“Thisness of G*d”

Thisness of God (haecceity) is a term I borrowed from Sister Ilia Delio, OSF, from her book Making All Things New – Catholicity, Cosmology and Consciousness to reflect and articulate a recent period of quiet and meditation in a place where my spirit finds home.

That afternoon, whilst walking towards the cemetery, these little things lying sparsely on the ground along with fallen summer leaves caught my attention.  Lo and behold there are quite a bit of them, like winged creatures, except that they are, I learnt, are seed-pods of a tree which I still have to know the name.  The heat of the mid-afternoon did not deter me from picking a few of these, trying very hard to put them in my palm and not crushing them for they are so fragile.  Accidentally, a gentle breeze blew and one got blown off from my palm, and like a child~ I got more fun watching it propelled in perfection, sliding through the breeze to the ground.  So, instead of collecting them, thinking of planting them, I blew them off my palm and watched them twirled in unison.  Then, I would pick them up again, and blew them off, to my satisfaction.  Sweating and sweltering, I walked back to my room, feeling so happy, the child within made whole again!

Later that afternoon, in prayer, all the images and recollection of the mid-afternoon rendezvous came back.  It has dawned on me; I have met my teachers in these little things.  I was conscious of them, as they were of my presence.  They were actually the whole universe.  They represent the present as well the future possibilities of what make up creation unfolding.  I thought, I have just witnessed and experienced God’s love ~ being creative every moment.  These seed pods both represents death and new life. As I have come to the retreat with the intention of reflecting on the passion death and new life of Jesus, the Spirit helped me to gaze and contemplate nature and be conscious of this wholeness in nature.  The gift I have received is what Ilia Delio said, “To see is an act of consciousness, and it brings what it sees into conscious reality.  It requires an open heart.  To have an inner spaciousness of the heart to receive another.”   Somehow, there was this intense creative communication between me and the seed pods, they have become alive!

 Intuitively, as I continued to reflect on these seeds, this has led me to understand that there is this awesome wholeness in nature.  That is, the process of life and death.  That death is integral to life. That reflecting on the suffering and death of Jesus, he showed us that it is all part of the process of life.  Ilia Delio said, “Jesus’ death symbolizes his Yes to the consciousness of his unity to God (humanity) and God’s unconditional love (divinity).  This is Jesus, the ‘thisness’ of God.

Delio also quoted Jurgen Moltmann,

“When the Crucified Jesus is called the image of the invisible God, the meaning is that this is God, and God is like this.  God is not greater than he is in his humiliation.  God is not more glorious than he is in this self-surrender.  God is not more powerful than he is in this helplessness.  God is not more divine than he is in this humanity.”

 

Beautifully, Delio summarized Jesus’ suffering and death, “Jesus’ mission of creative wholeness restores humanity to its integral nature within the whole of evolutionary nature.  Through the life of Jesus we can see ourselves as part of an ongoing process of creative and emergent life(evolution) and are called to realized our participation in this unfolding of life, as creation seeks its ultimate fulfillment in God.  Death is not due to sin and evil, nor it is opposite of life.  It is radical in nature, integral to life.” These seeds springing to new plants represent resurrection.  In the quantum understanding of life and death, Jesus resurrection must empower us, to be like him, to being renewed.  That in every big and small deaths we experience throughout this life, we emerged with a higher consciousness, a new whole sense of being, more loving.  For Ilia Delio, ‘every act of physical death is an act of new life in the universe. The resurrection of Jesus reveals to us new cosmic life.  Through the lens of quantum physics, death is the collapse of our ‘particle’ aspect of life into the ‘wave’ dimension of our relatedness.” Our living on in and through relationships, noted Delio, is the meaning and depth of the resurrection of Jesus.  Jesus now lives on in the heart of the universe in a new relatedness.  Jesus lives in us, those who follow him, who remember him, who extend our relationships in compassion, justice and peace.  mlm 劉美妙修女04122017

 

Jesus in the New Story

PILGRIM’S PROGRESS OF UNDERSTANDING:   JESUS IN THE NEW STORY

How does this New Story unravel the meaning of Jesus?

Celtic Cross at An Tairseach

Who is Jesus in the New Story?   Jesus, “God-with-us.”  Jesus is human, born, lived just like me.  Made of the same stuff as I am.  God has given him wisdom to give us a glimpse of who God is – a God of love who embodied Self for creation, an expression of that LOVE.  Such love is present in all creation especially in us humans who are ‘created in God’s likeness.’  Jesus’ way of life mirrors for us the image of the God-Love.  I consciously choose to follow Jesus because of this understanding.  I believe that Jesus is self-awareness unfolding, it has not stopped even after his death.  He has risen among us, and his unfolding is in all of us humans and in our compassion and love for all creation.  Jesus calls us to consciously choose what is ‘common good’, what gives life to the fullest, and it has to begin in our minds and hearts.  The process of unfolding in the universe is becoming a reality every time we say yes to all that is good and creates life. 

