Considering Resurrection

Humanity was never, and could never be, cut off from the Divine Presence. [Therefore] it is time to consider Jesus' resurrection not in terms of a journey to an overseeing, heavenly God who had disconnected from humanity, but as a transformation from being a human expression of the Divine to living on in the Divine beyond all human limits. It is time to see that "resurrection" will be ours also. It is time to see that "resurrection" in this understanding did not start with Jesus. The human species has always lived in and died into the Divine Presence.

– Michael Morwood
Excerpted from It's Time:
Challenges to the Doctrine of the Faith
p. 125

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Easter: The Celebration of the Sacrament of Transformation
• The Risen Jesus: Our Integral Ground
• The Two Entwined Events of the Easter Experience
• Resurrection in an Emerging Universe
• Resurrection: A New Depth of Consciousness
• Easter Reflections
• Easter Exultet
• The Resurrected Jesus
• Jesus: The Breakthrough in the History of Humanity
• The Passion of Christ (Part 11) – Jesus Appears to Mary
• The Passion of Christ (Part 12) – Jesus Appears to His Friends
• The Triumph of Love: An Easter Reflection
• A Girl Named Sara: A "Person of the Resurrection"
• Resurrection: Beyond Words, Dogmas, and All Possible Theological Formulations
• A Discerning Balance Between Holiness and Wholeness: A Hallmark of the Resurrected Life

Related Off-site Links:
In His Easter Message, Pope Francis Denounces "Oppressive Regimes" But Urges Restraint – Philip Pullella (Reuters, April 17, 2017).
The Pagan Roots of Easter – Heather McDougall (The Guardian, April 3, 2010).

Images: Michael J. Bayly (Easter 2017).

Michael Morwood on the Divine Presence (Part III)

Following is a third and final excerpt from Michael Morwood's 2013 book It's Time: Challenges to the Doctrine of the Faith. To start at the beginning of this series, click here.

An appreciation of the universality of the Divine Presence challenges us to move from the traditional understanding of "God" as a divine Super Person who thinks, reacts, needs to be worshipped, keeps a record of wrongs, withholds forgiveness and access to "Himself," and rules over the world. Most of us were so steeped from early childhood in the imagination and belief about "God" as a deity in heaven that we failed as adults to stop and think about what we are imagining and from where this imagination comes from. We are taught to pray to a "God" who thinks about whether to respond. We learned a creed about a "God" who lives somewhere else and sent his son down to us. We were never educated to question the images on which these concepts were based.

It is time to move on from belief in a heavenly God whose thinking and actions mirror our rather primitive human ways of thinking and acting. We humans regard our conscious awareness, our capacity for reflective thinking, as the greatest by-product of the universe. We have consistently transferred our way of thinking onto a God, as if by having a God who thinks and loves and acts as we do, we are somehow expanding our appreciation of the Divine Presence. In fact, what we are doing is limiting our understanding and appreciation of the Presence as Mystery. It is time to stop telling a story about a God in heaven who did this and that, and who thinks this and that. The awesome, mysterious, Divine Presence is far beyond all that.

In one sense, there is nothing new in what is being said here because Christianity has always proclaimed that "God is everywhere." What is new is the scientific data we have as pointers to the Divine Presence all around us. Attention to the way energy and consciousness operate throughout the universe can lead to a deeper faith perspective that enables us to appreciate that everything around us is "charged' with the Divine Presence. We can have a heightened sense, a clearer conscious awareness, that the universe pulsates with, gives expression to, the Divine Presence.

Thousands of years ago, humans had a sense of this Presence all around them. Then, a major shift occurred. Formal religion took this Presence from the earth and placed it in the heavens in the form of gods. Later development in religious thinking led the Hebrew people to imagining and believing there was only one god, an Almighty God who ruled from above.

