What a glorious opening to the Lenten Season! As I sit in prayer this morning, I feel the beginnings of new growth taking root, perhaps in its earliest stages…the seeds of a new consciousness are being planted. In my morning prayers, I know for each of us an unshakable Faith and committed Willingness to let go of what no longer serves our lives or the life of our planet AND a wholehearted and Grace-filled movement into greater Love, Compassion, Peace, Generosity, Freedom, and Abundance! I let it be here, I let it be now, I let it be…Amen.
As we step gently into the first day of Lent for 2021, I am drawn to make reference to a new book released yesterday by Fr. Richard Rohr and Patrick Boland. It is called Everything is Sacred: 40 Practices and Reflections on the Universal Christ. Being that it contains 40 daily points of contemplation, I thought it would make a nice springboard for this season. This book is absolutely contemporary and applicable to our times. And Fr. Richard Rohr is one of the leading voices in Incarnational Christianity and Integral Spirituality in the world today. I trust that as I use Patrick Boland’s reflections, adding to them from my own study and experience, you will find this to be a gentle guide through this season of growth and transformation.
As I stated yesterday, the journey through the Lenten Season, for the Spiritually Independent person, might be a letting go of what no longer serves, and of welcoming and embracing new ways of thinking and being that more closely resemble alignment with our highest ideals, or maybe even with Spirit’s Highest Ideals for our lives…otherwise known as the Christ Consciousness within. If we choose to, we devote ourselves to the real transformation of our human stories, so that at the end of this 40-Day Journey, we find ourselves changed. And of course, when we change, so does our world…in big ways and small. Wait, wait, wait! Did you say changed? There is that C-word again. No worries…just take is slow. Let it be gentle, let it be easy. Here we go!
Let’s begin today by looking at our worldview, at the lenses through which we see our world. Fr. Richard says that “Your world view is not what you look at; it is what you look out from, or look through.” We each have a worldview that is absolutely unique to us. Looking at my own life, I believe there may have been remnants from past lifetimes that were present at birth. Then I was born into whatever race consciousness was present in the world I was born into…a female child of barely-adult parents in the United States in 1964. Add to that my early experiences…parents and family dynamics, extended family, school, church, friends. As I grew, I was shaped by the world around me, as well…peer pressure and media are two powerful influences that come to mind. Then in early adulthood, I chose to enter college, which opened my eyes to an even greater experience of the world. And finally, along life’s journey, as a late twenty-something, I discovered Spirituality, which continues to open and stretch my worldview to this day. And it is my sincere hope that I will continue to allow myself to be challenged and changed until the last days of this parenthesis in eternity (borrowed from Joel S. Goldsmith).
In the Appendix I of his book The Universal Christ, Fr. Richard lists what he sees as The Four Worldviews. Keep in mind that each of us sees through the filters provided by each of these views at one time or another. We may have had tendencies toward one during an earlier stage of life, and then shifted to another as situations and conditions changed and our understanding was challenged to adapt. Also, all of these worldviews have what we might call positive and negative aspects or impacts. None is presented as better than any other. “Some people represent the best of all of them, or combine several somehow, allowing them to cross religious, intellectual, and ethnic boundaries.” While none of them is all-good or all-bad, at each stage of life, and in every situation, one of these worldviews will be more helpful than the others in helping us to navigate. Let’s take a look, reflecting on where these varying perspectives have served our lives, where they may still be serving, or where we may be ready to shift to another.
The materialistic worldview sees the outer, visible world as the real world. Science, engineering, medicine, and much of what we might call civilization has emerged from this worldview. While it has offered its gifts, it also tends to create competitive, consumer-driven cultures grounded in the myth of scarcity; there is always a finite amount available when we are looking at something physical and measurable.
Many of the world’s religions and philosophical ideas are grounded in the spiritual worldview, which sees the primacy and finality of the invisible world back of all of creation. The upside to this view is that the reality of the spiritual world is maintained as real and true. The downside is that “taken too far, it can become ethereal and disembodied, disregarding ordinary human needs”, such as care for the physical, psychological, emotional, and societal welfare of people. “The spiritual worldview, taken too seriously, has little concern for the earth, the neighbor, or justice, because it considers this world largely as an illusion”.
Next, we find the priestly worldview. Its adherents are typically more sophisticated and experienced people (or traditions) that have made it their work to put Spirit and matter together. They might include gurus, therapists, ministers, and sacred communities, all of whom can be beneficial in helping us make connections between our physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual selves and lives. The downside to this view is that the two worlds…physical and spiritual…are still separate and in need of being bound together. Another challenge that can arise from this worldview is that it can create “spiritual codependents and consumers, rather than true spiritual seekers…Not surprisingly, the consumers of this worldview fall on a continuum from very healthy to not so healthy, and its ‘priests’ vary from excellent mediators to mere charlatans.”
Finally, and as somewhat a contrast to the other three, the incarnational worldview is one in which matter and spirit have always been one. There is only One Thing going on, here and everywhere. There has never been any separation. “Matter and spirit reveal and manifest each other.” This view tends to combine prayer with social involvement. It does not allow for spiritual bypass, the idea that we don’t need to deal with the physical issues that face and surround us because somehow God will handle it, or it is His Will. Rather, the incarnational worldview acknowledges that spirit is manifest in all of Its creation, doing Its work in, through and AS Its creation. In addition to prayer and meditation, It calls human beings, as self-reflective, thinking, choosing expressions of the Divine, to be the hands, feet, and hearts of Spirit, carrying out Its Work in the world.
This year, rather than simply seeking to change this or that specific condition or situation in our lives, let’s expand our approach. “Go big or go home,” says one of our spiritual friends and teachers. (You know who you are!) Let’s take an honest look at where our perspective is colored by these four world views. Where does each one benefit us, and where might it be limiting our understanding? Where might we be setting boundaries on what we see as possible for our lives, and for our world? And most importantly, how can we make conscious shifts…clean the lenses, blow out the filters, as it were…making changes to our worldview where it is fitting? This is where true growth happens…not just little changes here and minor adjustments there. But completely releasing what no longer makes sense, and consciously replacing it with what does. I am reminded of a comment made by Bro. David Steindl-Rast. To summarize, he said that Common Sense is what Jesus was teaching. By using parables, he was drawing out the deeper Truth that every person holds within. By using real life situations, he was making the teaching accessible, or common. We all have Common Sense. We all know, when we take the time to reflect, what is still serving us and what is not.
Join me in practicing Common Sense as we move through this transformational Lenten Season, and in seeing that Everything is Sacred.
Know that today and always, I am here to support you.
Know that today and always, the Christ Light shines within you.
May we be well…know our unity…and thrive! And…
May we know the Absolutely miraculous nature of this Grace-filled, once-in-a lifetime day!
