{"id":23167,"date":"2023-12-04T08:39:42","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T13:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23167"},"modified":"2023-12-04T08:50:54","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T13:50:54","slug":"23167","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23167","title":{"rendered":"Willing to Be Amazed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Hillsong - Open My Eyes - (with lyrics)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Uku6V5oyWSc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The roots of ultimate insights are found&#8230;. on the level of wonder and radical amazement, in the depth of awe, in our sensitivity to the mystery.<br>\u2014Abraham Joshua Heschel,&nbsp;<em>God in Search of Man<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Richard Rohr teaches that awe, wonder, and amazement are foundational spiritual experiences:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I believe the basic, primal, foundational religious intuition is a moment of awe and wonder. We say, \u201cGod, that\u2019s beautiful!\u201d Why do we so often say \u201cGod!\u201d when we have such moments? I think it\u2019s a recognition that this is a godly moment. <strong>We are somehow aware that something is just too good, too right, too much, too timely. When awe and wonder are absent from our life, we build our religion on laws and rituals, trying to manufacture some moment of awe.<\/strong> It works occasionally, I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think people who<strong> live their lives open to awe and wonder have a much greater chance of meeting the Holy than someone who just goes to church<\/strong> but doesn\u2019t live in an open way. We almost domesticate the Holy by making it so commonplace. That\u2019s what I fear happens with the way we ritualize worship. I see people come to church day after day unprepared for anything new or different. Even if something new or different happens, they fit it into their old boxes. Their stance seems to be, \u201cI will not be awestruck.\u201d I don\u2019t think we get very far with that kind of resistance to the new, the Real, and the amazing. That\u2019s probably why God allows most of our great relationships to begin with a kind of infatuation with another person\u2014and I don\u2019t just mean sexual infatuation, but a deep admiration or appreciation. It allows us to take our place as a student and learner. If we never do that, nothing new is going to happen. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn understood this when he wrote, \u201cthe Western system in its present state of spiritual exhaustion does not look attractive.\u201d [2] It\u2019s a telling judgment. The Western mind almost refuses to be in awe anymore. It\u2019s only aware of what is wrong, and seemingly incapable of rejoicing in what is still good and true and beautiful. <strong>The only way out is through a new imagination and new cosmology, created by positive God-experience<\/strong>. Education, problem-solving, and rigid ideology are all finally inadequate by themselves to create cosmic hope and meaning. Only\u00a0<em>great religion<\/em>\u00a0can do that, which is probably why Jesus spent so much of his ministry trying to reform religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Healthy religion gives us a foundational sense of awe. <strong>It re-enchants an otherwise empty universe. It gives people a universal reverence toward all things<\/strong>. Only with such reverence do we find confidence and coherence. Only then does the world become a safe home. <strong>Then we can see the reflection of the divine image in the human, in the animal, in the entire natural world\u2014which has now become inherently \u201csupernatural.\u201d [3]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">We Are What We See<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When it\u2019s over, I want to say: all my life \/ I was a bride married to amazement. \/ I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.<br>\u2014Mary Oliver, <\/strong>\u201cWhen Death Comes\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>For Father Richard, contemplation teaches us how to see, which deepens our capacity to be amazed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Moments of awe and wonder are the only solid foundation for the entire religious instinct and journey. <\/strong>Look, for example, at the Exodus narrative: It all begins with a murderer (Moses) on the run from the law, encountering a paradoxical bush that \u201cburns without being consumed.\u201d Struck by awe, Moses takes off his shoes and the <strong>very earth beneath his feet becomes \u201choly ground\u201d (see Exodus 3:2\u20136) because he has met \u201cBeing Itself<\/strong>\u201d (Exodus 3:14). This narrative reveals the classic pattern, repeated in different forms in the varied lives and vocabulary of all the world\u2019s mystics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I must admit that we are usually blocked against being awestruck, just as we are blocked against great love and great suffering. <strong>Early-stage contemplation is largely about identifying and releasing ourselves from these blockages by recognizing\u00a0<em>the unconscious reservoir of<\/em>\u00a0<em>expectations, assumptions, and beliefs in which we are already immersed.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0If we don\u2019t see what is in our reservoir, we will understand all new things in the same old-patterned way\u2014and nothing new will ever happen. <strong>A new idea held by the old self is never really a new idea, whereas even an old idea held by a new self will soon become fresh and refreshing. Contemplation actually fills our reservoir with clear, clean water that allows us to encounter experience free of our old patterns.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is the mistake we all make in our encounters with reality\u2014both good and bad. We do not realize that it wasn\u2019t the person or event right in front of us that made us angry or fearful\u2014or excited and energized. At best, that is only partly true. If we had allowed a beautiful hot air balloon in the sky to make us happy, it was because\u00a0<em>we<\/em>\u00a0were already predisposed to happiness. The hot air balloon just occasioned it\u2014and almost anything else would have done the same.