It is surely ironic that formal religion brought the "original sin" to the world. It removed the Divine from earth and placed it in the heavens. It was formal religion that separated humanity from a previously intimate and profound sense of the Divine here on earth. It was formal religion that led people into images and notions about exile from God. It was formal religion that told people they were basically sinful and that only adherence to a particular religion could bring them "salvation," as long as they dutifully obeyed the teachings and practices of that religion.

Formal religion took its mind and eyes and heart off the here and now and focused instead on notions of separation and on the need for mediators and priests with special powers to access the heavenly God. Formal religion established systems that made people dependent on middle-managers who could access God for them and tell them, with unquestioned authority, what God's thoughts were on almost every aspect of community life.

And all the while, the Creative, Divine, Energizing Reality, this incredible Presence that brought the universe into being, was really here on earth, being expressed in peoples' lives. The Presence did not and could not move from here. Only formal religion could make people believe otherwise.

There is a widespread shift in consciousness among people today, a shift that reflects and gives expression to the Divine Presence embedded in everything that exists. It is about people breaking free of religious images and creeds and beliefs that lock them into thinking the "next life" is what really matters. It is the growing awareness that "salvation" for the world is not about access to a heavenly God. It is about being attentive to how the Divine Presence is expressed in the human endeavor and how, in the words of Jesus, we are to make "the kingdom of God" evident in the human community.

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Michael Morwood on the Divine Presence (Part I)
• Michael Morwood on the Divine Presence (Part II)
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Michael Morwood
• Prayer and the Experience of God in an Ever-Unfolding Universe
• A Return to the Spirit

Related Off-site Link:
Vatican at War with Nuns Over Evolutionary Thinking – Jason Berry (Global Post via The Progressive Catholic Voice, June 10, 2014).

Image: Photographer unknown.

Michael Morwood on the Divine Presence (Part II)

Following is a second excerpt from theologian Michael Morwood's 2013 book It's Time: Challenges to the Doctrine of the Faith. As with the first excerpt I shared, this one focuses on the Divine Presence, an understanding that the word "God" points to a Mystery that permeates everything that exists. For Morwood, patterns of the Divine Presence can be seen expressed in humanity whenever we choose co-operation and sharing over violence and domination. We also see, says Morwood, "that 'salvation' for humanity is linked to living in harmony with and respect for one another."

One of the major scientific developments in recent decades is the shift from understanding the world around us in purely physical or material terms, as if everything from atoms to galaxies operated like machines and that everything could be reduced to its working parts. Those of us who are older will remember studying physics in school. It was all rather simple: a case of learning what went with what, and knowing the laws explaining the how and why of what happened.

Nowadays science finds itself speaking in terms of mystery and wonder as it tries to explain the how and why of reality. How and why, at the deepest level of matter, particles get together with other particles to form atoms, atoms get together with other atoms to form molecules, molecules get together and form single cells, and single cells get together and form multi-cellular life. How, for example, do sixty trillion cells in our bodies know what to do? How do some cells in an embryo "know" to form a set of ears, and other cells produce a heart and other cells produce kidneys?

These processes of development can no longer be adequately explained in purely physical terms, as if this goes with that and that goes with this and look what happens. Science acknowledges something deeper within the very fabric of matter, something that is more than matter. Energy is working in tune with some organizing principle that is not physical. Scientists refer to this as "consciousness" or "mind" operating at every level of matter. This is not the consciously aware "mind" that we humans exercise, but mind/consciousness that is an essential aspect of physical reality itself.

Energy does not think. Consciousness does not think. A particle does not think, an atom does not think. The cells in our bodies do not think. The universe expands and develops in ways of relating and acting that make our human mode of thinking and acting slow and cumbersome in comparison.

