Goodbye to all that

 

Well, finally I am able to dip into the Christian New Testament without an undercurrent of memories and associations surfacing from days gone by, when I got involved with a fundamentalist sect of "One Way" born-againers. My involvement never lasted long - any mind/heart, truly open to the Spirit (as we all are), must surely see through the sheer travesty of the theology championed by such people.

"One Way". Their way! In subsequent discussions with such, on various forums, I have often tried to argue that the "One Way" can never be some theological formula or creed, can not even be encapsulated into words at all. And in a way, they have often agreed, speaking of the necessity of a personal relationship with Jesus. But sadly, they cannot see the implications of this. If this "relationship" is not compatible with a whole string of Bible verses - not compatible in fact with their very own life experience - it is denounced and rejected.

Thomas Merton:- 

But the magicians keep turning the Cross to their own purpose. Yes, it is for them too a sign of contradiction: the awful blasphemy of the religious magician who makes the Cross contradict mercy. This of course is the ultimate temptation of Christianity. To say that Christ has locked all doors, has given one answer, settled everything and departed, leaving all life enclosed in the frightful consistency of a system outside of which there is seriousness and damnation, inside of which there is the intolerable flippancy of the saved - while nowhere is there any place left for the mystery of the freedom of divine mercy which alone is truly serious, and worthy of being taken seriously.

Flippancy

Once or twice I have quoted bits and pieces of Merton to the ardent fundamentalists and he has been  dismissed as "facile" and of no consequence, one person even insisting that he should have been thrown out of his monastery because of certain improprieties! Talk about mercy! 

In the beginning

But whatever, I could drone on, but I do finally think/find that the "flippancy" of the self-proclaimed "saved" has been washed out of my system. I can read the prologue to St John's Gospel and hear the echoes of so many words and thoughts and beliefs of so many of our world's great faith traditions. There is a Living Truth beyond the words, yet always, paradoxically, found in them. 

Looking for the deed?

What exactly the Living Truth is awaits the next moment, the next relationship, the next exchange of words with others, our next activity in this world, where nirvana and samsara are "one" (not two!)

In the beginning was the Word, or as Goethe has said:-

In the beginning was the deed.

Deed and word as "one".

Related Quotes:-

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.

(St John's Gospel)

It is my belief that we should not be too sure of having found Christ in ourselves until we have found him also in the part of humanity that is most remote from our own........God speaks, and God is to be heard, not only on Sinai, not only in my own heart, by in the voice of the stranger.

(Thomas Merton, from "Emblems of a Season of Fury")