\u00a0<strong>Howwe see will largely determine\u00a0what\u00a0we see and whether it can give us joy or make us pull back with an emotionally stingy and resistant response. <\/strong>Without denying an objective outer reality,\u00a0<strong><em>what we are able to see and are predisposed to see in the outer world is a mirror<\/em>\u00a0<em>reflection of our own inner world<\/em><\/strong><em> and state of consciousness at that time.<\/em>\u00a0Most of the time, we just do not see at all, but rather operate on cruise control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It seems that we humans are two-way mirrors, reflecting both inner and outer worlds. We project ourselves onto outer things and these very things also reflect back to us\u00a0<em>our own unfolding identity<\/em>. Mirroring is the way that contemplatives see, subject to subject rather than subject to object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><a href=\"x-webdoc:\/\/10760F1A-6EBD-4ABF-BAE8-FC45EB8B6F7C\/johnchaffee.com\"><\/a><strong>Learning from the Mystics:<\/strong>Nicholas of Cusa (#1)<a href=\"https:\/\/clicks.aweber.com\/y\/ct\/?l=7brA&amp;m=hyQmmUl.a90RJVk&amp;b=GI1OO6iY8X9A3abQRdw5Vw\"><\/a><strong><u>Quote of the Week:<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0<strong>&#8220;God is the Not-Other.&#8221;<\/strong><br>Reflection\u00a0<br>Nicholas of Cusa was obviously a theologian and a philosopher. \u00a0However, one thing that might surprise people is that he frequently wrote on desire. \u00a0Yes, desire! \u00a0A seemingly taboo topic for a man of the church to focus on, but to be honest, his definition of desire was quite profound!\u00a0One of his main insights was that hidden within every finite desire is a degree or hint of the infinite desire for God.\u00a0God is outside of us, though.\u00a0Beyond us.\u00a0More than we can comprehend or imagine.\u00a0God is so far removed that our desire for God can seem impossible.<br>\u00a0So what is a person to do? \u00a0If God is outside of us, and every desire is a shadow of our desire for God, does that mean that we are doomed to an existence in which that desire shall always be unfulfilled?\u00a0This sounds like a living hell, doesn&#8217;t it? \u00a0Wanting God but never getting God?\u00a0All this goes to say, that the best of the Christian mystics point us toward a very simple and profound reality that God is actually far closer than we could dare to hope.\u00a0Every generation has its own Christian mystics who tell of this mystery of closeness with God in their own way, and Nicholas of Cusa says it in this way&#8230;\u00a0<strong>&#8220;God is the Not-Other.&#8221;<\/strong>\u00a0This means that God is within us.\u00a0United with us.\u00a0Inescapably a part of our existence.\u00a0Intimately close.\u00a0One with us.\u00a0There has been <strong>much written and preached about in Christian circles about separation from God, and that has likely come at the expense of talking about union with God.<\/strong> \u00a0Whole systems of thought and economics of faith are built around maintaining that sense of separation that we feel (or are convinced by others we ought to feel).\u00a0But what could happen if we had a deep, resolute belief that God has never been anything other than the &#8220;Not-Other&#8221;?\u00a0What would Christianity look like today if we were to take seriously that God is &#8220;One&#8221; with us?\u00a0Why, I guess, that just might be taking Romans 8:38-39 seriously then, wouldn&#8217;t it?\u00a0<em><strong>&#8220;For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.&#8221;<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0It is such an odd thing to think about how this common passage from St. Paul, has still not fully been realized in our theology today. \u00a0There are many ways in which modern Christianity has a long way to go before it can fully live into the truths written about in the New Testament.\u00a0<strong>Fortunately, for us, there are these wild and wise figures such as Nicholas of Cusa, who dared to stay faithful to the teachings of the first Apostles, and point the rest of us in the direction of the God who is &#8220;Not-Other&#8221; than us<\/strong>.<br><br>Prayer<br>\u00a0<em>Heavenly Father, help us to apprehend this truth that you are so deeply a part of our existence that you will never be other than, separate from, or divided against us. \u00a0Help us to live within this oneness and to be ministers of this Gospel of reconciliation. \u00a0May it be so. \u00a0Amen.<\/em>\u00a0<br><br>Life Overview of Nicholas of Cusa<br>\u00a0<strong>When and Where:<\/strong>\u00a0Born in 1401, in Kues (modern-day Germany). \u00a0Died on August 11, 1464, in Umbria (modern-day Italy).\u00a0<br><strong>Why He is Important:<\/strong>\u00a0Nicholas of Cusa was a major voice in the Medieval period for theology. \u00a0His writings and works are not as well known as others from the Rhineland area of modern-day Germany, but he is a major theologian on the topic of desire and how God is the ultimate fulfillment of every creaturely desire we ever experience. \u00a0<br><strong>Notable Works to Check Out by or about:<\/strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/clicks.aweber.com\/y\/ct\/?l=7brA&amp;m=hyQmmUl.a90RJVk&amp;b=5C2yX_19Kth3StbB8CyB2g\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Nicholas of Cusa: Selected Writings<\/strong><\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/clicks.aweber.com\/y\/ct\/?l=7brA&amp;m=hyQmmUl.a90RJVk&amp;b=F_0xovHAzcQ.P4ybginV5Q\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Nicholas of Cusa: A Companion to His Life and Times<\/strong><\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The roots of ultimate insights are found&#8230;. on the level of wonder and radical amazement, in the depth of awe, in our sensitivity to the mystery.\u2014Abraham Joshua Heschel,&nbsp;God in Search of Man Richard Rohr teaches that awe, wonder, and amazement are foundational spiritual experiences: I believe the basic, primal, foundational religious intuition is a moment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23167"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23167"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23170,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23167\/revisions\/23170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}