The Christian season of Advent is
the beginning of the Christian year and it leads us up to Christmas. This is really
like a New Year’s season for Christians which then leads on to the time of New
Year. It is customary for people to resolve to make
‘new year resolutions’. These normally
involve changes at the personal and relationship levels. For many, and I
normally count myself in this number, the making of resolutions is undertaken
with sincerity and some confidence, which very often ‘melts away’ as the New
Year turns into spring. I am reminded of a paraphrase by the Christian Author Anthony
De Mello. He was commenting on the tenuous nature of many resolutions. He
remarked
I can make my New Year resolutions ‘In the name of the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit’ but as time goes on these lapse and my life returns to ‘
‘As it was in the beginning, is now
and ever shall be, world without end. Amen’
So to return to Advent and to
Christmas and its possible meaning both for myself and others,
regardless of their Faith Tradition. What bearing could this have on my
spiritual relationship with God and others? For Christians, Advent is an important Season.
It is a time of preparation and
reflection for Christmas, the Christian celebration of the birth (as a human)
of Jesus the Christ. What could this mean for and how could this help me on my spiritual journey and in
all my relationships? Relationships are encounters between the ‘other’ and
‘me’, or as Martin Buber, the Jewish Philosopher , suggests between the I and the Thou. Therefore any
reflection on my relationship with God (by whatever name I call She, He or It)
involves my reflecting on my understanding of the I and the Thou. If, as I
believe, that one of the main outcomes of His life was to set an example of how to relate to others and to the God he
called Abba , then how could this assist me in my relationships ? How could it assist me in my relationship
with God?
But who or what is this ‘God’ that I claim to profess?
Thomas Aquinas, arguably one of the greatest Christian Theologians, wrestled with
this question when reflecting on the nature of the Trinity. This is an
important Christian understanding on the
nature of the God and of relationship. Aquinas suggests three ways of ‘knowing’
God; God in Creation, God in the history of peoples and God as Unknowable or as
Mystery. The first two of these, creation and God in history, are
open to our time-space understanding and the last of
these, God as “mystery’ we can only get fleeting glimpses of.
Now, we live in time and space and a
dynamic cosmos, where everything is subject to change. Therefore, the ‘knowledge’
I have of God is mainly in this sphere and my relationship with this ‘God’
is subject to dynamic change. This is the first of many paradoxes. My
relationship with the ‘Unchanging Reality’ is changing and therefore so is my
relationship with Jesus the Christ. Yet,
when growing up, I was taught that this is an unchanging relationship and that
the ‘truths’ of Advent and of the story of Jesus are unchanging. At one level
this may be so but at another level this did not help me to grow in my
understanding of my ever changing relationship with God. Anyway, scripture is
merely a record of peoples experience and understanding of God but it is not
God and each generation is challenged to understand scripture in the context of
their understanding of God in Creation and in their history as well as their
personal experience of the Unknowable Mystery. To relate to ‘God’ as Mystery
requires each of us to get in touch with our inherent ability to find our own
Inner Mystic.
Over a period of decades Satsang
Member have listened to many talks by Sister Ishpriya on this topic . Her teaching
and talks often address the mystic inside all of us and how the recent changes
in our understanding of creation, the cosmos and ourselves require us to
re-assess our understanding of God. We live in unprecedented times, with
exponential growth in our knowledge at both the macro and micro levels of
creation and the cosmos. Our ideas and understanding of God are influenced by
our knowledge of creation and our experience of God in our times. For example,
when human beings understood their world to be a flat plate, then it may have
made sense to believe in a God above in the heavens and an evil power below.
However, in the light of our current understanding of an ever expanding cosmos
and the on-going creation at both macro
and micro levels, then how could this change our understanding of God?
So this brings me back to Advent and Christmas and my understanding of Jesus,
whose birthday it asks us to prepare for. But this is not just a commemoration
of something that happened 2000 years ago. No, for me, it must surely mean a
reflection each year on what ‘re-birthing’ may occur in me as I re-assess my
understanding of God and how that changes my understanding of Jesus the Christ
and the meaning of his message for me in my life. So many of the Christmas
Carols and hymns that we sing are based on an older understanding of God and
Creation and , for me, fail to convey the dynamic nature of my relationship
with God. Surely, we need to face Jesus as a Cosmic Christ and our part in
God’s on-going co-creative plan and to enable
this ‘truth’ to be reflected in our communal worship ? In addition, I feel that the message of Jesus
needs to be regularly re-birthed in my heart. I am reminded of the following
lines from a more modern Christian Hymn
‘This is our God, the Servant
King.
He calls us now to follow Him.
To bring our lives as a daily offering.
NOTE I have
highlighted the word ‘ Servant’ as I feel the word King, with its imperialistic
connotations, is in direct contradiction to the essence of the life and example
of Jesus
However, notwithstanding the word ‘King’
, these words convey part of what, for me, is one of the ‘demands’ that Jesus
the Christ makes of his followers and one that better reflects my understanding
of God in Creation and in the current history of peoples. We are to be a
servant people, to place loving, compassionate service (Seva) at the heart of
our lives.
So Advent is a timely reminder of
the need to re-assess our understanding of God and, for Christians, of the
birth of Jesus and the message and example of his life and his relationship
with God – The Mystery. It is a time to reflect on how that re-assessment might
lead to ‘new year resolutions’ in our lives and on our spiritual journey. May
the love and peace of Jesus fill our hearts and our home with true Christmas
Joy this year and every year?
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