"If You Have Seen....Beauty, Remember." (Enneads V:8)

Judaism and Christianity contain within them unique and extraordinary experiences of divine reality.  The experiences must be studied and remembered. These experiences ever form the living core of Jewish and Christian faiths.  

Christianity is essentially derivative.  Its primary and grounding experiences occurred in Jews, who in turn had been formed by the experiences, beliefs, practices of Jewish culture, including Hebrew and Aramaic languages. To these we could add Hellenistic and Greek linguistic influences on nascent Christianity. Later, the Christian experiences and surrounding culture underwent continuing modification and development through more Greek, Latin, and German cultures, and so on. The process is unending.

Christian faith is not fully original or unique. The core experiences--such as the vision of Christ risen, faith in the atoning death of Jesus, and so on--occurred, as noted, in souls already steeped in Jewish faith and culture. The experiences never existed in a vacuum, nor can the original experiences be fully recovered, but are always known through one’s interpretation. The struggle is to minimize the filtering effects of one’s personality and culture, and to understand the original experiences as well as possible. That is the work for disciplined scholars well trained in philosophical detachment.

Christianity as it exists is highly dependent on other thought forms. It is impossible to read any Christian writer, even the best, and not see the mental influence of other mental cultures. And the best Christian thinkers were immersed in the best philosophy available to them. Of Christian mystics, perhaps only Paul and John (and if there be other NT forms of mysticism, perhaps they, too) moved within Jewish thought forms without much influence of Greek paideia and philosophy. But even here, one can see Greek thought influences in both Paul and John. As for later Christian spiritual writers, they are all derivative: both from the original Christian experiences (as in Paul and John, evident in the Gospels), but from the mental culture in which each writer was steeped. Augustine’s Christian theology, for example, seems inexplicable without Plotinus nurturing his mind; and Thomas Aquinas shows the influence of Plato and Aristotle, as well as Plotinus and Augustine, and others, on every page.  

One must seek to understand both the original Mosaic, prophetic, and apostolic experiences, and the philosophies in which these experiences have been articulated, explored, developed, lived. Someone who seeks to understand the best that Christianity has to offer must study not only the Scriptures with their formative experiences and religious cultures, but such philosophical minds as Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Plotinus. And one should be well acquainted with the ancient Gnostics and other religious cultures that became kneaded into Christian faith and practice.  

Much of contemporary Christianity is superficial because it lacks experiential grounding and philosophical articulation. A major problem in the contemporary churches is that Christian experience is not only neglected, but articulated in highly defective thought forms, such as modern psychology, Marxism (and its derivatives, such as liberation theologies), Hegelianism, liberal democratic thought, and so on. These contemporary ideologies and thought forms are insufficient for articulating the experience of divine union in Christ, which lies at the core of Christianity.  As a consequence, Christians in the pews--or those who have walked away--are left poorly nourished and largely unacquainted with the treasures of Christ. 

Jesus and the "Good News"

Ordinary Time begins and unfolds, we hear much about Jesus and his gospel or “good news”--his message of “the Kingdom of God,” which means for us eternal life in God. The same truth of reality is presented from various angles and with different emphases, but ultimately it is the same reality: God, Christ, and our movement into God in and with Christ. The Gospel, the “good news” of God-for-us-in-Christ, is essentially the message of our life in the God who suffered and died in Christ to bring us into full union with God and with one another in Him. “God was in Christ, reconciling [or, rejoining] the world to Himself.”

Because the news is truly so good and life-affirming, why is it that from the opening chapters of the Gospels, Jesus encountered so much opposition and resistance? What is there about God, Christ, and Jesus’ message that elicit such different responses from human beings? Why do some people encounter Jesus, and respond with faith filled with love, but others refuse to listen, or rebel against what they hear? And as we know, the religious establishment of Jesus’ day, and then the Roman political powers, tried to silence Jesus in one way or another. Why?

