"I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice."
Charles Darwin, naturalist and author (12 Feb 1809-1882)
Alan: "Process" theologians posit that God has poured "himself" - entirely - into Creation.
If we -- embedded in this incarnation of the creative impulse -- are given the power to be God's heart and hands, then we are -- or are not -- the "crown" of this broken creation.
And we restore it... or we don't.
We are made in the image of the Is-ness that subtends reality.
We are free to become The Ground, that fundament where we "understand" The Way by "standing under" and thus supporting everyone who walks it.
Or...
We stay in The Bubble.
Where our heart is, there also our treasure will be.
"Hallelujah"
Leonard Cohen
Process Theology
St. Symeon the New Theologian
(St. Symeon preferred the experience of divinity to faith.)
Christ’s Body
We awaken in Christ’s body
as Christ awakens our bodies,
and my poor hand is Christ, He enters
my foot, and is infinitely me.
as Christ awakens our bodies,
and my poor hand is Christ, He enters
my foot, and is infinitely me.
I move my hand, and wonderfully
my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him
(for God is indivisibly
whole, seamless in His Godhood).
my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him
(for God is indivisibly
whole, seamless in His Godhood).
I move my foot, and at once
He appears like a flash of lightning.
Do my words seem blasphemous? — Then
open your heart to Him
He appears like a flash of lightning.
Do my words seem blasphemous? — Then
open your heart to Him
and let yourself receive the one
who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love Him,
we wake up inside Christ’s body
who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love Him,
we wake up inside Christ’s body
where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy as Him,
and He makes us, utterly, real,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy as Him,
and He makes us, utterly, real,
and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Him transformed
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Him transformed
and recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in His light
he awakens as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.
and radiant in His light
he awakens as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.
Symeon the New Theologian, (949-1022), published in The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, edited by Stephen Mitchell.
St. Symeon's Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symeon_the_New_Theologian
St. Symeon's biography at "Orthodox Wiki": http://orthodoxwiki.org/Symeon_the_New_Theologian
Aquinas, St. Symeon The New Theologian And Their Spiritual Kin
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