The Heart of Matter: Birthing
Tuesday, March 22nd
“We have ‘de-incarnated’ God and are now left with a planet stripped of spiritual soul. Is there hope? Yes, where there is God, there is hope and future, but the Gospel message is clear: hope is what dawns when new wine is put into new wineskins. The old must die for the new to be born. So let us be attentive and be ready for the birth of the new in our midst”
—Ilia Delio, Lent: Poised for Action
“Hemos ‘des-encarnado’ a Dios y ahora lo que nos queda es un planeta sin alma espiritual. ¿Habrá esperanza? Sí, allí donde está Dios hay esperanza y futuro. Pero el mensaje del Evangelio es claro: la esperanza es lo que surge cuando ponemos vino nuevo en odres nuevos. Lo viejo debe morir para que nazca lo nuevo. Así que estemos atentos y preparados para el nacimiento de lo nuevo en medio de nosotros.”
—Ilia Delio, Lent: Poised for Action
Incarnational Practice: Birthing
What better time than Lent to take a look at our old wineskins and replace them with new ones. As we watch the first spring blooms being born, let us be attentive to what is birthing in our own lives. What tastes bitter and requires a new container? What does this new wineskin look like?
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What is being revealed? What is being moved? What is being asked?
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Most of the deformation and clouding of Christianity has come about because man found it difficult to take in the full truth of God-manhood.
Berdyaev, Nicholas. The Fate of Man in the Modern World . 1935,Read Books Ltd.. Kindle Edition.
Teilhard wanted to change the old scholastics medieval wineskins… and the challenge is still there.
In my view, considering the stretch of history, and my own experience, it does not appear that a “new wineskin” can be acquired immediately. It requires recognizing oneself as God’s Child/God’s Love…rather than an individual “body/individual/Ego”. And that process involves forgiveness…forgiveness of ourselves for imagining such separation; forgiveness for the guilt, fear, and anger of the ego that that imagining entailed; and forgiveness as recognition that this world is but a bad dream we have made up…and that our essence/truth…is our Oneness with God. To create such new “wineskin” then in my view, is a moment to moment process…of noting where I feel guilt, anger, fear…and the false ego interpretation that caused it….and with the help of Jesus or other spiritual master, and the Holy Spirit within….to find and feel the Loving essence within. Frequently, if not always, that false ego interpretation is simply not recognizing that everyone (and myself) is either coming from love…or is coming from a call for love…and that call for love is due to one’s lack of recognition of one’s loving spiritual truth.
The contemplative spiritual journey is truly having faith and openness to God’s healing, transformative, and Loving Creative Spirit within and among us and All Creation~Cosmos as conscious co-Creators in the Sacred Process of the Eternal Present Moment….
Even Jesus said of his human sense of self that he “could do nothing” in his Father’s name without first absenting it and it’s earthly attachments as primary, as that self is perverse in what it sees, thinks, values and attaches to by comparison. Only a total cleansing of the inner temple’s rummage will do, including attachments institutional forms of religion (old wineskins) that short-circuit the deep soul’s natural generative, rebirthing and creative powers. Said the Christ in Jesus, having experienced same, few are equal to trusting this unpleasant mortifying task as ‘the Way’ to spiritual transformation and identity. “Remove the dross from the silver, and the silversmith can produce a vessel” (Pr. 25:4).
Our eco-spirituality centre is being sold by the owner’s who have encouraged the growth of our Earth Community. But we are now faced with possibility of rebirthing the community without a sacred space to use as a retreat centre and base for a sizeable non-resident community who meet once a month. As unfair as this situation seems, it is pregnant with possibility of continuing under new ownership if we can find the some buyers sympathetic to our organisation in the next few months or as is increasingly likely continuing in a new form without a permanent sacred space. As I write I am wondering what our new wine skin might look like? We are already planning to leave the old.