The Cosmic Christ: Week 2
Summary: Sunday, April 2-Friday, April 7, 2017
What most religion treats as separate (matter and Spirit, humanity and divinity) has never been separate from its beginnings: Spirit is forever captured in matter, and matter is the place where Spirit shows itself. It is one sacred world. (Sunday)
Christ is the Archetype and Model for the rest of creation as Scripture clearly teaches (Ephesians 1:3-14; Colossians 1:15-20). Yet Christians have instead focused on proving that Jesus was “God,” which felt necessary to put our group out in front and to solidify our own ranks. (Monday)
If it is true, then it has to be true everywhere and all the time. (Tuesday)
Christians formally believed that somehow Jesus was “fully human and fully divine” at the same time. But with dualistic thinking, the best most of us could do was to see ourselves as only human, and Jesus, for all practical purposes, as only divine. (Wednesday)
Jesus is the union of human and divine in space and time; whereas the Christ is the eternal union of matter and Spirit from the beginning of time. (Thursday)
If authentic God experience overcomes the primary false split between yourself and the divine, then it should also overcome the equally false split between yourself and the rest of creation. (Friday)
Practice: Caring for Creation
We naturally move from the concrete to the universal, and so it makes sense to begin loving Earth, caring for God’s creation, with what is closest to us. Becoming intimate with God’s presence in one aspect of creation—be it a pet, birdsong, garden, or favorite wild space—can move us toward loving our forgotten brothers and sisters, human or otherwise, through compassionate actions.
Let yourself be drawn today and in the coming week to a particular created thing. Spend time observing and coming to know it better. Use all your physical senses and your heart as well. Study this creature to learn more about its characteristics, how it evolved, the niche it fills in an ecosystem, its various needs and contributions to the balance of life-death-life. Recognize Christ’s indwelling presence.
As you come to love this unique creation, let your embrace widen to include all it touches—water, air, minerals, plants, animals, humans, and the rest of the “great chain of being.” You might feel called to a specific, tangible way of loving this being and its community, perhaps through one of these practices:
- Grow a garden and feed it with compost. (Raising your own food is a nourishing and meaningful way to connect with and care for Earth; eating less meat puts less strain on Earth’s resources; native plants provide habitat and food for bees, butterflies, and birds; composting reduces landfill waste and nourishes the soil.)
- Travel sustainably. (Walk, ride a bike, take a bus, carpool, shop locally.)
- Learn about environmental policy and let your voice be heard. (Call or write to a representative; join a peaceful demonstration or protest.)
- Simplify. (Cultivate non-attachment through meditation and find ways of living with less while appreciating the beauty and abundance of simplicity.)
- Introduce someone else, especially a child, to your beloved creation. (Take a walk in the woods together; share a picture or a story that makes this creation special; invite them to join you in a caring act.)
Gateway to Silence:
In Christ, with Christ, through Christ
For Further Study:
Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, & Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See (CAC: 2010), MP3 download
Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Media: 2014)
Richard Rohr, The Cosmic Christ (CAC: 2009), CD, MP3 download
