rishi
EVERYTHING I REALLY NEED TO KNOW IN LIFE............ I LEARNED IN THE LITURGY
Posted on: 11/21/2010 14:39
HOW THE REIGN OF CHRIST ACTUALLY COMES ABOUT
“We Have Arrived...” is the title of the insert in today's bulletin, which I hope you will take home with you to reflect on. In today's final feast of the Church Year, The Reign of Christ, we celebrate the ultimate purpose of the liturgy itself—that God in Christ reign in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
A habit that I have developed on this final feast day of the Reign of Christ, is to pause for a few minutes to reflect on the sacred seasons, through which I have just passed. And today I invite you to join with me in that reflection, because, in a very real sense, Everything We Really Need To Know In Life, We Learn In The Liturgy. Through it, we discover a Way In to the reality of God in whatever life circumstance we may find ourselves.
Through this ancient liturgy, we discern a pattern... an order... a deep structure that runs through every single lived experience... and we have come to believe that this deep structure is there, in the fabric of our life experiences, because it has been indelibly imprinted there by the Mystery we call 'God.' To guide us into becoming the whole persons that we are created to be. Persons created in the image of the God who is Love.
We discover, in the liturgy, that there are sacred places in this life that we can inhabit, indeed that we must inhabit, if we are to become whole. Places that, although very real, are invisible. They cannot be detected with the five senses. They have no physical properties. They are not landscapes... but soulscapes... places of the human heart.... Spiritual places... of such importance that not one of them can be left out on our journey....
Though invisible, these are not places where we escape from the reality of our lives. On the contrary, it is through these invisible places that we journey into reality. A deeper, divine reality that much of our culture works night and day to prevent us from perceiving, because the truths we discover there... expose the harmfulness of the world for what it is, and stir up our hearts to turn away from that harmfulness and be healed.
We have discovered that there is a very real, though invisible, place in our lives called 'Advent.' And in that place we become aware of our utter incapacity to flourish as human beings, without that rare and steadfast love that never dies. In Advent, we become acquainted with both the pain and the delight of our absolute dependence on God's Love to fully live our lives. The pain of Advent is the discovery that, in fear and loathing, we often cling to the harmful fantasy that we ourselves are the only “one true God” in our lives. The delight of Advent is the discovery that the hope of a love that does not die is actually true, actually real.
And that hope, that we are so loved, ushers into our awareness another very real, though invisible, place in our lives called 'Epiphany' in which our Advent hope is actually fulfilled. In the place called Epiphany, I perceive God's self-giving love ...actually being extended... to me. And something happens. The sturdiness of that love that is willing to give all for me, creates in me an unusual confidence, a trust, a personal knowledge that I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine, and, for that reason, everything is going to be OK, even when things are not OK, from time to time. Because I know who I am, and to whom I belong, and I can rest secure in the knowledge of that love. In this place of Epiphany we are given faith. That deep trust in God's love that changes how we understand and feel toward every experience that arises in life. Changes our entire horizon....
And with that gift we are empowered to enter into another real, though invisible, place in our lives called 'Lent' ...where our faith in God's love for us... enables us to surrender... to offer ourselves wholly to God... not just on the sunny days... but in the midst of the temptations to turn away from our sacred bond of love. In Lent we face our temptations to exchange the priceless pearl of faith for some worthless trinket that feeds the ego, and lets us pretend that, not God, but we ourselves, are the center of the universe. And it is here, in this challenging place called Lent, that we grow strong, experiencing difficult trials, experiencing our weakness, drawing on the strength of God, and so developing a stable capacity to say “yes” to those situations in life which are not pleasant, but necessary and worthwhile — like commitment, sacrifice, and mourning. In the same way, in this sacred place called Lent, we develop a stable capacity to say “no” to those situations which can be pleasant, or tension-relieving, but harmful to ourselves and others —like violence in all of its many gross and subtle forms. Lent is that holy place where we actually lose, actually die to our egocentricity, in order to find a true, life-giving center, in God.
And the love offering of ourselves to God in Lent, becomes, in turn, a portal into that real, though invisible, place in our lives called 'Easter,' in which a new, radiant, and more whole self arises from the ashes of that former self which was freely given away in love to God. In the sacred place of Easter, we discover that the obstacles, the ruts, the unhelpful patterns of our former selves have been overcome, not magically, but through our conscious cooperation with the grace of God, in Advent, and Epiphany, and Lent. The joy of Easter has that awesome quality of “How could life possibly get better, more beautiful, more true that this?!”
But it DOES get even better... because we then find ourselves birthed into that very vast and clear place in our lives, that Post-Pentecost place called Ordinary Time, and it is here where, finally having everything that we need to flourish, we actually do flourish... we actually learn, day by day, how to love ourselves and others as we have been loved by God. And so, the cycle continues, as we ourselves make God's Incarnate Love present in the world. And our lives become........ all about service..... as it was for Jesus.
It is good, on this final feast day of the Reign of Christ, to pause and reflect, as we just have, on the liturgical seasons, these sacred places in our lives, through which we have just passed, and through which we will pass again, beginning next Sunday.
It reminds us of the purpose of the liturgy, that God in Christ reign in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. It reminds us of the inner process, and the outward steps, through which that reign actually comes about in our lives.
And reflecting on our passage through these different sacred places is also a very practical thing for us to do, because, although in the formal liturgy we explore these places in a very orderly way, following the Church Calendar....... in the informal liturgy of our everyday lives, we can sometimes find ourselves situated in Advent, Epiphany, and Lent, and looking forward to Easter, all before breakfast!!! So it's helpful to have this little faith framework in mind, gently nudging us to move into the spiritual dimension in our circumstances. (And why not just stay there...?)
It is a priceless gift that we have been given in this Sacred Liturgy... It's true, I realize, that the liturgy can just roll off of us, like water on a duck's back... But let's not let that happen! Let's follow this ancient Way In to a spiritually abundant life.
As we move forward, toward this New Advent, let's prepare our hearts and minds anew, for all the good that God's love has in store for us. It could be the very best year of our individual lives, and our life as a parish community, regardless of the obstacles we face together. I invite you to humbly pray and boldly resolve.... that it be so.
Amen.
Rishi Sativihari
Reign of Christ, 2010
Bishop Cronyn Memorial Church (Anglican)
London, Ontario
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