On Inspiration and Motivation

When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities,
do not worry about how or what your defense will be
or about what you are to say.
For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say (Lk 12:11-12)

If i speak not with ego, with selfishness, then the heart's door is open and the right word and the right time can be uttered. Thinking would be useful, but i am wary of too much thought, from whence doubt creeps into my life. And if i am not calm, rested, centered with mindfulness on my actions, then in the chaos of my mind, how can the Holy Ghost inspire my tongue? Perhaps it is wiser to hold my tongue, give attention to emotions that flood the body and to remain still, untroubled, filled with love despite what conditioning (and or instinct) would have me do ... to my later regret and shame. If my motivation was pure, then with a focused mind and still heart, i can practise what the Holy Ghost teaches.

As an aside, much of what i would like to share on these pages i hope to be inspired by the Holy Ghost working through me. Is that to be believed in today's cynical and critical world? Again, the answer lies partly with motivation.

Deo gratias.

Politically Correct

"Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too." (Lk 11:45)

To be insulted by another man, albeit God, in your own house or in public. And not only once, but routinely insulted: "Woe to you!", ignoring traditions in Law such as dietary or hygienic rules as a dinner guest. A mad man? Defiant and rebellious? Today we have the protection of state and law, but even so at the least a black eye might be the result of our perceived insult.

But could Christ or St. Paul reveal God's new covenant in no other way? "You, O man, are without excuse, every one of you who passes judgment" (Rom 2:1), St. Paul tells the Romans. The Dutch have an expression that tall trees gather the most wind, which implies the same as 'the bigger they are, the harder they fall'. Couldn't the message be circulated with more political correctness? Perhaps less accusational and more therapeutic, sensitive, humble, taught silently through example, etc? The Buddha taught some very unappealing lessons and did so for many, many years. He taught by personal example. If he did not like a gift (anger), he did not accept it. To me, anger is fear and loss of control. Sow anger and insult and reap anger and revenge, no? In the East, anger is something not publicly displayed as it is seen as a weakness and inappropriate. In the West, anger is rife. Throughout the Bible, old and new, there is anger, wrath, open threats of punishment to hostile crowds, nations put to the sword, etc. It makes me think that public stoning must have been as common as drawing water from the well under that Middle Eastern midday sun.

Sometimes a father must punish his children, even if his anger is more show than real. And then, the anger may only be the regret that in his role he is forced to hurt the ones he loves; just punishment for misbehaviour. The father usually has a long term view; the child, short term. In this, i would say that the Christ would have the long term view for his Father's children.

Yet, Jesus' earthly life ends with torture, public humiliation and Crucifixion. Standing among the wild crowds along the via Dolorosa, one would think that rabbi certainly didn't win many friends. In some ways he was like the Pharisees that he accuses in today's reading as being so rigid with their Laws. Jesus is just as uncompromising with his new Law, his Gospel, the need to pay "attention to judgment and to love for God". As for being politically correct, that might be the Pharisees, those in power, those who need not lift their fingers to help, those who would cast the first stone if the Laws they so officiously upheld in the public eye were to be transgressed.

Is that the danger of being politically correct? By doing as one is told by those in power, one is kept safe? Perhaps then the message is to not be politically correct. To not care about what others think of you, how they judge you, especially when the Lord is on your side [but then, don't both sides of the battlefield claim God is on their side]. A slippery slope, me thinks, and one that will include many black eyes, death threats and prison sentences, just like St. Paul experienced.

But when do i leave my comfort zone to insult my host if i think my truth shall set him free? Perhaps the Holy Ghost will let me know...

Deo gratias.

The Great Illusion

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.

Do the Right Thing

Do the Right Thing. A little phrase with such potency and responsibility: Always do the right thing, i remember from a movie of the same name.

But we don't have a script to follow or strings that puppet us through our day. Today the invitations are out for a great feast of our Lord and we are welcome! To attend all i have to do is say 'yes', get my life in order so that my 'suit' will be grandly presentable and select a worthy gift for my Maker, His son my Saviour, King, Counsellor, the Lamb who gave his earthy life up on the Cross for all our sins.

I have a million and one excuses for not attending, the first being that i'm not worthy. Still, i have an invitation. There are so many things in life that i am invited to do, yet shrink back from. No interest, no time, no effort to be found, other priorities or responsibilities, distractions, indeed, a million and one excuses i have.

But to attend would be magnificent, me thinks? The ego cries out again and again and again because to accept such an invitation might risk all that it has worked for, namely, that big Me, the centre of its world. Yet, to not accept is to deny the Holy Ghost by putting the greatness of my own Self first: pride.

By accepting that i'm not worthy and thereby not accepting the personal invitation, i've put my own interests first. I've allowed my fearful little ego to pull my strings. It's cold and wet outside, so i'd rather sit on the couch, warm and dry; if i go out i might get wet, catch a cold; i certainly wont enjoy it; actually, it's pointless; i don't have a gift; i'll do it another time when conditions are more suitable, less discomforting to me; i can achieve the same, if not more, pleasure here on the couch anyway.

Anyone recognise this script?

The great feast will come and go without my attendance, for with the self-involved little voice at the helm, there will never be another, more convenient moment. Invitations will pile up under the doormat. Soon, they will not even be noticed, tossed out with the junk mail.

And there shall be much wailing and grinding of teeth.

Oh, and make sure you have your wedding garment always close at hand and ready to put on at a moment's notice: that would be another tiresome task the ego might be less that enthusiastic to maintain daily, moment to moment, throughout our lives. And if the buttons are getting dull, the lace dusty or the velvet moth-eaten ... and that couch is looking better and better ... speak the words aloud: Do the Right Thing.

Deo gratias.