of The Stations

I’ve written a book of spiritual fiction:  The  Stations: by B. Sabonis-Chafee*

I don’t think it has yet found its audience, or been realized for what it is.  It is a story, yes . . . but more, it's a spiritual journey.

It is set between 1951 and 1999 (beginning before Vatican II and ending before the arrival of the 21^st Century).

This story is written in honor of Jesuit priest and Paleontologist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.  Teilhard saw and understood before others the meaning of evolution and human freedom.  He died in 1955 in N.Y. City where he had been exiled by the Church and the Order that he loved, having been forbidden to publish any of his writings (some 20 volumes).  He sacrificed himself because he knew the truth of the Science he had studied and the Religion he had embraced.  He held the faith that because ‘God is Truth’, therefore the truth he’d been privileged to understand would survive his death.  Immediately following his death—when his Jesuit Order and the Vatican were no longer controlling—those not so confined began publishing his works, which are now held in high esteem.  His vision is of unity; leading humanity to realize that our world is a singular interacting unit and that Science and Religion are not in conflict—rather, they are two sides of the same coin of human knowledge and understanding.

The book I have written is not about Teilhard but rather about a fictional artist who is commissioned to create grand Stations of the Cross for a proposed shrine.  In the story, as the artist searched for what he is to say with these stations he suffers a ‘dark night of the soul’ before he awakens to what Teilhard was pointing to, and he, like Teilhard meets resistance as he gives expression to the interconnectedness and interdependence of all life in our one world.  His stations exemplify the range of human potential—its wonders and its horrors—which IS the story of Jesus’ Passion.

Throughout the story each station is described with both its traditional and contemporary theme as the artist seeks to move others to realizing what we are, who we are and how we relate to the God of the Universe.

                                                                                                         * available: Amazon.com

Of Human Progress

There is meaning to life.  Throughout time consciousness is expanding toward a goal and humanity is progressing.  Most human progress is so gradual it goes unnoticed in day-to-day affairs.   Some even argue there is no progress—but if we make it a point to look carefully at where we are now as compared to where we have been the picture changes.

Let’s begin with considering that in primitive man, the earliest signs of awareness and consciousness were directed toward nature and survival.  His identity was not personal but rather as part of a tribe or clan wherein all outsiders were considered ‘enemy’.  At what point was there a growing longing for ‘something more’?  We can’t see back that far but get hints from stories and myths carried forward in the oral tradition (such as Gilgamesh and various Creation stories). 

Then a phenomenon occurred during the first millennium BCE, roughly between 800-200 BC, there was a change in human consciousness throughout most of the inhabited world.  It was the period of time in which rigid and closed tribalism gave way to dynamic human interaction that became civilization as we know it.  That period is now called the Axial Age, so named by the philosopher Karl Jasper in 1870 as that period represents a pivotal change in human thought with the birth of philosophy and all major religions.  Jasper wrote: “The spiritual foundations of humanity were laid simultaneously and independently in China, India, Persia, Judea and Greece.  And these are the foundations upon which humanity still subsists today.”

That in itself seems curious . . . there was no intercommunication between these remote areas, yet it was almost as if it were ‘time for humanity to wake up’.  What caused the awakening? . . . the seed to break out of its shell, the butterfly to emerge from its chrysalis? . . . Clearly the time had arrived!  Was it the invisible hand of God guiding humanity to the next step needed for civilization to emerge?  Or was it simply what was required by the circumstances of having become more densely packed?  Or was it individual persons thinking more deeply about the ‘something’ of their longing?  Or was it all of that together?  Whatever the forces at work, it happened; there was a consciousness change that brought deep questions, a searching for meaning and the discovery of selfhood apart from ‘tribe’.

Now, lets look at what might be considered human progress.  It is easy to acknowledge technological advances—things that didn’t exist but once discovered changed humanity and the world:  the humble loom, printing press, steam engines, the sewing machine, electricity, telegraph & telephone, airplane, computer . . . all introduced by the human.

Those are things produced by human ingenuity and are readily accepted as examples of progress because of the direct benefit they give.  The human progress is less obvious, moves at a slower pace and is resisted because it comes at a cost and demands change.  But we can chart its progress:  Where there was once unrestrained use of brute force to overpower neighboring territories to rape and plunder and lay claim . . . that mitigated to a less obvious conquest mentality of explorers planting a national flag and ‘claiming’ a newly discovered ‘primitive lands’, pushing back or enslaving the natives . . . which changed again with developed nations ‘colonizing’ territories, treating the natives a bit more kindly and ‘civilizing’ them while harvesting whatever valuable resources the land had to offer (not exactly embracing humanitarian compassion but baby steps to ‘less cruel’) . . . and now, colonization is frowned upon and technically abandoned in the 20^th Century—the increasing respect for human rights shows advancement.

