In His Spirit

"I am the vine; you are the branches."   --John15:5

There are many aspects of the Holy Spirit, as it is known in the Christian world. Its activity while not limited to Christians, encompasses the whole of Creation; we learn of its presence and activities from the Gospels. More importantly we learn about its work from the experiences of our own lives.
 It's popular to think of luck, fortune or mere intuition as the active agents in one's world. And they are. But what if these activities are orchestrated, at least some times, by an over-arching energy, a spirit? What might that be like?

With the coming of the Spirit, there dawns a new thought in the world, a new way; while the Spirit, the angels and the sages were well known to Judaism, it is Christianity that carries it further, banking on the Spirit as part of a tri-une god. The way of the Christ for early Christians was their dawning of what today we think of as "Judeo-Christian" spirituality, even mystical experience.
Following the Christ in the Spirit does not mean conforming to a rigid code of behavior or thought; indeed the Spirit has come to set us and all captives free. Following in the Spirit does not mean that we are now without fault; indeed the Spirit brings forgiveness. Following in the Spirit does not mean denying our unique characteristics; indeed the Creator has already seen to that in forming us to be the good that we are.

Then what is this Spirit about? Jesuit theologian Richard Hauser writes in his classic introduction to the Holy Spirit, In His Spirit, that living under the influence of the Spirit, "[is] being forever concerned with 'building the Kingdom." From stories in the Bible one gets the impression that the Christ and those who follow, the disciples, are on the move.
They do not rest; such is their energy, their spirit and their joy at the realization of the existence of a heaven on earth. "Such is the Spirit's presence in the Christ and in the community that they are propelled forward in their work."

In this activity, they discover and experience the peace, joy and love rained down upon them by the Spirit, the Paraclete. This peacefulness, loving, kind nature is brought forward by the community. "In our day [when] Christians are becoming more and more conscious of responsibility for transforming the unjust structures of our societies through active involvement with society..."
 The Holy Spirit is our sanctifier. We are blessed and strengthened by its action, energized in our activity, in our prayer.

"The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray, the Spirit himself expresses our plea …" Romans 8

"The Father knows what you need before you ask him." Matthew 6


As we grow into a life in the Spirit, a life in its love, over time we may find greater ease in the expression of our innate self; the Spirit operates at the deepest levels of our beings. Its activity flows from the center of our daily lives because we are both bodies and spirits.
Thomas Merton, Christian mystic, insists that prayer is an expression of our entire being; it is rooted in life, and flows from life. In fact, in his view, meditation has no point and no reality unless it 's firmly rooted in life.

There are two principal ways the Spirit moves, easily recognized: first in times of happiness and consolations; secondly when we feel a quiet, inner peace, aware that God is with us; that we are loved wholly. This movement by the Spirit is unaccompanied by much intellectual activity.There is a quiet, a resting; words are less necessary as we come to know a person.
Good friends can enjoy each other's company and say very little. They know something of the heart of the other. The Spirit is many in its works.

A Theology of Evil

"The Devil has a whole system of theology and philosophy...which explains that created things are evil...in fact the whole universe is full of misery..." Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

According to the Evil One, the creator rejoices in the sufferings of men; the universe is filled with misery because the creator himself plans it and wills it. In myriad ways, the implication of a move toward what is good within a spiritual tradition, by definition, acknowledges its opposite, what is evil. This is an idea which has not been directly explored here before.

Evil is indeed the counterpoint to many if not most spiritual systems and modes of practice. Yet in a modern, pluralistic society such as the United States, its presence may be easily obscured by many factors, and it may be enveloped and packaged into a number of other ideas. Without clear, careful awareness of the implications of a thought or action, an individual or a mass movement, evil easily arises into our midst.

Thomas Merton writes-- indeed, says within this system, the Creator took real pleasure in the crucifixion of souls; the Christ came to earth so as to be punished. Punishment is in fact his chief goal for himself and for all others. The pair, the Christ and his creator, want nothing more than to punish and persecute; that mankind inevitably is in error, he is wrong, so much so that there is great opportunity to manifest the justice of the wicked.

In the cosmos of the Evil One, the first order of creation is Hell; it comes first, before all else. The proper devotions of the faithful are about evil so as to be cloaked with evil. It is so that man cannot escape his punishments, the justice that this One metes out.There is no escape for individuals, nor for society in this way; there is no mercy, for it has no place in these systems of justice by punishments. The suffering, the Christ and his cross have now been transformed into a new symbol, a symbol for the victory of Justice and Law.