As we study the unfolding of matter throughout the universe and study the development of life on this planet, it seems there is inbuilt into matter the capacity to co-operate with other entities in order to produce something beyond each of the entities. Cells have the capacity to organize themselves, to maintain and repair themselves, to store and remember information and to call upon it when needed, and to work in harmony with other cells to produce the wonders of a flower, a bird, the human body. There is an inbuilt system of intentionality in the constant movement to development, to produce something beyond the co-operating cells themselves,. And there is no thinking involved in this process, not the way we humans experience thinking. Each of sixty trillion cells in our bodies produces 10,000 bio-electro-chemical reactions every second. The reactions need to be almost instantly correlated and set in motion. Our bodies would surely be in a mess if each cell had to stop and think about what it needed to do.

This capacity to self-organize and to work in relationship with other entities is universal. Without it, the universe could not have produced galaxies or stars or planets or life on earth. Here, on earth, the same pattern is the driving force of evolution. Scientists insist that co-operation, not survival of the fittest or domination, is the key pattern in the emergence of life.

Let us explore how this basic information might shape our understanding of "God" as a universal Presence underpinning all that has ever existed.

If we take seriously that energy and consciousness are all-pervasive and woven into the very fabric of reality then this knowledge could be the best means we have for a deeper understanding or appreciation that the Divine Presence is everywhere. This is not to suggest in any way that the Divine Presence can be reduced to energy or consciousness. Rather, the information helps us to appreciate universality on a grand scale. When we recognize patterns operating on such a vast scale, we can use these patterns as contemporary pointers to the Divine present and active always and everywhere in the universe. This is not some sort of pantheism. The Divine Presence is more than the universe or the world around us and far more than anything we can comprehend in human notions.

NEXT: Part III

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Michael Morwood on the Divine Presence (Part I)
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Michael Morwood
• Prayer and the Experience of God in an Ever-Unfolding Universe
• A Return to the Spirit

Image: Photographer unknown.

Michael Morwood on the Divine Presence

One of the books I'm currently reading is Michael Morwood's It's Time: Challenges to the Doctrine of the Faith, a book that focuses on the crisis of faith confronting Christianity in general and Roman Catholicism in particular. In response to this crisis, Morwood proposes that we discard institutional claims of unique access to a heavenly deity, replace it with a twenty-first century understanding of the Divine Presence permeating the universe, and focus on Jesus as the human expression of that Presence.

I must admit I resonate with much of what Morwood says, and found it interesting that his writings on the Divine Presence mirror my thoughts on prayer as articulated in a number of recent The Wild Reed posts. (See, for example, here and here.)

Following is the first of three excerpts from the chapter of It's Time that focuses on the Divine Presence.

It is time to take seriously what Christianity has always proclaimed: that this Mysterious Presence we call "God" is everywhere and is beyond all our human concepts. It is time to make a significant shift in our understanding of "God." It is time to shift from notions of a deity to an understanding and appreciation of the Divine Presence always here, always and everywhere active in an expanding universe and in the evolution of life on this planet.

Institutional religion's resistance to this shift is understandable because it has significant investment in the notion of an elsewhere deity. That notion of God underpins the Creed and Church doctrines about God, about Jesus and about humanity's relationship with God. It is the notion of God on which Church authority depends to justify the claim that it has unique access to God through the resurrection of Jesus. It is the notion of God in our scriptures: a heavenly deity who reacts, plans, has definite opinions, intervenes, controls, and sends His Son from heaven to earth. It is the notion of God that Church leadership uses to claim that its authority stems from a "divinely conferred commission." It is the notion of God that Church leadership relies in its claim to know the express views of God on important issues.

While this resistance is understandable, it is lamentable. Christianity has traditionally proclaimed belief in the everywhere presence of God, an everywhere Presence holding and sustaining everything in existence. The shift being proposed here is rooted in fidelity to this belief, in being ready to explore its implications for Christian faith, and most importantly, in the desire to understand the person and message of Jesus in the light of what we know today about our universe, rather than the worldview of two thousand years ago.

The shift starts with considering the age and size of the universe in which we live, and with what it means to say that the Divine Presence is everywhere, holding and sustaining everything in existence. What does it mean to believe that there is no outside of this Presence? And how can we best discern this Mystery present and active in everything that exists?

