magdalene saw the mysterious figure in the garden Who spoke her name. And the disciples in the upper room. And the fishermen as they gazed at the figure by the fire on the shore.
The resurrection, the “being alive” of Jesus is not strange. Wordsworth experienced the reality, the truth, in the Mystery of Nature a few miles above Tintern Abbey. I have experienced it in countless places, ways, modes, landscapes, holy places - and in my own life and in the lives (and deaths) of others. “….. something far more deeply interfused …..”.
The “presence that disturbs me with joy” is everywhere. Through the stance of faith, all tombs are empty.
Brian+
[ The whole poem can be found at http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww138.html ]
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, April 5, 2007
Maundy Thursday in the Christian Calendar
Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him ………. After he
had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he
said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher
and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”
- The Gospel named after John, Chapter 13, read on Maundy Thursday
The “Mandatum” of Jesus (from which “Maundy” derives) to do as He did has been liturgically practiced in the Christian tradition since the early centuries, as referenced by Tertullian and Augustine. Jesus, as host of the Passover Seder, washes His disciples feet. He, the Master, serves them. Peter refuses - and Jesus makes it crystal clear that if he is not willing to serve as Jesus serves, Peter can have nothing to do with Him, or God. Several times, Jesus makes it clear that to be great is to serve. That worldly power is “not of His Kingdom”. Jesus said clearly that He came “not to be served but to serve”.
It seems a little silly to wash feet these days, a little contrived. But, when the priest or deacon, representing Jesus, washes the feet of parishioners (or of the poor, as early popes are recorded to have done), the effect can be powerful, both on the person washing and the person being washed. I remember the first time, as a priest, my feet were washed, I was jolted into remembering that my call (and the call of all Christians) is to serve.
Because service is of the essence of God, Jesus implies. Not power, not mightiness, not control. Not dictatorial powers. No. Service. Service in Love. It’s what the cross is all about in Christian life. Jesus is reported to have said, “Unless you take up your cross, you cannot be a follower of mine”.
To serve is Godlike. To serve is deepest humanity. To serve is Love. To serve is Greatness.
As Christians wash feet, may Maundy Thursday remind all humanity where true greatness lies.
Brian+
Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him ………. After he
had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he
said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher
and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”
- The Gospel named after John, Chapter 13, read on Maundy Thursday
The “Mandatum” of Jesus (from which “Maundy” derives) to do as He did has been liturgically practiced in the Christian tradition since the early centuries, as referenced by Tertullian and Augustine. Jesus, as host of the Passover Seder, washes His disciples feet. He, the Master, serves them. Peter refuses - and Jesus makes it crystal clear that if he is not willing to serve as Jesus serves, Peter can have nothing to do with Him, or God. Several times, Jesus makes it clear that to be great is to serve. That worldly power is “not of His Kingdom”. Jesus said clearly that He came “not to be served but to serve”.
It seems a little silly to wash feet these days, a little contrived. But, when the priest or deacon, representing Jesus, washes the feet of parishioners (or of the poor, as early popes are recorded to have done), the effect can be powerful, both on the person washing and the person being washed. I remember the first time, as a priest, my feet were washed, I was jolted into remembering that my call (and the call of all Christians) is to serve.
Because service is of the essence of God, Jesus implies. Not power, not mightiness, not control. Not dictatorial powers. No. Service. Service in Love. It’s what the cross is all about in Christian life. Jesus is reported to have said, “Unless you take up your cross, you cannot be a follower of mine”.
To serve is Godlike. To serve is deepest humanity. To serve is Love. To serve is Greatness.
As Christians wash feet, may Maundy Thursday remind all humanity where true greatness lies.
Brian+
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, April 4, 2007
There's a world of difference between truth and facts.
Facts can obscure the truth.
- Maya Angelou, poet, born on this day, 1928
Br. Douglas Brown, of the Order of the Holy Cross, was a long-time friend. Sadly he dropped dead a few months ago, age about 60, from a “massive” heart attack. One Sunday evening in the mid-seventies, at Solemn Evensong and Benediction at St. Thomas’s, Huron St., Toronto, he was the preacher. For almost 30 years, I remember clearly one thing he said: “Scripture does not have to be factually true, but it must be true to the facts.”
I remember watching him from the sedillia. And when I heard those words, I knew he had said something crucial, and truthful, and freeing. Something that I had thought for a long time, but had never articulated so beautifully. Maya Angelou clearly understands too and expressed it beautifully. Facts and truth are not the same thing - and facts can obscure the truth.
