{"id":26206,"date":"2025-12-09T10:55:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T15:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26206"},"modified":"2025-12-09T11:17:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T16:17:48","slug":"26206","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26206","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\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=\"CAIN - The Commission (Official Lyric Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XkJniP87XdQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Met by the Beloved<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Inspired by the teachings of John of the Cross, Mirabai Starr encourages us to trust the difficult path of unknowing:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is time to enter the desert. You may not take anything with you: not your insulated bottle of cool water, not a knife, not a single raisin. You may not take a sleeping bag. No cell phone or map. Leave the sunscreen behind. Burn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is time to enter into utter unknowing\u2014and, by unknowing, come to know truly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>mind is an impediment on this journey. The senses are misleading<\/strong>. Leave them on the porch when you slip away in the middle of the night. Be very quiet as you close the door behind you. The <strong>members of your household will not understand your quest. <\/strong>They will try to keep you home. Leave. Go now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No one claims this will be an easy journey. Your senses will thirst for the familiar juices that remind them of a time when the Holy One fed them from her own breasts. The intellect will grope around in the dark, panicking. Pay no attention. Walk through the night. Sit very still in the daytime and watch the miracle of your breath as it quietly fills your lungs and empties them again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spend forty days in the wilderness, and forty nights. Don\u2019t give up. <strong>The worst that will happen is that you will die. Die to your fragmented self and be reborn into your divine self.<\/strong> Enter knowing through the needle of unknowing. In silence, finally hear the voice of the Holy One. In surrendering to sheer emptiness, be filled with the Beloved at last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Starr translates John of the Cross\u2019s<\/em><em>&nbsp;poem \u201cGlosa \u00e1 lo Divino\u201d:&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I would not sacrifice my soul<br>for all the beauty of this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is only one thing<br>for which I would risk everything:<br>an I-don\u2019t-know-what<br>that lies hidden<br>in the heart of the Mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The taste of finite pleasure<br>leads nowhere.<br>All it does is exhaust the appetite<br>and ravage the palate.<br>And so, I would not sacrifice my soul<br>for all the sweetness of this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I would risk everything<br>for an I-don\u2019t-know-what<br>that lies hidden<br>in the heart of the Mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The generous heart<br>does not collapse into the easy things,<br>but rises up in adversity.<br>It settles for nothing.<br>Faith lifts it higher and higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such a heart savors<br>an I-don\u2019t-know-what<br>found only in the heart of the Mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The soul that God has touched<br>burns with love-longing.<br>Her tastes have been transfigured.<br>Ordinary pleasures sicken her.<br>She is like a person with a fever;<br>nothing tastes good anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All she wants<br>is an I-don\u2019t-know-what<br>locked in the heart of<br>the Mystery\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I will never lose myself<br>for anything the senses can taste,<br>nor for anything the mind can grasp,<br>no matter how sublime,<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; how delicious.<br>I will not pause for beauty,<br>I will not linger over grace.<br>I am bound for<br>an I-don\u2019t-know-what<br>deep within the heart of the Mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>============================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/app-link\/post?publication_id=254001&amp;post_id=180926348&amp;utm_source=post-email-title&amp;utm_campaign=email-post-title&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=5p0kg&amp;token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo5NTY1MjE2LCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxODA5MjYzNDgsImlhdCI6MTc2NTEwNTQ4NSwiZXhwIjoxNzY3Njk3NDg1LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjU0MDAxIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.LAN8MO5wa8m7J8uLWB7j7kcetpt1Y00Xyjx7Ih46FEY\">Is Good News Coming?&nbsp;<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Advent and the Art of Preparation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Mark Longhurst<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><td><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@marklonghurst\"><\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Advent\u2019s stubborn hope is that good news is coming. We need it, desperately. Each day stirs up a maelstrom of dread. But how can we dare to believe in good news? Especially in our fractured<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>moment in which the very category of news, not to mention truth, has become swallowed whole by an abyss of hate-filled chaos? Might this good news of Jesus be fake, or a teflon-like political flip-flop? Might it be ideologically driven? Might it be imperial power masquerading as religion? All of this is possible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet Gospel writer Mark\u2019s first verse still gleams, like an arrow piercing through all that is false: \u201cthe beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.\u201d The season of Advent reminds us that good news is coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For such good news to arrive, however, requires preparation. We\u2019re so used to bad news that receiving good news takes cultivation, practice, and defiance. This gospel good news starts with the call to prepare, which is a message straight from the prophet of preparation himself, Isaiah: \u201cSee, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way. The voice of one crying out in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It must be said, though, that Christmas preparations are not the same as Christ preparations. We ready ourselves for the coming of an adult Christ at Christmas rather than a sweet baby Jesus. Babies, like Christ, bring a whole new world to our lives, but it\u2019s too easy for the birthday of baby Jesus to be sentimentalized. Every Advent, I am reminded of Will Ferrell\u2019s satirical prayer as Ricky Bobby in the movie&nbsp;<em>Talladega Nights<\/em>, who addresses the Baby Jesus while saying grace at table. \u201cSweet Baby Jesus,\u201d he says. \u201cWe thank you for this bountiful harvest of Dominos, KFC, and the always delicious Taco Bell.