Social change is slow and hard fought but when evaluated through the eye of justice, and given time, we come to the right conclusion.  Slavery was an institution since the beginning of time, yet in the mid-1800, following a bloody war it was finally acknowledged by society that slavery was incompatible with civilization.  That view, however, did not extend to discrimination which took another 100 years to reach public awareness as unjust and was overthrown without violence by way of peace marches led by Martin Luther King Jr.  There is so much more yet to be done but this gives evidence to humanity’s progress.  In one of Dr. King’s inspiring speeches he spoke these words:  “The Arc of the Moral Universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”  That is the nature of human progress—humankind choosing to move toward Justice, Truth and Love is the expansion of consciousness.

Other examples:

            --endorsing education for all, not just the privileged

            -- realizing an obligation to care for the sick and wounded

            -- philanthropic concern for those in need

            --the UN formulating the Declaration of Human Rights

            -- using diplomacy and striving to end war

These give evidence to human progress—to become less cruel and more compassionate, to move toward positive values . . . it will never be complete and never absolute but progress is measured by humans collectively choosing for the good.

The God We Need

In my previous entry here (America in Crisis 7/16/17) I began with the statement: “We need God”, and went on to say: “not as interpreted by specific religions”.  That is not to suggest institutional religions are without value, for institutions are a necessary part of civilization.  All institutions are human constructs, bringing frameworks of order to society.  “Religion” is the name given to the larger category of ways that focus on how we are to relate to God.  Each specific religion has designated ways to worship involving rules and demands.

God does not demand, God only invites—as Jesus demonstrated.  God is beyond human comprehension, yet so often religions assume to know the unknowable.  A ‘god concept’ symbolizes our unknowing; a formless nameless way that leaves institutional demands behind and is focused on those qualities we believe to be ‘of God’ as we understand God to be.  We have come to believe God’s qualities to be Truth, Justice, Compassion, Mercy, Love and all goodness.  That is the God we need.

In a prior entry here (God Search 6/28/17) I wrote of humankind’s insatiable desire for ‘something more’.  We need hope we need purpose and meaning.  A god concept carries the highest values we wish to embody.  We need reminding of them.  Without a means of calling those values to mind, they recede from our awareness.  As a nation we have retreated not only from religion, but also from our fundamental values.  In stepping back from involving God in our daily lives we’ve lost sight of truth, honesty, compassion and goodness.

Our last election process was an embarrassment of insults, lies and slanderous innuendoes—for the most part we didn’t raise objections, we just shrugged and looked the other way. 

We’ve made a collective mistake in backing away from God and we are suffering the consequence by now finding our government in turmoil.

Honesty, integrity and sincerity should be the first consideration when selecting a president.  Without taking into account principles of Truth and Justice to guide us, we chose as candidate and then elected a monumentally unqualified man to lead the country—the one who shouted the loudest!  The issue is not about the party he belongs to but about the character of the individual.  His dishonesty, lack of integrity and excess egotism were on display throughout the campaign and yet he was elected.

This crisis is not just about our government it is about our souls.

From my first blog entry of 8/19/13 here are the final lines from my poem

                                                                ‘Un-named God’

- - -

But you are the un-named God

The soul-giver

I know you by your absence

When we turn from you

We dispossess our souls

soon to discover

             we are the hollow men.

Without you we cannot save ourselves

                                             from ourselves.

  Only in your presence do we partake of the mystery,

                                        Only in your presence do we reach beyond ourselves,
                                        Only in your presence do we find fulfillment .

America in Crisis

What is my bottom line?  What is it that I will continue to defend after all else fails?  It is the simple statement: ‘We need God.’  I’ve heard it said that if there wasn’t a God, we’d have to create one.

We need God, not as interpreted by specific religions which are often overlaid with human images that serve their own advantage, but the fundamental ‘god concept’ that points to the values of goodness, truth and moral order—without that we cannot build a just world.

In searching to understand life we often rely on symbols to relay complex concepts.  Symbols reach beyond the limits of words, going deeper into the unconscious; their disavowal can damage the psyche.  The Statue of Liberty speaks to us of America, a flag identifies a nation, and a god concept—the symbol for a God beyond our knowing—represents ultimate values. 

When America’s founding fathers were forming this nation they freely spoke of God; even our money carries the motto ‘in God we trust’.  Sometime in the 20^th Century we began to retreat form associating with God.  In today’s world we are prohibited from praying in schools or public assemblies and visual references to God have been removed (i.e. the 10 Commandments in courtrooms and Christmas nativity scenes on public greens).  That sends the message—intended or not—that ‘things of God are to be avoided’.  By outlawing references to God we have lost sight of the positive values that a god concept represents, so our children grow up without a frame of reference focused on the good, the right, the just and moral values.

Turn back to the statement ‘if there wasn’t a God we’d have to create one’—isn’t that what we’re doing in our pursuit of human rights?  We (but not all) have thus far recognized that we must abolish slavery; grant full personhood to all apart from race, gender, creed etc.; we also recognize that the sick and injured are to be cared for, not ‘abandoned to fate’; that education be available to all; and those in need be helped to find the way to self-sufficiency . . . these humanitarian concerns arise from what has always been of concern to religions in their seeking for God, these choices are examples of the god concept at work—freed from the limitations of individual denominational restrictions.  We recognize them as core values.  In effect, as we accept them, we are ‘creating God’ within ourselves—and God is OK with that!

