Where the Twain Meet
Excerpt from 1 John 4:1-6
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world."
Reflection by Felix Carrion
In our collective history human beings have been too quick to slap on the other -- person or doctrine -- the label of the anti-this or that. Whole religions or denominations have carried for some the stigma of being the "antichrist." The list of great and venerated individuals of religion and science who were once called the anti-this or that is a long one.
Humility would remind us that for each idea we hold, there are opposing camps that would label our ideas their anti-this or that. Even Christianity was once an anti-this to the established order. So was Jesus.
When our most cherished ideas, symbols, and ideologies collide with others and are labeled anti-this or that, instead of corralling opposing camps--or worse trying desperately to eliminate them altogether--why not perceive the pure energy of the encounter?
Do we test opposing ideas? Do we engage them in painful re-examination? Or, do we emphatically hold our ground without the test, without the daring openness, without the earnest re-examination?
Without ceasing to be what they are, yin and yang, light and darkness, order and chaos, sky and ground, heaven and earth, spirit and flesh--all have met and the twain have produced the pure energy we call life; remarkable, miraculous, life.
Fundamentally, the search for a more unified understanding and experience of God and of our human collectivity is one of the most dynamic, exciting, generative journeys the human being can ever embark on, and it begins where the twain meet.
Prayer
O God, lead on. Amen.
Excerpt from 1 John 4:1-6
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world."
Reflection by Felix Carrion
In our collective history human beings have been too quick to slap on the other -- person or doctrine -- the label of the anti-this or that. Whole religions or denominations have carried for some the stigma of being the "antichrist." The list of great and venerated individuals of religion and science who were once called the anti-this or that is a long one.
Humility would remind us that for each idea we hold, there are opposing camps that would label our ideas their anti-this or that. Even Christianity was once an anti-this to the established order. So was Jesus.
When our most cherished ideas, symbols, and ideologies collide with others and are labeled anti-this or that, instead of corralling opposing camps--or worse trying desperately to eliminate them altogether--why not perceive the pure energy of the encounter?
Do we test opposing ideas? Do we engage them in painful re-examination? Or, do we emphatically hold our ground without the test, without the daring openness, without the earnest re-examination?
Without ceasing to be what they are, yin and yang, light and darkness, order and chaos, sky and ground, heaven and earth, spirit and flesh--all have met and the twain have produced the pure energy we call life; remarkable, miraculous, life.
Fundamentally, the search for a more unified understanding and experience of God and of our human collectivity is one of the most dynamic, exciting, generative journeys the human being can ever embark on, and it begins where the twain meet.
Prayer
O God, lead on. Amen.
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