This is my final reflection from the Trinity Prayer (see two
prior entries)
--as Sanctifier, ever-present Holy
Spirit, The Divine Milieu enveloping
us in your love and giving guidance
to those who seek your council.
We live in the Divine Milieu—within God who surrounds and
permeates all that is. The dictionary
definition of Spirit is: ‘the vital
principle or animating force within living beings’. To sanctify ‘is to recognize as holy’. God, the third way you manifest yourself to
us is as Holy Spirit. It is you, God,
who calls us to realize the sacred wonder of life and our world. You made humankind to evolve in
consciousness, gradually awakening to what and who we are—you offer guidance, never imposing it—that
is the basis of our free will.
We struggle to give expression to the intangible . . .
elusive, yet more real than all we can touch, weigh and measure. Spirit has neither shape nor form; without
parameters, it simply IS—like light and breath; a non-material dimension that can’t
be captured and contained; the ‘within’ (Teilhard’s word) that permeates our
material being and animates it. Is that
not life itself which we cannot fully
comprehend? We experience it, know it’s
reality by living it, recognize its presence or absence, can enumerate its
requirements, chart its functions and its effects, but cannot explain the why
of it by the science we have developed.
If we can’t even understand life although we live it, why does it
surprise us when we can’t understand God?
God, you are mystery beyond our capacity to fathom but what
we do know is that we exist and live
on a planet that we didn’t create yet continue to shape by our collective
action, located within a galaxy dwarfed by an unimaginable expanding universe .
. . and that awareness draws me to awe and thanksgiving for the wonder of it. Thank you, source of all being.
Over the centuries of our development men have tried to ‘capture’
god with images, explanations and rules of exclusivity. As our knowledge
increased (mainly by science that weighs and measures everything), the
explanations of gods seemed no longer believable for they divided people and sought
to impose shape and form upon spirit. Many
people began to conclude: “since there are so many conflicting views and we
can’t prove god’s existence, god must be an illusion.”
The ‘within’ in the human is consciousness, said to be the
‘spark of God’ that produces thought.
Thought reaches for understanding—(to know all: all of life and time and
being) and to love—(seek goodness for self, others and all). With our consciousness and free will,
humanity does and will continue to create the world we occupy. We reflect God’s love by using our freedom to
choose only ‘the good’ and create a world in harmony. (A work-in-progress)
A new understanding of God is needed in the 21st
Century.
What are we to salvage from the many ways of explaining God?
God is
Spirit and Spirit is Being itself.
--Life—we
have it (till we don’t??—no certainty of ‘after’)
--Light—is
everywhere all at once
--Breath—we
explain about oxygen and circulation
.
. . but why and how does fragile breath sustain life?
--Consciousness/Thought—expands
exponentially
.
. . and calories and chemicals can’t justify it.
--Love—the
desire for goodness for another
It is said: God is Love; God is Life; God is Truth; God is
Being
The Bible quotes God’s self-identification as: I AM that I AM