I must admit that I'm having a hard time understanding the sayings. I chose this one because I remember hearing it quoted in, of all places, the movie, Stigmata :-).
The story behind the movie is taken, in part, from the book, The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield ... an ancient Aramaic manuscript is found in some Mayan ruins deep in the jungle of Peru, and is suppressed by the Catholic Church. In the movie, Stigmata, the maunscript is found instead in Brazil and is, apparently, the gospel of Thomas. The church tries to suppress its message, which is quoted as ... "The Kingdom of God is inside/within you (and all about you), not in buildings/mansions of wood and stone. (When I am gone) Split a piece of wood and I am there, lift the/a stone and you will find me." ... it was feared everyone would go seriously Gnostic upon its revelation, and leave the church :-). In reality, of course, the Catholic Church hasn't tried to supress the gospel of Thomas, though it hasn't been added to the canon.
Does saying #77 mean what the movie-makers inplied ... that Jesus meant we have no need of a church to be able to "find" him? I take it to not be so specifically anti-institution but instead to be about finding God in all things ...
THE world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs --
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
- God's Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins
5 comments:
Crystal, the Hopkins is lovely, but like Thomas, it seems to me neither institutional nor anti-institutional. Perhaps we need to explore just what institution means to us. Just for starters we have what we may call high institutions and low ones. For example a large denomination might be called high and our sharing group here be called low.
High and low God's blessings on us all.
Crystal,
Great post, as ususal! Thank you for this, and the poem and links.
"The Kingdom of God is inside/within you (and all about you), not in buildings/mansions of wood and stone. (When I am gone) Split a piece of wood and I am there, lift the/a stone and you will find me." This speaks of panenthiesm - finding God in all things. To me it is so beautiful, so embracing.
Whether we are in institution - high - hearing the choirs sing, or low - sharing silence with Friends while sitting on hard benches or meditation cushions, or walking through the woods on a misty morning, smelling the moss and feeling the bark and stones, God is there. No distinction, no duality, simply This, here, now, ever-present everywhere.
Larry - Hopkins was a Jesuit priest, so he was probably talking about St. Ignatius' "finding God in all things" idea ... as you said, neither anti nor pro institutional, I'd guess. I think there's a place for institutions, though I don't go to church myself.
Meredith - panenthiesm ... lucky you don't live in the middle ages, you'd probably be burned at the stake :-). Come to think of it, Ignatius did spend some time in the Inquisition's prisons, I believe. I did really like the movie ... Gabriel Byrne!
I haven't seen that poem for years. Thank you for posting it, I really like it a lot.
Tell me Crystal. Does the book or movie explain what a manuscript in Aramaic is doing in a Mayan temple?
I'm glad someone else is saying -- this stuff is really hard to understand. For me, saying, I don't know is probably one of the hardest things to say. When I say it, I usually add, but I can find out! But with some of this stuff I can't eevn say that with integrity.
Admiting the limitations of who I am becomes a spiritual discipline and can be the first step to new growth. So I hold onto that and ride the storm.
As for institutions. They are human necessities. But they have this obnoxious way of beoming false gods that people bow down and worship rather than agents for God's grace in the world.
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