If this presence is everywhere, "charging" and holding everything in existence, we should be able to discern the Presence through examining how the universe unfolds. It makes eminent sense, then, to go to the scientific world and discover the basic, universal patterns of operation in the emergence and expansion of the universe and in the development of life on earth. These patterns of operation can and should be our contemporary pointers to the Presence. They will point us well beyond the "God" of scripture and doctrine to an awesome Mystery in which we live and move and to which we give human expression.

What is the "big picture" contemporary science paints for us about how the universe expands and develops that would help us discern and appreciate the Divine Presence through all and in all?

NEXT: Part II

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Michael Morwood
• Prayer and the Experience of God in an Ever-Unfolding Universe
• A Return to the Spirit
• The Onward Call

Recommended Off-site Links:
Michael Morwood for Pope? – Michael Dowd (The Advent of Evolutionary Christianity,December 17, 2010).
From Sand to Solid Ground: An Interview with Michael Morwood – Catholica (2008).

Image: "Spiral Speak" by Sam Brown.

Eucharist: Recognizing and Embodying God's Presence in the World

Today is the feast of Corpus Christi, the 'body of Christ.' In its invitation to prayerfully reflect upon the meaning of Eucharist, Corpus Christi challenges us to renew our commitment to not only recognize God's transforming presence in this central communal celebration of our faith, but to also embody this presence in our world. Since the earliest days of the church, such recognition and embodiment have been inescapably connected with service to the poor.

In marking Corpus Christi this year at The Wild Reed, I share the following excerpt from Michael Morwood's book Tomorrow's Catholic: Understanding God and Jesus in a New Millennium.

A challenging question for Catholics today is whether our parish communities, as communities, are distinguishable from the general attitudes of society towards the poor in our midst. Bernard Cooke in a public address asked whether Catholicism has "lost its soul." His point was that as Catholics have moved up the ladder of economic success they have, in general, accepted uncritically today's social attitudes towards the disadvantaged. Yes, Catholics give generously to appeals, but the effective power and compassion of God has to be seen working against the political, social, economic, and even religious powers that disadvantage people in systemic ways.

Much of our moral focus as Catholics has been on individual morality. While that focus will remain, we are being challenged today to focus also on social systems and economic strategies which manipulate, exploit, and dehumanize. The effective power and compassion of God has to be embodied, and Eucharist proclaims that we will be this presence. If Eucharist does not lead us to this awareness and action, then our Eucharists are a sham.

– Michael Morwood
Tomorrow's Catholic
p. 109

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Corpus Christi
Celebrating and Embodying Divine Hospitality
Take This Bread
The Challenge of Eucharist
"Receive What You Are, the Body of Christ"
Trusting God's Generous Invitation
"Take, All of You, and Eat": Communion and the Rainbow Sash
My Rainbow Sash Experience
Remembering the "Radical Ethic" of the Catholic Worker Movement
Authentic Catholicism: The Antidote to Clericalism
Francis of Assisi: The Antithesis of Clericalism and Monarchism
In the Garden of Spirituality – Michael Morwood

Related Off-site Links:
Understand What You Do – Patricia Datchuck Sánchez (National Catholic Reporter, June 1, 2013).
What We Receive in the Eucharist – Susan Stabile (Creo en Dios!, June 2, 2013).
Give Them Some Food Yourselves – Sherry (Walking in the Shadows, June 2, 2013).
In Persona Christi: The Rise of the Phallogocentric Eucharist – Bryce Rich (Fides Quaerens Intellectum, April 8, 2011).
"From Sand to Solid Ground": An Interview with Michael Morwood – Catholica (2008).

In the Garden of Spirituality: Michael Morwood

.

“We are not on earth to guard a museum,
but to cultivate a flowering garden of life.”

- Pope John XXIII

The Wild Reed’s series of reflections on spirituality continues with an excerpt from Michael Morwood’s 1998 book, Tomorrow’s Catholic: Understanding God and Jesus in a New Millennium.

