PRACTICE / PRACTICE / PRACTICE
“draw near to God & He will draw near to you”
(James 4:8)
There are 4 sets of ABC’s in the Booklet & a 5th (& final) ‘linking’ set, delineated, under PONDER. Now, the question is: HOW do we translate the theory into practice, in ‘every-day-life’? In short, how do we live the “new” life / the “new” humanity? And, for that matter, what is the “old” humanity, anyway?
Let’s go back to: the beginning of the Booklet: the CONTEXT: “If we weren’t DIS-FUNCTIONAL we wouldn’t be NORMAL”. As human beings, we have a built-in default ‘self-for-self’ mode. It is there, under the surface, no matter how we try to “hide” same. This is the kernel of our PROBLEM. In trying to live life (in this way) we adopt a “WARD” (off) coping strategy to deal with ‘unwelcome-intrusions’. In essence, we: “Wage” / “Antagonistic” / “Relational” / “Defiance” against our neighbour. This is the “old” humanity.
What does Jesus have to say about all this? In Matthew 5:38-39 He says: “you have heard it said: ‘an eye for an eye & a tooth for a tooth’; but I say to you: turn the other cheek”. This brings us to the ‘tipping-point’ SOLUTION: we reverse the ‘self’ protection strategy: from: “WARD” (off) to “DRAW” (out): by ‘turning-it-around’ / by ‘turning-the-other-cheek’. The “DRAW” (out) mode of living, which is explained under FORMATION, stands for: “Die” (to self) / “Recognize” (with Head) / Acknowledge” (with Heart) / “Welcome” (with Hands) your neighbour. This is the “new” humanity.
The Cross & Resurrection are central to living the Christian life. In John 16:33, Jesus said: “In the world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer, I have conquered the world”. My ‘take’ on this is: the world exists on a horizontal level: we inter-relate / inter-act, competitively, with & against one another. Being the type of ‘selfish’ human beings we are, we end-up in all kinds of trouble. Jesus, the Christ, showed us how to “transcend” these problems via the Cross & Resurrection: via ‘die’ing & ‘rise’ing. This means: ‘die’ing to the “old” self-life (which is all about “me”) & ‘rise’ing to the “new” self-life (which is all about “we”).
The ‘touch-points’ of PRACTICE are the small & big EVENTS of daily life. In it’s spiritual essence: ‘connecting together’ – as per the title to this website – is the “sacrament of the present moment”: ‘the-when-we’ & ‘the-where-we’: “Gather-2-Gether unto Him”. Jesus, in Matthew 18:20, has defined these occasions, as follows: “where 2 or 3 are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them”.
Our daily ‘moment-by-moment’ encounters with our neighbor are spiritually made manifest in terms of –
‘to give oneself is to receive an other’
Like Mary & Joseph we have to come to a realization of the ‘fact & faith’ of life: “in Him, we live & move & have our being” ( Acts 17:28) i.e. we, ‘surely / assuredly’, exist within God’s providential care. This mystery has been expressed in the following terms: “all that exists is God’s gift to man, & it all exists to make God known to man, to make man’s life communion with God” (Alexander Schmemann: ‘For the Life of the world’). Hence, we are drawn to express our ongoing ‘gratefulness & gratitude’ to God, irrespective of the difficulties of the moment.
The ‘mode of living’ set-out here is for: “all situation, temptations & afflictions”. It’s a ‘LIFE-LONG-LEARNING’ process, involving the ‘ups’ & ‘downs’ of daily life. At it’s core: what is at “play” – like little children, who ‘automatically’ live in the present moment – is: “Reciprocity / Mutuality / Complementarity”
The REAL (‘spiritually sourced’) life has been defined by Caryll Houselander (see: Booklet); & its worth repeating, here:
Each one of us, is called to be an ‘other Christ’ in the world
Each of us, is to live out, in a unique way, some aspect of ‘the Christ life’
There are no formalities (i.e. rules & regulations) in all this. It all comes down to: our ‘ATTITUDE / BEHAVIOUR’ & our ‘INTENTION / ATTENTION’. Within the scope & scale of the 5 ABC’s there are difficulties to be overcome, but, there are, also, opportunities to be availed of. We are not to judge anyone, only our own ‘self’: whether or not our own actions manifest a “false” self or a “real” self. Our task is to ‘be-come’ part of the Body of Christ: the “new” humanity: as modeled by Jesus.
We have to keep reminding ourselves, again & again, that the RE-CONNECTING process is SPIRITUAL 1st & SOCIAL 2nd. We will not succeed if we ‘keep-on-trying’ via the DIS-FUNCTIONAL mode of living, because – in human terms – the “old” self is unable & unwilling to defeat the “old” self. There is no salvation / transformation in the weaknesses / limitations of the “old” self-nature of man or woman.
Hopefully, what has been presented in the Booklet & in this Addendum will be of value to all who aspire to: be-come ‘FIT’ for Purpose & shine with The “GLOW” of Happiness in life.