From today's reading i am reminded of the Banishment, our exile from Paradise. Some translate this Bible tale as a great lapse in memory, a mental separation from God. What have we forgotten? Our Home, our true place at the foot of Creation, fully aware of All There Is. Now separated from the Divine Presence, we walk in forgetfulness, in the darkness of our own little Self who works so very hard to find meaning for its own existence.
To the lost ego, the Self is all it knows. This world is all there is, great, nasty, wild and dangerous. It is alone. We raise kings and armies only to fight, scheme and kill for our survival. Like animals, we feed, breed and run from all we fear. In our ignorance and through our selfish acts, we have been literally 'handed over' to the material world.
We have forgotten who we truly are.
St. Paul reminds us of this:
Instead, they became vain in their reasoning,
and their senseless minds were darkened.
While claiming to be wise, they became fools
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God
for the likeness of an image of mortal man
or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.
Therefore, God handed them over to impurity
through the lusts of their hearts
for the mutual degradation of their bodies.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie
and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator,
who is blessed forever. (Rom 1:21-25)
What follows in this epistle is a litany of sins, such as "wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite" (Rom 1:29).
I like to define 'sin' as an act that keeps one separate from God. Jesus comes to remind us of the grace and mercy that has always tied us to the Father, yet it is our own ignorance, our own selfish choices that keep us in the dark wandering of our own chosen exile. Hell is simply a life of separation from the Divine, me thinks. In forgetting our true nature as God's image, wars soak the earth with blood, greed creates poverty, the individual's clinging need to protect and nurture its Self is not divine, is not God, is not Life as it was meant for us and can be, as demonstrated by the Christ.
"The one who is righteous by faith will live" (Rom 1:17), says St. Paul. As i understand this, the one who acts in accord to faith, as presented to us by the Lord, can limit sins and so, will live. Through knowledge of the gospels and awareness in one's choices guilt does not have to be carrying throughout one's days. It seems that sin and guilt are constructs of this lesser life lead by our selfishness; separation from God leaves little room for righteousness and faith becomes an illusion.
Banished from Paradise? We simply made ourselves gods and forgot it.
The wonderful thing is, the more i work for mindful choices, righteous acts and opening my heart to faith, that Self, my own ego, becomes smaller, if not pathetic and ridiculous when compared to all that is Divinity around me. Truly, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, a life in Paradise is now if we choose it. The gates where never closed.
Deo gratias.
To the lost ego, the Self is all it knows. This world is all there is, great, nasty, wild and dangerous. It is alone. We raise kings and armies only to fight, scheme and kill for our survival. Like animals, we feed, breed and run from all we fear. In our ignorance and through our selfish acts, we have been literally 'handed over' to the material world.
We have forgotten who we truly are.
St. Paul reminds us of this:
Instead, they became vain in their reasoning,
and their senseless minds were darkened.
While claiming to be wise, they became fools
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God
for the likeness of an image of mortal man
or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.
Therefore, God handed them over to impurity
through the lusts of their hearts
for the mutual degradation of their bodies.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie
and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator,
who is blessed forever. (Rom 1:21-25)
What follows in this epistle is a litany of sins, such as "wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite" (Rom 1:29).
I like to define 'sin' as an act that keeps one separate from God. Jesus comes to remind us of the grace and mercy that has always tied us to the Father, yet it is our own ignorance, our own selfish choices that keep us in the dark wandering of our own chosen exile. Hell is simply a life of separation from the Divine, me thinks. In forgetting our true nature as God's image, wars soak the earth with blood, greed creates poverty, the individual's clinging need to protect and nurture its Self is not divine, is not God, is not Life as it was meant for us and can be, as demonstrated by the Christ.
"The one who is righteous by faith will live" (Rom 1:17), says St. Paul. As i understand this, the one who acts in accord to faith, as presented to us by the Lord, can limit sins and so, will live. Through knowledge of the gospels and awareness in one's choices guilt does not have to be carrying throughout one's days. It seems that sin and guilt are constructs of this lesser life lead by our selfishness; separation from God leaves little room for righteousness and faith becomes an illusion.
Banished from Paradise? We simply made ourselves gods and forgot it.
The wonderful thing is, the more i work for mindful choices, righteous acts and opening my heart to faith, that Self, my own ego, becomes smaller, if not pathetic and ridiculous when compared to all that is Divinity around me. Truly, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, a life in Paradise is now if we choose it. The gates where never closed.
Deo gratias.
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