With this last election our nation has taken a backward step to further retreat from God.  If we look we can see a major turn has occurred, away from humanitarian concerns, toward corporate interests.  I understand that economics, industrial and national interests also require attention, but not ‘instead of’, ‘more than’ and ‘at the expense of’ humanitarian concerns.  And so many of Trump’s executive actions have more the flavor of vengefulness than concern for public welfare, especially withdrawing from the Paris Accord and canceling the clean air act.

In this backward step, another danger has surfaced.  The current political entanglements involving Russian meddling in our election process is not a ‘small thing’, a ‘nothing’ to be swept under the rug so we can go on to ‘real problems’—this is a major crisis America faces.  There is something very wrong here when our election process is under attack, and this administration sees no cause for alarm!

This Friday (7/14/17) I watched The News Hour on PBS.  In the discussions they touched on several issues including the administration’s disparaging of the US Intelligence agencies, their repeated attack on the news media accusing it of ‘fake news’, and the latest disclosures in Donald Trump Jr’s emails with focus on his utter disregard for the seriousness of the situation; he offers no apology, shows no regret, brushes it off as ‘nothing’ because ’nothing came of it’, gives no evidence of having overcome any scruples and sees nothing wrong.  This points to something sinister we saw earlier in the campaign when the drive to win obscured human decency.  I quote David Brooks (NY Times columnist) . . . “this is a zone beyond any ethical scruples, it all about winning.”  He also quoted someone whose name I didn’t catch, but I offer it as something to ponder: “If you make losing a sin, you make cheating a sacrament.”

If this is where we are, America is indeed in crisis.

God Search

Within the human species there is an insatiable desire to know, understand and draw conclusions—some call that a ‘God Search’.  It requires quiet time, but in this crazy fast-paced world of information overload, who has that quiet time?  And that search has been relegated to ‘unimportant’ in our secular world . . . but is it?

We all know that life is a limited experience.  We each come into being by way of an unfathomable chain of events; then, unknown circumstances will play upon us until the inevitable extinguishing of our mortal self.  We know this, but do we actually realize it?  Fact:  with few exceptions, the allotted time for each of us averages some 75-85 years and only rarely exceeds 100.  Such a tiny piece of time!  Individually we enter and exit the flow of life that stretches beyond our vision in both directions, backward and forward.   Why are we here so briefly? Why do we have consciousness to ask the question ‘Why’?

The majority of people are unconcerned about deep questions of existence, they are engaged in the survival struggle and ask only questions about immediate concerns . . . but for those who do ask the deep questions there seems to be two conflicting answers.  The first answer that came long ago, was to consider that some guiding spirit or spirits ‘made things happen’, controlling and watching the human struggle.  The spirits were identified differently by different groups of people, but the unifying idea was of ‘something more’.  The second answer came later, it was to consider that there are no spirit guides, humanity is alone in a meaningless universe without pattern or purpose—life appeared on this planet through random happenstance.  Our coming and going is just that brief experience without value, purpose or hope.

We seem to be caught between those two answers even if we personally aren’t engaged in the search.  The first answer seemed to offer hope and promise in the ‘something more’, but it became tangled in the definitions and rules of the institutions that grew around the idea.  The second answer came supported by science and seemed lofty, intelligent and, Oh so rational!—but dark and unsatisfying . . . Nothing more?  Meaninglessness?

Currently, among progressive thinkers a new question is being raised:  Are we experiencing another Axial Age?  A pivotal time when there is a fundamental shift in thinking about the universe and our part in it?  So, to address the question below that question, what IS an Axial Age?

The German philosopher Karl Jasper coined the term Axial Age in reference to the period of time roughly between 800-200 B.C.  He wrote: “The spiritual foundations of humanity were laid simultaneously and independently throughout most of the inhabited world” . . . in that time the great intellectual, philosophical and religious systems emerged [i.e. Greek philosophers, Hebrew prophets, Confucius and Lao-Tzu in China, the Buddha in India, Zoroaster in Persia . . .] that shaped subsequent human society and culture.  Each chose different patterns of behavior yet held similar attitudes of respectful relationships and ultimate concerns beyond mere survival.  There was a shift or turn away from the violence of mere self-preservation characteristic of tribalism, shifting to living cooperatively with those who were different and speculating about the fate of humanity.  There emerged a new concern for the individual person evidenced by some form of the ‘Golden Rule’ expressed in each of the cultures. (“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.) 

The New World Encyclopedia defines this era as: “the time in which all foundations that underlie current civilization came into being.  The Axial Age plays a central, foundational, or crucial role in human history.”

What is the significance of the Axial Age with regards to the God search?  It is a piece of evidence that supports the hopeful position that life is unfolding in accordance to a discernible pattern or plan.  From the study of science we see and understand life has evolved from simple to complex forms; when we observe long-term human behavior we can see a pattern of advancement from lower to higher states of consciousness.  The 1^st Axial Age shows that without direct communication, these diverse groups of people, although isolated from each other, chose advancement from barbarism to civilization—it implies a knowing directive force behind the flow of history, and bespeaks intentionality that affirms a God leading humanity to a higher purpose.