Tag Archives: Apocrypha

Deliver us, O Lord, From the Peril of Invincible Ignorance

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Sometimes it's best not to know

“The unconscious comes to the aid of the conscious ego when it is grappling with a task that is beyond its capacity.” Anthony Stevens from Private Myths

What help could come our way if we were willing to pay attention to our dreams and visions. The resolute determination to avoid a meaningful connection between the inside and outside of our being almost rises to the level of what the Roman Church calls “Invincible ignorance” — the ultimately fatal decision to not accept the truth.

However, in the past year I have been in sustained conversations with men who are working with their dreams and I observe the amazing change in them as them as they take seriously this communication. I have observed one fellow getting “unstuck” in his career as he listened to the coaching of his sleeping dreams. He had never considered such work, but now calls me with reports of his nocturnal adventures.

I am more convinced than ever that soul work is the principal task of priests & deacons in parishes. It requires vigilance not to succumb to the tyranny of the immediate, losing focus on the essential task at hand. The institution of the church no doubt needs maintaining but only when that maintenance supports the Cure of Souls, as the ministry of the Church. So long as Church leaders, lay and clergy, keep that in mind the institution thrives and souls are augmented.

As Saint John writes in Third John chapter one verse two, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” (KJV)

Even as your soul prospers, what if our life reflected the health of our soul? Would it look like Dorian Gray’s portrait? Some of the problems of life do not depend on our personal functioning. Other people’s choices can make a difference in the prosperity or famine of one’s life. However much of our dis-ease comes from within and Jesus warned when he said that what defines comes from within not what sort of food that is eaten.

John Sewell 2010©

The Healing Gift of Tears

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Isaac of Ninevej

Isaac of Nineveh

  • Once you have reached the place of tears then you should understand that the mind has left the prison of this world and set its feet on the road towards the New World.
  • It has begun to breathe the wonderful air which is there. It begins to shed tears.
  • For now the birth-pangs of the spiritual infant grow strong, since grace, the common mother of us all, makes haste to give birth mystically to the soul, the image of God, into the light of the world to come. –Saint Isaac of Syria

I find that as the years pass, I have found tears. Much of my life, like most men, I suppose, a major tragedy was all that wet my eyes. It wasn’t that I was unwilling to cry, I simply couldn’t find tears. However, at this place in my pilgrimage to God, as I experience God, the more tears fill my eyes and grief my heart.  Till we truly grieve our lives we cannot find joy, the joy that is ours in Christ. The burdens of others, hurt my soul. Weep with those who weep, we are told;  I can hold another human being and as I feel as much as hear weeping, I weep.

I believe that I have heard another call, perhaps beyond the first. to weep with those who cannot weep. Weep for them until their tears, breaking the dam, fills the channels to their eyes.  Water intrinsically flows through channels unseen until the day the flood rises and leaks out our eyes.  On that day we become men and women for new growth always requires irrigation.   JWS.

Only Three Ever Made – A Sucker Born Every Minute

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The 1937 Bugatti – Atlantic

I am fairly certain that I have never written in praise of an automobile. Oh, I like mine well enough, its color, handling and economy but I am not generally passionate about cars. A vehicle is a way to get from point A to point B and back again (hopefully in one piece). Then I came across a Bugatti Atlantic in a magazine; if not love then at least lethal admiration came near me. What an elegant creature with art deco lines and the mysterious air of the 1930’s. Now, that I should be smitten by a machine brings to mind the question, “what is it that makes something so attractive?”

Eros and Psyche

We could of course talk a long time about the qualities that arouse various kinds and levels of desire even passion. Things, people and other living things have their erotic [a word not used in Christian scripture, by the way] charms, certainly, but what interests me even more is what is in me or any human that is “evocable” – given that not all are moved by the same object or person? In the culture of the West we find the pattern in Genesis.

Genesis 3.1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 but God said , ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked ; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

NRSV Bible with the Apocrypha. Harper Collins, Inc. Kindle Edition.

I hasten to add that Adam was right there the whole time, so don’t blame Eve. Also desire is not evil! One should of course be wise (no pun intended) in how desires are met. Note the progression in verse 6, now that Eve is assured by the neighbor that in truth God is trying to hold out on the Adam’s family she ventures toward it.

Eve saw the fruit was:

  • good to eat.
  • a delight to the eyes
  • it was to be desired to make one wise

so she took of it and ate and gave some to her husband. The way to a man’s heart may well be through his stomach, although the aesthetic beauty of form has moved more than a few [as non-domestic beauties with caterers on speed dial can attest]. It is also true that many a wholesome boss’s daughter [with good personality] waxed beautiful in the eyes of the boss’s new hire. But the end of the progression is power. Everything in chapter three is about who has it and who doesn’t and who would like to have some, thank you. God has it, the serpent doesn’t and wants to spoil life for the humans by tempting them to over-reach for power beyond their capacity to bear.

Here the ancient practices come into play. These practices emerged as means of ordering human desire. What is God’s will for humanity? God’s will is for humanity to grow up. This is achieved by facing challenge. The greatest challenge is regulate self. Of this most of the Greeks thinkers and Jewish prophets would agree. This reason, if for no other, is reason enough to explore, extol and even emulate. – JWS+

Luke 10: 30 – 35

Aside

good samaritan

The Good Samaritan – after Delacroix – Van Gogh

30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho , and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds , having poured oil and wine on them .

Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ NRSV Bible with the Apocrypha,  Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

There is Grace in the Gaps

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1 creationLately I’ve begun to think about the gaps in life.  I suppose this is intensified by the recent death of my father for as Robert Capon writes, “We live as we marry for better or for worse.”  There is a gap in all our striving.

We might think that Biblically the gap begins in Genesis 3 and the unfortunate incident with the fruit tree, but not so I think.  Note Genesis 1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. NRSV Bible with the Apocrypha (Kindle Locations 462-466). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Separateness produces opposites Light/Darkness & Day/Night.  The recipe for fruit compote the neighbor shared over the back fence, lead to knowledge not just of good and evil but opposites in general and not just the natural ones of sequence and order but the moral opposites that gives rise to sin.

Creation endowed with freedom of possibility begets the process that leads to the gap in Genesis 3.

JWS (to be continued)