15th December 2012

If it's possible to experience eternity, fullness of life unbounded by space and time in this life, a different perspective on existence is revealed. Giving wholehearted attention to the mystery of the unknown beyond knowledge is a means to explore consciousness of what life is, refining our perceptions, understandings and values. It's a way of addressing the deep seated longing to reach out to our Creator. Christians believe it's an innate longing, not acquired or earned, but received from God as part of the gift of life itself. It has evolved as our species evolved. We don't always recognise or understand this longing, yet it can awaken within us and take us somewhere different. 

All religions have a place for dwelling in stillness and silence. It's a stable threshold, where reaching out into the beyond can safely be done. Not that stillness and silence are always perceived as safe places. We take hidden things with us from the realm of activity - thoughts, feelings, insights, information processed consciously or unconsciously. Active life appears to depend on continually resolving different complex matters. We fear inactivity may lead us into threatening chaos and prefer to avoid stillness and silence for too long. We learn by letting go of everything it's an illusion. Matters may sometimes resolve themselves more effectively by a measure of detachment from urgent concerns, and directing our attention elsewhere. 

Stillness and silence can also seem threatening because it's a state where suffering emerges from where it is hidden beneath everyday activity. It can take the form of physical pain, symptoms of stress and tiredness, or unresolved bad memories. Relinquishing the desire to control and suppress things, as we face the simple task of opening up to the beyond, allows everything to be processed differently, going against natural survival instincts, it seems, but Christians and others say, it reveals the wounded self to One who is uniquely able to heal. 

In ancient times, when the character of Hebrew prophetic ministry and utterances were in the early stages of development, prophets danced wildly and performed rituals in order to fall into a trance. They were said to be seized by the Spirit of God in this altered state of consciousness, emerging from it as bearers of the Word. They plunged from intense activity into an state of composure where stillness and silence could be reached while surrounded by others. 

Stories of the prophets, notably Moses, Elijah and John the Baptist, depict them taking refuge alone in remote places where stillness and silence are unavoidable. Here they are prepared by God to be the bearers of his Word in speech and action. 

The Gospels tell how Jesus went away on his own to quiet lonely places to pray, following a prophetic tradition which influenced his entire ministry. When Jesus teaches about prayer he observes how important it is to hide away with God for this purpose, and be alert - the Advent watchword.

4th December 2012

Certain instincts inherited across generations are characteristic of all living matter and make both survival and growth possible. Among these are the impulse to reproduce, to defend against danger and learn to adapt to changing conditions, to the point where physique and behaviour modify themselves over generations to optimise survival potential. From the origins of time and space itself matter has evolved to the point where planet Earth (and presumably others like it) produced rare conditions in which organic forms of matter have all the characteristics we call life. The evolution of the human species, with its particular form of self awareness and ability to understand and organise its own environment, is the most recent chapter of a long evolutionary history.

Faith refuses the notion that this entire process 'just happened' and started itself for no discernable reason. Faith speaks of God as 'uncreated creator', the Mind whose infinite intelligence is expressed in the rich complexity of the creative process. Exactly how all things came into being, where and when the seemingly unending chain of cause and effect began is subject to detailed human enquiry now that we have evolved the technical means to do so.

Even the question of whether or not God was the Prime Mover in the creative process is not ultimately accessible to enquiry or reasoning. Whatever we think we know of God, so much more remains unknown, a complete mystery. How all things were originated by God is beyond our comprehension. Our longing to understand the reason for our existence however, leads us to take it on trust that, no matter how it was achieved, God is creator and source of all that is.

Reaching out from the natural pre-occuption with survival and all it entails, human beings have a capacity for curiosity, awe and wonder which takes them out of themselves. Having a useful knowledge of our environment is a part of what it takes to adapt to changing circumstance and survive.  Longing to know more about the universe and God has evolved as part of our self-consciousness. It is so much more than hunger for useful information. It is longing for relationship a mutual relatedness not only with creation but the Creator. In trust we reach out and hope that God is also reaching out towards us, to engage with us. "O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down!" as Isaiah said. It's a sentence at the heart of the Advent seasonal liturgy.

We have evolved possessing this higher longing as part of self consciousness. The heart of faith interprets and voices this candidly in the words of St Augustine: "O Lord thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee."

2nd December 2012

The modern world is fascinated with how we die and telling the stories how victims have come to a violent end, no matter how much else there may be to tell of their lives. We joke about after-life, and paint imaginative pictures to console ourselves when confronted with the cold facts of mortality and the dissolution of the body. We know so much about the universe we inhabit, so little about ourselves. We don't know whether or not anything of ourselves survives death, apart from solid achievments and other peoples' memories of us we leave behind.

We know the universe began and will inevitably end. What then happens to any trace of our existence for others to recall? If death spells annihilation in the short or long term, what are we? What is the point and purpose of existing at all? Can life be lived to the full and to good purpose in the light of such profound unanswered, unanswerable questions? Faced only with what we think we know for sure, the facts, these are profound and disturbing issues confronting us individually and collectively.

Hell in every religion is an imaginary realm where the dead end up, punished for consequences of wrong actions when they were alive - but what constructive purpose does this imagery and mythology serve, apart from deterring evil-doing? The prospect of death as mere annihilation hasn't removed the notion of hell as punishment from the modern world view. It has identified and re-located the experience of hell in the midst of life itself. Hell is perceived wherever tragedy, disaster or brutal conflict imposes suffering on people. Humans are adept at causing each other suffering. "Hell is other people"

At least as long as we are alive there's a possibility of rescuing others from hell, by working on putting right relationships with one another. It's the most noble and significant way we have of making existence meaningful even if, in the end, life came to nothing.

Any experience of unrelieved torment and suffering can drive us to long for an end to existence. Yet, for the most part, we cling on to life for as long as we can cope with it. We want more than we get, we long to know if there's more to life than life itself.

Do I in any sense exist? Not just when my mind and body are failing and cease to function, but when it is reduced to its component elements? We long to know, but are confronted with not knowing, disturbed by by longing, immortal longing. Yet we have no means of imagining what we long for, what existence would be like beyond the realm of present knowledge, experience and understanding.

This longing is part of our consciousness of self, something which seems to distinguish us from other creatures. It's part of what being in in the divine image means for those who stake their existence on believing in God.