_________________________________

We each have our images and thoughts about God and our relationship with God. Spirituality is simply the manner in which we allow these images and thoughts to direct the way we live. We can, for example, picture God as a cruel dictator. That belief would have an enormous impact on our relationship with God, our style of prayer and worship and self image.

We could, on the other hand, perceive God as incredibly loving and understand ourselves as richly blessed with the presence of God’s Spirit. Obviously, in the second example, our spirituality will be quite different from the first example. What we believe and image and the way this influences the way we live, relate, pray, and worship - this is our spirituality.

As Catholics, our spirituality has been shaped and packaged for us by centuries of experience, thought, and reflection. We inherited a Catholic worldview at an early age. We took this on board, unquestioningly in most cases, and tried to be faithful to it.

One of the problems being encountered today – and one we must face if our spirituality is to be real – is that much of our inherited spirituality was shaped by religious thought patterns and worldviews that are now questionable, if not irrelevant.

It is somewhat like trying to perform heart surgery in a modern hospital with only the knowledge of fifteenth-century medical science. It is not that anyone wants to scoff at the medical knowledge of earlier centuries. That would be unfair. Likewise with our religious worldview and our spirituality. The intent is not to belittle earlier thought patterns which sustained Christian living for centuries. The intent is rather to look at the basics of our religious beliefs in the light of today’s worldview which is vastly different from that which shaped Christian thought in its beginnings. What we find is good news: the Christian message blends beautifully with today’s worldview.

Christianity has always maintained that God is infinite, that God is everywhere, that God’s presence sustains everything that has existence. . . . God permeates all creation.

Let us pause and examine what this means for a spirituality.

It surely suggests that we must rid ourselves of notions that we have to buy or win God’s love or presence. God’s presence is an essential condition for existence. You cannot have “more” or “less” of it.

Every one of us is permeated with God’s presence. The pope does not have it any more than the truck driver or the nurse. The vital difference comes not from the reality but from the recognition and the naming of the reality, that is, naming and recognizing oneself as someone who gives flesh to, gives human form to, gives particular, unique, personal human expression to the reality we name God.

God comes to expression, comes to a particular life in ME. In me, God can speak, can move, can dance, can compose music or write poetry, can make love and create life, can laugh and can cry at the imperfection of it all.

The reality we name as “God,” mightier and more vast than 400 billion galaxies, permeates my existence as a human person. Certainly God is infinite and unknowable; but we look into our hearts and lives, and there is this same God bursting to life in us. Why do we keep looking elsewhere to find God? Why do we stay locked into a spirituality that looks for God in the heavens in preference to a spirituality that focuses on the God within and among us, urging and prompting us to claim our sacred identity - and to live it? Here is the arena of conversion and the heart of Jesus’ message to all of us who have ears to listen.

Our spirituality needs to articulate more clearly and more thoroughly this basic relationship between God and ourselves. It should emphasize both the reality of God’s presence with us, and our responsibility to allow that presence to emerge and be seen in the way we live. Our basic sin, if we are to talk about an “original sin,” is our blindness to this reality of who we are and the ways we block the emergence of the sacred within us. The story is not of a “fall” from a perfect state of consciousness and developed conscience; rather, it is the story of the slow emergence within human beings of the realization that the sacred is deep within each of us.

- Excerpted from Tomorrow’s Catholic: Understanding God and Jesus in a New Millennium by Michael Morwood (Twenty-Third Publications, 1998, pp. 97-98).


Others highlighted in The Wild Reed’s “In the Garden of Spirituality” series include:
Zainab Salbi
Daniel Helminiak
Rod Cameron
Paul Collins
Joan Chittister
Toby Johnson
Joan Timmerman
Uta Ranke-Heinemanm
Caroline Jones
Ron Rolheiser
James C. Howell
Paul Coelho
Doris Lessing

Images: Michael J. Bayly.