You and I have heard the gospel message many times over the years. We have tried, each in his or her own way, to heed and to obey, to do the LORD’s will and work. So from where comes the resistance to such a good God, to the most loving Jesus, to the message of eternal joy in Christ? “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Why, indeed? “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”

Each of us must face the mystery of evil in our own hearts, for at times each of us refuses to listen, to heed, to obey the LORD. And each minister in the church, every disciple of Christ in fact, must ask himself or herself again and again: “Am I truly presenting Christ in his goodness and glory, or am I distorting our LORD into something he is not? Am I helping to lead people into God, or am I a hindrance? In what ways am I assisting, and in what ways am I hindering human beings from hearing the gospel, and seeing it lived in me?” Such questions must be asked again and again. God wants all of us, and each of us completely.

The good news of God is ever the same: that victory in Christ is assured, that despite our human flaws and failings, the LORD will triumph in us and through us. Despite human weaknesses and sin, God will indeed become “all in all.” When the battle looks lost, when human vices and evil seem to gain the upper hand, look at the glow of light in the eastern sky before sunrise, realize and rejoice, that as the sun rises, so the all-good God is breaking through, that nothing ultimately can hinder the power and glory of God’s love in Christ--not even death. “And all shall be well, and every manner of thing shall be well,” when every creature will be filled forever with the living God. To Him be glory and thanks forever. Amen.

On The Feast Of The Epiphany

What a contrast: God comes to us in Christ, is manifested in the flesh, revealed to believing hearts, and the world yawns. Some fanatics proclaim that an imaginary “end of the world” is at hand and the result is mass hysteria (with fortunes made). In our country, it is far easier to sell nonsense and destructive “entertainment,” ugly “music,” and violent films then to turn a mind or two towards the living God.  As a people in history, we are choosing our fate:  we want ease, wealth, pleasures, entertainment, even as we spiral out of control, lost in addictions, mindless entertainments, sheer verbal nonsense (such as “end of the world” fantasies).  Is this what it looks and feels like as a society growers sicker and moves towards death?  

There is much more mass interest in a new “block-buster” movie generated by degenerate Hollywood than there is in God. The “heroes” of American youths are drawn from the world of money-making sports, mindless music, and mass-indulging entertainment, not from the world of simple goodness, devoted service, courageous acceptance of death to protect human lives.  We are shouting “crucify him” by the way we live, clutching the gods of self-love, self-esteem, self-importance. Over a hundred years ago, the Russian writer, Dostoevsky, warned that our civilization is dying because we rejected Christ:  “The West has lost Christ.  That is why it is dying; it is the only reason it is dying.”  The loss of God and Christ is more manifest now, a century later.  We are indeed dying as a people and as a culture. What we must wonder is whether or not we passed the point of no return?  By prudent loving kindness we can help individuals to “get their lives together,” but there seems to be nothing one can do for the common good, for our society as a whole. Christ came for individuals persons, not to spare the destructive and dying Roman Empire, or Hellenistic culture, or even his own Jewish traditions.

So even as our culture and society grow sicker and die, there remains hope for individual human beings who will break from mass culture, from the sickness of our society, and tend the garden of their souls. Jesus came into the midst of the decadent and brutal Roman Empire; and although the civilization collapsed, with millions suffering in the process, some individuals responded to Christ. Some made the break from cultural decadence and found true and abundant life in God. That choice remains ours to make. The light that comes must be received, accepted, and lived in order to have its effect in us. Just “celebrating feasts” and not living Christ does nothing for our personal spiritual renewal. 

Christmas Is Not Suitable This Year?

Did the world end on December 12, or December 21, or any day you know? If everything came crashing to an end, I guess we missed it. Unfortunately, we could not miss the foolish mass hysteria and childish fears. So many predictions about “the end,” so much money made on selling such nonsense, so many unsuspecting young and more gullible adults taken in. Now, what is the next date of the imaginary “end”? December 31? Or 13/13/13? Oh, no! Or maybe several years from now--allowing predictors plenty of time to hype the event (remember Y2K?) and rake in plenty of fresh dough. Don’t hold your breath waiting for an imagined “end of the world.” That nonsense is an escape from reality and from doing one’s real duties.