Does it matter that everything said in all the World’s Holy Scriptures is factual? About Krishna? The Buddha? Moses? Zoroaster? Jesus? Muhammad? Are the words said about them more important that what the words convey? I don’t think so - especially if we fight over the “facts” trying to prove ourselves right and others wrong, while missing the meaning of the holy lives they point to. Does it matter if Jesus was born in Bethlehem or in Nazareth? No. What matters is that the Mystery called “God” is present in all of Creation.
We live in an age where we are prisoners of “facts” - and our souls are withering because of it. We would rather argue about the “facts” of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead than rejoice with all our human brothers and sisters that neither death nor evil can kill Life and Love, and give our lives to secure this gift for all. Pitiful. Not, to my mind, what God desires.
“Facts” are only hints pointing to truth. Once the truth has been seen, heard, imagined - the facts fall away and truth in all Its beauty floods into the world.
It is not facts that will set us free. It is truth that will set us free. Let us not, as do many posing as religious people these days, obscure the truth by making an idol out of facts.
Brian+
Facts can obscure the truth.
- Maya Angelou, poet, born on this day, 1928
Br. Douglas Brown, of the Order of the Holy Cross, was a long-time friend. Sadly he dropped dead a few months ago, age about 60, from a “massive” heart attack. One Sunday evening in the mid-seventies, at Solemn Evensong and Benediction at St. Thomas’s, Huron St., Toronto, he was the preacher. For almost 30 years, I remember clearly one thing he said: “Scripture does not have to be factually true, but it must be true to the facts.”
I remember watching him from the sedillia. And when I heard those words, I knew he had said something crucial, and truthful, and freeing. Something that I had thought for a long time, but had never articulated so beautifully. Maya Angelou clearly understands too and expressed it beautifully. Facts and truth are not the same thing - and facts can obscure the truth.
Does it matter that everything said in all the World’s Holy Scriptures is factual? About Krishna? The Buddha? Moses? Zoroaster? Jesus? Muhammad? Are the words said about them more important that what the words convey? I don’t think so - especially if we fight over the “facts” trying to prove ourselves right and others wrong, while missing the meaning of the holy lives they point to. Does it matter if Jesus was born in Bethlehem or in Nazareth? No. What matters is that the Mystery called “God” is present in all of Creation.
We live in an age where we are prisoners of “facts” - and our souls are withering because of it. We would rather argue about the “facts” of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead than rejoice with all our human brothers and sisters that neither death nor evil can kill Life and Love, and give our lives to secure this gift for all. Pitiful. Not, to my mind, what God desires.
“Facts” are only hints pointing to truth. Once the truth has been seen, heard, imagined - the facts fall away and truth in all Its beauty floods into the world.
It is not facts that will set us free. It is truth that will set us free. Let us not, as do many posing as religious people these days, obscure the truth by making an idol out of facts.
Brian+
I have often said (with sermons, for example) that "people often hear what they want to hear". I started writing out my sermons for awhile, just to "prove" that I didn't say what people said I said! In my Reflection for Tuesday, a couple of people said I said I agreed with Brando's idea. I didn't. I said that we were "destined to transcend the basics" - whether men are "hard-wired" for wide-spread sex or not.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, April 3, 2007
I don't think it's the nature of any man to be monogamous.
Men are propelled by genetically ordained impulses over
which they have no control to distribute their seed.
- Marlon Brandon, actor, born on this day, 1924
Marlon Brando! An amazing man! I have no idea if he was a “good” actor. It always seemed to me he was “just being himself”. I didn’t see “On the Waterfront” until a few years ago – then I was able to ignore the context and just look at the “acting” – brilliant! “The Godfather”? Brilliant!
But his comment raises an interesting theological conundrum. Bottom line, I agree with him. Men are not made to be monogamous. Period. I shall refrain from saying anything about women because I am (a) not one and (b) not a sociologist. I shall be happy to hear from any woman who has an opinion on the topic.
But: all this raises an interesting topic. Does “God” (by which I mean, “The Way the Universe is Organized”) want everyone to be “just as they are/created”?, or does God want human beings to “adjust” to whatever makes living easier?? Very interesting question!!!
Well: I think God wants the other animals to “Do Their Thing”. Life (biologically) has to go on. But: we human beings are different. We have a deeper destiny - and I shall refrain from calling it “moral” since religious Nazis have co-opted the term. That destiny involves striving for the full destiny of being human/divine. Christian thought says that that means, Becoming Like God. And the God we are becoming like is, in my experience, Worthy and Glorious and Spectacular. And most of all - Love Incarnate.
