I have finally thought things through and I know why this election season, not only in BC but globally is so frustrating for me, pulling me into judgements and opinions that are not compatible with what I truly believe.
This insight is that life goes forward not backwards! Those seeking leadership positions that are looking back and saying they want to reclaim the greatness of the past may, unfortunately, for a time succeed. History tells us that if they succeed all of humanity – including you and me – will pay the price and have to dig ourselves out of the mire they will create. We’ve done it before and we can do it again – but maybe this time we’ll succeed in moving life forward against the regressive tide of anger and self centeredness that some are saying is the option.
Matthew Fox in his morning meditation today gives us these ideas:
Teilhard de Chardin’s observation on the death knell of religion in the West:
Because it is not sufficiently moved by a truly human compassion, because it is not exalted by a sufficiently passionate admiration of the universe, our religion (our principles and values) is becoming enfeebled.
Teilhard elaborates in another place.
I give the name of cosmic sense to the more or less confused affinity that binds us psychologically to the All which envelops us. In order that the sense of humanity might emerge, it was necessary for civilization to begin to encircle the Earth.
Teilhard again:
The cosmic sense must have been born as soon as humanity found itself facing the frost, the sea and the stars. And since then we find evidence of it in all our experience of the great and unbounded: in art, in poetry, and in religion.
Fox reminds us we find this awareness of the sacred well named by Celtic scholar Philip Newell in our time.
“The Celtic tradition has been saying all along, that we cannot contain the sacred. Rather, we are to look for it everywhere, and we are to observe it and be liberators of it in one another and in the earth.”
And that there is work ahead.
“The labor pains of a new birthing will be mighty. There is no going back to the small God.” Anthropocentrism and human narcissism is in no way the future—of religion or politics or a viable path for humanity.
He continues, what I call “deep ecumenism” in my book on the Cosmic Christ is born of this renewed sense of the whole. As Newell puts it:
“We now know too much about the interrelatedness of all life to pretend that well-being can be sought for one part alone and not for the whole, for only one religion, one nation, one species. There is no returning to the limited notion of sacredness as if it were somehow the preserver of one particular people over another, of one race, gender, or sexual orientation. Sacredness is the birthright of all that is. It is the grace that comes with existence.” *
*John Philip Newell, Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul: Celtic Wisdom For Reawakening to What Our Souls Know and Healing the World, pp. 20-22.
So today I will climb out of my worry, fretting and concern to once again embrace the potential of inclusivity, compassion, equity, creation and hope that brought my grandparents to live in a new world that they would help to create, not only for themselves but for all around them. They knew life goes forward, so I will continue moving forward rather then giving power to those who would pull us back.
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