Dancing Flame

Dancing Flame

I saw a dancing flame

Near an incense half-burned,

The flame illumined the faces

Highlighting their smiles.

The flame is a feeling,

Of passion bursting out of us,

For something known yet unrevealed,

Calling us to more.

The flame is a dream,

Of something that is beautiful,

Where hunger is no more,

Where injustice is no more,

The place is here.

The time is now.

The flame calls for action,

A handshake between enemies,

A joining of different colored hands,

A reverence to the earth we sit,

A smile to a stranger.

And then comes the Eternal Flame.

Copyright 2005

Published at poetry.com 

Upper Marikina Watershed Protected Landscape Collaborative Project

"We are not here on Earth to be alone, but to be a part of a living community, a web of life in which all is sacred. Like the cells of our body, all of life is in constant communication, as science is just beginning to understand. No bird sings in isolation, no bud breaks open alone. And the most central note that is present in life is its sacred nature, something we need to each rediscover and honor anew. We need to learn once again how to walk and breathe in a sacred universe, to feel this heartbeat of life. Hearing its presence speaks to us, we feel this great bond of life that supports and nourishes us all. Today's world may still at times make us feel lonely, but we can then remember what every animal, every insect, every plant knows -- and only we have forgotten: the living sacred whole."

—Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

The winding road that Joe, our driver, followed after exiting the main highway was narrow and winding.  Typical wooden structures intermittently appeared as we drove past part paved and rugged paths.  Finally, Beth Galas, the community organizer said, “We are here!”  Finally, we arrived in Barangay Calawis in Antipolo. This area of Antipolo is largely part of the Marikina Upper Watershed Protected Landscape where the forests and mountains have been deforested badly causing flash floods in the lower areas during typhoon and rainy seasons draining itself to Marikina River.   I followed climbing a carved hardened mud stairs to the top.  My mind was wandering just how slimy these mud stairs during rainy days. At the top of the stairs, a covered vegetable nursery is bursting with greens.  Light shades of green lettuce sparkling under the sun dancing like jagged jades.  The meeting hall was still empty.  Virgie, the leader of the group arrived and opened the locked nursery, showing me their community vegetable garden.  One by one, the women, some with their children came and sat inside the hall, made of bamboos.  I was told; some of them had to walk for 4 hours to get there.  This group is composed of Dumagats-Remontado tribes, and migrants to the area.  I suggested that while waiting for others to arrive, I can go see the seedling nursery.  It was not very far from the meeting area.  I was so impressed to see how lush and green the seedlings that are planted  in black polybags, some are about two feet high and ready for planting in June/August, when rain comes.  There were different kinds of Philippine native tree seedlings, neatly organized in rows. The nursery is filled with wonderful energy, these little plants bursting forth and shining fresh green shoots.  The seedlings totaling more than 100,000 were left over from the 200,000 seedlings planted last year. 

“I used to cut the forests to make charcoal, now I plant trees and realized my responsibility to care for the forest which gives us life.”-TSKC member

My three companions started sharing their stories…how their lives were changed because of Maryknoll Sisters helping them by providing funding to buy the polybags.  They were able to purchase 200,000 bags, which they all used for planting the seedlings.  Last year’s planting of 100,000 seedlings have given many of their members much needed income to sustain their families. The project did not only benefit the household, but helped their organization opened a rice cooperative, helping members secure rice loans and paid it back, reducing hunger incidence.  The farmers and forest dwellers stopped cutting down the trees for charcoal making as their only means of livelihood.  One of the women said, she and her husband finally got married in the Church because they had money the license and could invite friends to the wedding.  One of the elders was very proud that his daughter was able to graduate in college and is now teaching in the local school.  What was also exciting to hear is the return of the biodiversity in the area.  Fireflies, wild lizards, wild chicken and pigs, frogs, and many more, have come back and numbers have been seen more often. Listening to their stories made me cry, because it gave me so much hope how the environment can be helped regenerate itself. 

We were back in the meeting hall and the people also shared their little victories, how the project brought positive effects to their lives.  The continuation of the project, have made it possible for the young mothers to stay in their homes to start seedlings for sale to the government reforestation program.  This means they also now have a regular livelihood that heal the forests and care for the environment.

 When asked what kind of help they would still need, they said:  planting tools such as planting spades, shovels, mattocks, grass cutters, etc. They need to make fire lines to protect the young trees from forest fires and monitor their growth.  They also need boots for protection from snakes.  They also appealed if they can be helped to give their children school supplies for the coming schoolyear in June and some basic medicines for fever and pain.  The women asked if they could be helped to plant cash crops such as turmeric and post-harvest processing and marketing.  This way, they said, they can continue to support their husbands while staying with their younger children.  Children are left with relatives while they plant the seedlings on the planting site.  The Calawis group now has 95 members, majority are women, numbering 54.