Because the world did not “collapse,” we are here to thank God for life in this world, and for the greater Life, the divine Life, that breaks into our hearts and minds, and which is endless. For those who follow him faithfully, Christ is indeed “the light shining in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.” Not even the darkness of human foolishness and gullibility.

Darkness. Even evil. We recently learned of the massacre of innocent little children and their teachers in Connecticut. Yes, the deed was extremely evil, and left in its wake human agony beyond imaging. Apparently, Newtown, CT, decided that they had to take down public Christmas decorations this year. I suppose the town leaders thought the decorations for Christmas meant good times, joy, pleasures in abundance. Long forgotten, perhaps, is that the red of Christmas is for Christ’s blood, and that what we celebrate is not a party, not a good time here, but the reality of God coming to free us from evil by dying for us. Some will say of mass murder: What evil? “Just mental derangement.” If the slaughter of innocent little ones was not evil, what would be? Evil is a lack of goodness--and extreme evil, such as we saw in Newtown, displays a radical lack of goodness, and most likely a deliberate and sustained playing with evil in various forms. If this inverted, radically fallen Adam did indeed spend hours with violent video games in which murdering human beings was made a sport, and “fun,” should we be surprised that a sick mind would attempt similar deeds in “real time”?

In the face of evil, should we refuse to celebrate Christmas? Should we strip down our churches and homes because of so much evil in this world, even at times in our hearts and minds? Or should we all the more renounce the darkness within ourselves and in our human condition, and turn again and again, with longing cries, towards the Light that no darkness can ever overcome? Stripping away Christmas decorations in the face of evil shows that the officials calling for de-decorating do not understand the meaning of Christmas at all. Folks expected Christmas to mean parties, and booze, and care-free laughter. Now they wonder: Who can have “fun” when murder destroys so many lives? We need Christ far more than most people realize. Without Christ, we would all be like that radically fallen Adam in Connecticut.

"O Israel, Prepare To Meet Thy God"

Driving through Colorado in the 1970’s, a sign on a barn caught my attention. Weather-beaten, dangling from the sagging old barn the sign warned: “O Israel, prepare to meet thy God!” The sign’s dilapidated condition added authenticity and urgency to its message, penetrating the heart. I stopped my car and photographed the sign, whose message was made more poignantly powerful and effective by its fading condition. Recognizing the words of the prophet Amos, I realized that I, too, living in withering time, stand exposed not only to the elements, but to the approaching Judgement of God. Although a young man in my twenties, I knew that I could escape neither the ravages of time nor the pending Judgment of meeting God “face to face.” The thought that life is brief indeed, that very soon in the sweep of time I would die, and must live now prepared for that reality, burned itself into my mind as I headed back towards our family home in Missoula.

Advent-Christmas tells a similar message, if we will but listen. The world and all we know of it is passing away. “You see this building? Not one stone will be left on another.” “Even now the ax is laid to the root of the tree.” In its sober wisdom, the Church’s ancient tradition proclaims the ever-pending end of the world as we know it, and God’s Judgment, at the same time we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ. Lest we turn our eyes away from the truth of passing reality, the day following Christmas the Church celebrates the death of Stephen, the first disciple to be martyred for his faith in Christ. Death in the world / life in God remain the two inextricably bound themes of Advent-Christmas. The poet T. S. Eliot gives voice to the wise men who travelled to Bethlehem to witness Christ’s birth:

“... Were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different: this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.” (Journey of the Magi)

Many of us clutch our gods on the edge of death: beer, mixed drinks, perhaps other drugs to numb awareness of the encircling night. “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow....”

The birth of Christ is joy to those on their journey into God.