The Evil One declares that it is Law and Justice, not Love that fulfills the teaching. "Law must devour everything,' writes Merton, 'such is this theology of punishment, hatred and revenge."
Those who live by this dogma, live for just punishments, and yet desire to successfully evade the very same for themselves. He or she will take care to see to it that others do not avoid suffering. This concern powers the believer. The chief mark of hell is that there is everything but mercy. God absents himself from hell.

His mercy is elsewhere. Those in agreement with the Evil One are perfect; they no longer have need of any mercy. It is perhaps because "they derive a deep, subconscious comfort from the thought that many other people will fall into hell which they themselves are going to escape."

By this feeling, this conviction they are saved. The Evil One makes many disciples; he furthers his conquest through announcements against sin, the evil of sin which is guilt. So don't feel guilty, lest you fall into sin! In syllogistic logic, the principle of pleasure is explored:
 pleasure is sin; all sin is pleasure.
Next comes the notion that since pleasure is practically unavoidable, indeed planted here by the creator, we have a natural tendency towards evil, our nature is evil; therefore practically no one can escape sins because pleasure is inescapable. And so in the philosophy of the Evil One, what is left except to live for pleasure, to live in the now--with no thought of anyone or anything else beyond the self?

Ironic how those lives are often miserably unhappy ones, isn't it? Yet it's all in the plan of Justice and Punishments devised by this creator who works without mercy or grace, explains Thomas Merton in his essay, "The Moral Theology of the Devil."

The Question of Emphasis, Greek Orthodoxy

While this author, James Payton is from a decidedly Protestant institution, Redeemer University, he paints a sympathetic and often eloquent image of Greek Orthodox Christians in his book, Light From the Christian East. Today many in the Protestant fold are enamored and intrigued by Orthodoxy and the ideas it holds.

The Orthodox might be at times described as more "fossilized," more satisfied with its tenets and position within the Christian world. It remains staunchly mystical, stable and serene in its teachings. While the west adopted other ways and means, the Orthodox continued on after the meeting in Constantinople which ultimately accelerated the split within the two groups.

To the Orthodox mind, the Church was Collegial, that is founded upon its brothers and sisters in the faith; the Roman church developed a more centralized structure and found a willing audience, for the most part, in Europe. France is often called the "cradle of Christianity." The intertwining of the Church hierarchy and the emerging royal monarchies was well suited to their purposes, both individually and jointly. While there are indeed contrasts between the two, it must remain in the forefront that these two institutions, Roman and Greek Orthodox remain more closely allied than any other communities within the Christian realm.

And very unlike the Protestantism that sprung up in the early modern period of western history, the Orthodox more than any other spoke and taught that Grace was something that was more of a given and not merited. That is to say we have already received salvation in the Christ, if we are open to the working of the Spirit, then grace is upon us. Manifest destiny, or any other likewise teaching, has not been part of the Orthodox dictum. Thus within the Orthodox tradition, 'Systemic' theology is with little regard in comparison to the great emphasis some modern protestant theologians like to attribute to it. Curiously, these same thinkers according to Payton, "give little or no thought to what grace actually is."

Similarly the Protestant and Orthodox groups diverge at issues like sacraments (sacred-ness), the belief of giving and receiving of divine grace. And along this thought, Payton writes on the centrality in Orthodox belief about the 'breaking of the bread.' In the eastern mind this is Eucharist, the real, true and whole presence of the Lord Christ. How so asks the protestant thinker? More importantly, can we believe--even if we don't know the whole story?

To the Orthodox mind, the sacraments, and the Eucharist among them, is the whole story, owing back to the Gospels and the Hebrew scriptures believed to foretell them. The Gospels tell of a savior to come into the world, a great redeemer that would free man for all time; this man, the Christ comes for once and for all; he proclaims that wherever we are, in the breaking of the bread, there I AM.

From baptism and its mystical significance to Eucharist and salvation, the faithful among those in the  Orthodox tradition remain a strong voice within the Christian world. Payton is a man who sets many to thinking. The "book," as some call the Bible, is all there is, and the book is not all there is. Sounds like a good Zen Koan to this Simple Mind.