\u201d But the coming of Christ is far more than fast-food product placement tacked onto a Pampers commercial. We are readying ourselves for the realm, or dream, of God to arrive right here, smack dab in reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet in the conflicted meaning-making of our moment, the good news of one is the terrible news of another. Who\u2019s to judge what is good, and how can we know it, much less prepare for it? And yet this conflict over truth is not new. It\u2019s ancient. Good news\u2014or gospel\u2014in Mark\u2019s day (in Greek,&nbsp;<em>euangelion<\/em>) is a loaded term.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Good news is the propaganda slogan of peace and security that the Roman emperor supposedly brings. It is not only Jesus\u2019s birthday toward which we lean, but also Caesar\u2019s birthday. A building inscription circa 6 BCE demonstrates as much: \u201cThe birthday of the god (Caesar Augustus) has been for the whole world the beginning of good news concerning him.\u201d (quoted in&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/ed3cd68f-21a2-439a-a761-7b90a5987dfd?j=eyJ1IjoiNXAwa2cifQ.YAyL4V3QajRZWEa9RRzApx3T63xhnavEPaYBgWo1Y4g\">Jesus for President<\/a><\/em>, page 70). The Gospel writer Mark enters the fray and directly opposes the fake good news of the Empire, not by arguing but by telling a counter-story of the Son of God\u2019s birthday\u2014the one who brings true and lasting peace and joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mark, for one, refuses to accept Caesar\u2019s new normal. And what\u2019s more is that Mark does not counter Caesar and Rome\u2019s grandiosity with rants or arguments. As though<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>sending a tweet changes hearts and minds. Instead, Mark tells a story\u2014a story of life, of healing, of justice for the poor and excluded; it\u2019s a story of a person, Jesus, who represents and reminds us of a new realm from heaven that has always been aligning with earth. Some even think Mark\u2019s use of \u201cgood news\u201d creates a new genre: the genre of Gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How does one prepare for a new world, for a new consciousness? I always appreciate the lectionary\u2019s wisdom each First Sunday of Advent, because it begins the season with an apocalyptic passage, as if to declare that if we are not prepared, the in-breaking of Christ will end our worlds. The newness of love and justice cuts that deep\u2014at least if we\u2019re not ready. And this is the reason John the Baptizer is on the Advent scene as a messenger of preparedness. His whole presence\u2014from locusts buzzing to fingers sticky with honey to camel hair curling in all directions\u2014shakes us out of the new normal. He\u2019s not bringing change simply for change\u2019s sake, jumping on the new Messiah bandwagon as if it were the latest iPhone model. Rather, John seeks to prepare the way for Christ, and his method of preparation is through something called, a bit clunkily, I\u2019ll admit, a \u201cbaptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But can we even use these words anymore, laden as they are with religious baggage? Isn\u2019t repentance the favorite theme of the street-corner preacher\u2019s shout? Isn\u2019t repentance code for the salvation-from-hellfire decision to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior? If I thought I was going to burn eternally, I\u2019d choose Jesus, too. And I did, for many years. Isn\u2019t the phrase \u201cforgiveness of sins\u201d a holdover from blood atonement, imagining a God who forgives sins through shed animal or beloved-son blood? Many think salvation is at its heart vengeful, or at least about saying the right words to initiate a soul-destination escape from punishment. But no simple prayer\u2014other than the complex and utterly holy living of a life\u2014can prepare us for whatever mystery is beyond this bodily reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Repentance. Forgiveness of sins. These words have been coopted and smeared by people for whom extremist, authoritarian politics masquerade as gospel. Maybe it makes sense to have a moratorium on their English translations, just so we can forge new neural associations? Repentance, in Greek&nbsp;<em>metanoia<\/em>, is nothing more and nothing less than radical transformation. Repentance is the decisive day you decide to stop drinking. Repentance is when you realize that your life is not about you; when you start volunteering at the food pantry; when you first stand up for the rights of immigrants; when, as a privileged person, you first witness real poverty and realize your life will never be the same. Repentance is turning around the direction of your life and choices and values to be about a larger story\u2014God\u2019s larger story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s the thorny part of preparation, though: good news comes to those who are ready for it. Preparing for Christ first means identifying those ways in which we have not prepared for Christ\u2014or for love, or for justice, or for peace. It means aligning our inner and outer desires with God\u2019s desires. And we surely have not made a straight path for the new world, the new selves, that God seeks to birth in, around, and through us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This Christmas, our world needs us to take preparation seriously. And there\u2019s a way in which even the arrival of Christ itself is contingent on our preparation. We don\u2019t cause Christ to come, because God is free, and we\u2019re not that important. But if we do not prepare for this arrival, then we will surely fail to recognize good news when it comes. So whenever we pray the Advent prayer \u201cCome, Lord Jesus,\u201d we are also pledging to prepare, to repent, to turn our lives\u2014and our country, and our world\u2014around for love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Met by the Beloved Inspired by the teachings of John of the Cross, Mirabai Starr encourages us to trust the difficult path of unknowing: It is time to enter the desert. You may not take anything with you: not your insulated bottle of cool water, not a knife, not a single raisin. You may not [&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\/26206"}],"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=26206"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26211,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26206\/revisions\/26211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}