Friday 25 April 2008

Here is the continuation of yesterday's piece.



Nothing could be more alien to contemplation than the cogito ergo sum of Descartes. "I think, therefore I am." This is the declaration of an alienated being, in exile from his own spiritual depths, compelled to seek some comfort in a proof for his own existence(!) based on the observation that he "thinks." If his thought is necessary as a medium through which he arrives at the concept of his existence, then he is in fact only moving further away from his true being. He is reducing himself to a concept. He is making it impossible for himself to experience, directly and immediately, the mystery of his own being. At the same time, by also reducing God to a concept, he makes it impossible for himself to have any intuition of the divine reality which is inexpressible. He arrives at his own being as if it were an objective reality, that is to say he strives to become aware of himself as he would of some "thing" alien to himself. And he proves that the "thing" exists. He convinces himself: "I am therefore some thing." And then he goes on to convince himself that God, the infinite, the transcendent, is also a "thing," an "object," like other finite and limited objects of our thought.

This sounds as though God is able to be put in our pocket. We know God...we own God...God is ours. Isn't this what so many religious people do?! Rather than let there be the mystery that there is, it is as though we must label everything. Once that is done - once we have God labeled just as we would like - there is no room for new revelation. Even when we consider Christian theology and that we come to know God through the life of Jesus, we are not saying we know God completely. We are simply going to a beginning point and coming away with a notion of both Jesus and then of God also. We still must wrestle and contemplate what the fullness of God is beyond the stories we hear of Jesus...and the stories of the unfolding of the Church. Too many people are afraid to let go of the drive to objectify God and one another...therefore, we do not wonder as we might.

Connection: Let you wondering go beyond what you already think you have nailed down.

Lift us up, O God, and inspire us to look beyond what we can see now and take into our vision that which we cannot even consider at this moment. And then, be with us as we discover more of the fullness of your Reign. Amen.