Advent and "The Coming of God"

“It promises more than it can deliver.” That saying seems to apply to Advent. In the Advent season, Liturgy and Scriptures speak poetically and powerfully about “the coming of God,” about “the Kingdom of God is at hand,” about a divine renewal and transformation of the earth, about the destruction of our sins, and so on. Our faithful are encouraged to pray more, to be watchful for the coming of the LORD, to seek more silence, to be more disciplined in mind and body.

But what happens? Shopping, parties, sporting events, busyness, chattiness, boozing, and deepening darkness as we approach the solstice. What happened to the “coming of God?” Did we miss it? Perhaps “we had the experience but missed the meaning.” Or perhaps we did not experience God’s coming at all. Maybe we were just too busy to be bothered about God.

Speaking for myself, I have usually been disappointed by Advent. It promises to be a supremely beautiful, peaceful, contemplative season. What a contrast with what we have made of our religious services, of our whole lives, and perhaps especially in Advent. As a priest working in parishes, I have long found Advent to be exhausting, with extra Masses, extra reconciliation services, extra home visits, and the growing tension of Christmas. What I have looked forward to is less than coming of God than the passing of Christmas for another year. January is often more sweetly quiet and bright compared to the noise, busyness, and deepening darkness of December.

If there is some truth to these observations, what can one do to make Advent truly a season of waiting for the coming of God? In larger terms, how should one live in the face of society’s noise and “good times,” or indeed, the madness of this passing world?

Seek to keep returning to the truth of reality: God is here now, quietly waiting for a soul to enter into His peace, His love, His joy. As the waves are crashing, one must dive beneath the waves, and enter into the divine silence. Is it easy? No way, especially when we have constructed lives aiming to drown out peace and silence. We light little fires and little lights, and consume distilled spirits, rather than seek through the darkness to the inner Light, by the help of the stilling Spirit.

You who are, draw me by your Spirit away from all that passes, into your unseen Presence. Draw hard, LORD, for powerful forces would drag me away from You. Give me the desire, the will, the grace to keep seeking to enter your peace. Even in the midst of daily duties and occasional celebrations, help me to be mindful of You, drawing me to Yourself.

You are here, even when we are not.

Brief Thoughts On Decadent American Culture

Nothing that exists can or will be complete as long as it exists--not even the whole universe.  Hence, this thought cannot be complete, this essay cannot be complete.  Not only is everything in process, but the process will never be completed, as long as it exists.  

Given incompleteness and imperfection, is there anything worth writing about American culture and its decadence, or is it futile to set forth any thought on the subject?  Why bother?  Those who experience American culture as decadent do not need to be persuaded of the fact, and those who do not experience American culture as decadent or dying would most likely not be persuaded by words.  If one cannot see, feel, experience the decadent culture in which we exist, as decadent, as damaging to human well-being, then what can one possibly say to convince them?

What do I experience, concretely, really, that leads me to want to resist this culture? I see and feel its ugliness, brutality, untruthfulness, destructive powers. Many of the words I hear spoken are foolish, or unthinking, or misleading, or (in the case of successful politicians), deceptive and blinding.  When I listen to the President of this country speak, I virtually nothing to which my mind can say, “That is true.”  I experience from his words a flood of words that raise many questions, befog the mind from thinking, mislead, occasionally bedazzle by mere cleverness.  If this President is not a sophistic intellectual, perhaps of the Gnostic variety, I really cannot imagine who would be.  And yet, so many follow, praising him as a “great orator,” as a “political leader,” even as “a genius.”  Who is more foolish, the deceptive speaker or the deceived masses?  