Hard-wired, men are “made” to “distribute their seed”. And women to “tend the community”. (Please chastise me if you think otherwise!) But:: Being Human calls us to be “a little lower than the angels” - i.e., destined to transcend the “basics”.
It’s a fabulous Journey! Becoming - as was Jesus - fully human and fully divine. What could be better that spending our lives striving to be Perfect Love??!!
Brian+
I don't think it's the nature of any man to be monogamous.
Men are propelled by genetically ordained impulses over
which they have no control to distribute their seed.
- Marlon Brandon, actor, born on this day, 1924
Marlon Brando! An amazing man! I have no idea if he was a “good” actor. It always seemed to me he was “just being himself”. I didn’t see “On the Waterfront” until a few years ago – then I was able to ignore the context and just look at the “acting” – brilliant! “The Godfather”? Brilliant!
But his comment raises an interesting theological conundrum. Bottom line, I agree with him. Men are not made to be monogamous. Period. I shall refrain from saying anything about women because I am (a) not one and (b) not a sociologist. I shall be happy to hear from any woman who has an opinion on the topic.
But: all this raises an interesting topic. Does “God” (by which I mean, “The Way the Universe is Organized”) want everyone to be “just as they are/created”?, or does God want human beings to “adjust” to whatever makes living easier?? Very interesting question!!!
Well: I think God wants the other animals to “Do Their Thing”. Life (biologically) has to go on. But: we human beings are different. We have a deeper destiny - and I shall refrain from calling it “moral” since religious Nazis have co-opted the term. That destiny involves striving for the full destiny of being human/divine. Christian thought says that that means, Becoming Like God. And the God we are becoming like is, in my experience, Worthy and Glorious and Spectacular. And most of all - Love Incarnate.
Hard-wired, men are “made” to “distribute their seed”. And women to “tend the community”. (Please chastise me if you think otherwise!) But:: Being Human calls us to be “a little lower than the angels” - i.e., destined to transcend the “basics”.
It’s a fabulous Journey! Becoming - as was Jesus - fully human and fully divine. What could be better that spending our lives striving to be Perfect Love??!!
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, April 2, 2007
If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow,
and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts
through it will blow up everything in its way.
- Emile Zola, French Author, born on this day, 1840
I hope the day is coming!! Because we, the human community, are desperately in need of that day to burst forth.
People talk about their religions as “the Truth”. I guess all religious leaders talk about It. Jesus said, “You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free”. The Dalai Llama says, "Of course, there are different truths on different levels. Things are true relative to other things; "long" and "short" relate to each other, "high" and "low," and so on. But is there any absolute truth? Something self-sufficient, independently true in itself? I don't think so." Religions often claim to “own” the Truth to gain adherents – and power; but have you noticed that the “founders” of a faith seldom claim to have the Truth, only to point toward it?
Many truths lie buried, very often buried by those who want to control it in some way. Zola is right: this does not work. I believe it is a “truth” that all men and women are brothers, & sisters, equal, and free. Try burying these truths ….. many have, and still do today. But these truths will grow and gather “such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way”.
On Easter Day, in the Christian story, Jesus will rise from the dead, burst forth from the grave. This will be an eternal sign. Love of Creation, humanity, justice, peace, cannot be killed or buried. It will, as did Jesus, burst forth from its flimsy tomb and blow up everything in its way.
How long, O Lord, how long??
Brian+
If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow,
and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts
through it will blow up everything in its way.
- Emile Zola, French Author, born on this day, 1840
I hope the day is coming!! Because we, the human community, are desperately in need of that day to burst forth.
People talk about their religions as “the Truth”. I guess all religious leaders talk about It. Jesus said, “You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free”. The Dalai Llama says, "Of course, there are different truths on different levels. Things are true relative to other things; "long" and "short" relate to each other, "high" and "low," and so on. But is there any absolute truth? Something self-sufficient, independently true in itself? I don't think so." Religions often claim to “own” the Truth to gain adherents – and power; but have you noticed that the “founders” of a faith seldom claim to have the Truth, only to point toward it?
Many truths lie buried, very often buried by those who want to control it in some way. Zola is right: this does not work. I believe it is a “truth” that all men and women are brothers, & sisters, equal, and free. Try burying these truths ….. many have, and still do today. But these truths will grow and gather “such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way”.
On Easter Day, in the Christian story, Jesus will rise from the dead, burst forth from the grave. This will be an eternal sign. Love of Creation, humanity, justice, peace, cannot be killed or buried. It will, as did Jesus, burst forth from its flimsy tomb and blow up everything in its way.
How long, O Lord, how long??
Brian+
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