The lies and deceptions of leading politicians are one recurring sign, unpleasant sign, of this decadent society.  Other reminders are even more prevalent:  ugly, sick, often angry sounds that get sold to the masses and elites alike as “music.”  When I hear these sounds, I often begin to cringe, as they immediately cause mental confusion.  “American music”--pop, rock, whatever it is called--is not only enormously mindless, but drowns out mental peace required for thinking.  And that is perhaps one of its purposes.  The main purpose may well be simply to make money, for making money is an American obsession.  This music sells, and makes much money, because it appeals to minds already debased, fragmented, immersed in utter temporality, without hints of striving for beauty and what endures.  Any sane, sober-minded soul, experiencing contemporary American mass music for the first time, would probably assume that it was concocted to cause pain and mental confusion.  No relatively healthy soul would not experience these sounds as sick and disturbing.  And yet, rarely do I hear anyone in this country comment on the sickness, ugliness, anger, brutality in our music.  Rather, it often gets praised as “fun,” as “popular,” as “invigorating.”  Well, as Heracleitos said, “asses prefer straw to gold.”  I would go further:  As dead bodies do not experience influenza as illness, dead or dying souls do not experience this disgusting American “music” as destructive.  An alcoholic, trapped in his or her illness, does not realize--or admit--the destructive power of drinking alcohol.  A sick or unliving mind does not experience destructive sounds for what they are.  

What does the disease of American music tell one about American culture, and more importantly, about the souls or minds that make up this culture?  First, there are surely a number of folks--mainly older, and probably away from urban life--who refuse to indulge in this “music.”  They do not listen to it, unless it is blared on TV sets, even during commercials.  (Often when someone is talking on a television show or commercial, this propagandistic, mind-damaging music blares in the background, nearly drowning out words.)  As for the vast masses who indulge in this music willing:  Are they dead souls, or do they just smell of death?  They are decaying, rotting, even if not fully dead yet.  Anyone with a nose can smell the stench of these souls, these shrunken sounds, and malformed minds, that willingly indulge in listening to mass-produced “music.”  What does the predominance of such “music” say?  At the very least, it indicates a lack of mental development allowing one to discern ugliness from beauty, ordering forces from those that destroy.  What does this “music” say about parents who allow their children to listen to it, to immerse their minds in it?  Is not this neglect of their children’s right mental development a real form of child abuse?  But then, most of the parents probably indulge in the same or similar “music,” so they do not have the interior standards by which to taste, to discern, the poison being taken in by their children.  

Of the decadence of such “music,” and its bad effects, I could write much more.  But let me pass on to other forms and causes of spiritual and mental disorder in American society.  

Selfism is what I call the religion of America.  Most people are, or seem to be, immersed in self, wallowing in self, entrapped in self.  Most Americans--or at least, the political leaders and elites who speak for and to the masses--are self-referential, self-absorbed, self-promoting.  As typical examples of this cult of self, one needs only call to mind Bill Clinton or other the present demagogue in the White House.  Their love is clearly for power and public acclaim.  They seek at all costs to gain power and worship by the masses.  They are drunk on power, but underneath that drive is their self-absorption.  They will say and do anything to get public attention, approval, power.  These are the wild beasts who not only feed at the public trough, but who have powerful means to broadcast themselves into everyman’s life.  At the least they are demagogues; at the worst, tyrants.  In either case, these men are American:  they embody, express, and further the American trait of self-worship.  

How does selfism show up in the masses?  It shows up in the addiction to pleasure, sports, and entertainment:  indulging one’s fleeting desires and interests at the expense of mental development.  The self that is cultivated is not the higher self of reason and spirit, but the passing self of passions, images, wants, pleasures.  As far as I know, most Americans, when not working or sleeping, are indulging their desires for pleasure, evidenced by promiscuity, sexual perversions, addiction to TV and mass entertainment, addiction to sports, even addiction to children and grand-children to an unhealthy degree.  I know people who will drive hundreds of miles (even in dangerous conditions) in order to attend some “sporting event” in which a family member is sharing.  And they think that such behavior is “good.”  Would it occur to them that they could spend that time working or learning, or even getting good exercise out in nature? 

Actually, enough said. Thinking and writing about the decadence of American culture is distasteful and in large measure a waste of time. Who could be persuaded that hours spent indulging in entertainment, sports, music, and so on, are largely wasted?  Who understands that time wasted is time lost for mental and spiritual development?  What good could come from warning men who are playing in a sand-box?  Or simply falling to asleep on the edge of a cliff?