Father-Mother you are always present,We borrowed (and slightly modified) this prayer from Ray Simpson. It always struck us that Ray had caught something important about the way we perceive the Holy Trinity.
Forgive us for not reflecting your faithfulness.
Jesus you are always self-giving,
Forgive us for living for ourselves.
Holy Spirit you always lead us forward,
Forgive us for holding back.
I have been pondering this prayer for a couple of weeks. I see in it three injunctions. (Injunctions in the way that Ken Wilber uses the term: "If you want such-and-such an outcome, then do such-and-such." Immanuel Kant called them "hypothetical imperitives." In my book Love as a Guide to Morals I have called them "if-then-should" imperitives. "If you want this, then you should do this.")
The injunction is formed by first finding what is the desired outcome. If you want to be in the 2016 Olympics, then you should train hard. If you want to lose weight, then you should eat less and exercise more.The desire becomes the goal. Injunctions are how to reach the goal.
In the Christian tradition the desire of the saints and mystics is to become divine, Godlike, Christlike — one with the Ultimately Real. Ray's prayer gives us a few clues. To become divine is to be Present, Self-Giving and Moving Forward. For that is what God is like: eternally present, always self-giving, and constantly moving.
The injunctions become: live in the present moment, lose the self in giving to others, move forward and don't hold back.
The first injunction speaks to me about mindfulness. All is contained in this moment, right here, right now. If I am fully in this moment, then I am fully alive. One of the wonders of the human mind is that we can look back in remembrance, and we can look forward in anticipation. One of my joys is to look through old photo albums (and since about the year 2000 old folders in the photo application). Memories flood back of good times — vacations with the kids when they were young, significant events, crazy hairstyles from the 1980s. It is also quite delicious to imagine things to come — to think how we will celebrate next Christmas, to ponder the changes at work, to look forward to good things. The flip-side (quaint allusion to the fact that vinyl records had an A side and a B side) is that looking back can also be filled with regret or wistfulness. Looking forward can be filled with dread and uncertainty. The flip side causes pain. Better to be without suffering by centering in the present moment. Occupation with both past and future also means that in my ineraction with you I am not fully here for you. If when I come home from work my mind is still on the events of the day, then I am not fully present for you. If during dinner I am thinking of my day tomorrow, I am not fully present. God is always fully present.
The second injunction speaks to me about love. Love is the movement from the self toward the Other. Love is other-regarding. This week I have read much in the news media about Ayn Rand and her philosophy of "objectivism." Rand is becoming very popular and I expect that over the next few months we will hear more about her philosophy. It is a philosophy of selfishness. The best possible world is one in which each of us looks out for our own self-interest above all else. A world of self-interested people is the best of all possible worlds. There are echoes of Rand's ideas in Adam Smith (the father of modern capitalism). Smith called for "enlightened self-interest." If we all seek our own interests, then an "invisible hand" will ensure the best outcome. Shadows of Rands ideas are also found in Nietzsche, who largely wanted to do away with the unmanly virtues of Christianity. To my mind Ray Simpson got it right, "Jesus you are always self-giving." "God so loved the world that God gave the only Child, "said the Evangelist. "I lay down my life," said Jesus. The universe is the eternal self-giving of God.
The third injunction speaks to me of the ever-changingness of the world. The world is never still. Even the most solid of material objects, at the micro-level is a mass of energy, ever moving like the waves of the sea — never still. When God created the universe it was a universe of constantly moving energy in stars and planets. The earth on which we stand, though feeling solid, is truly moving at many thousands of miles an hour. Spiritually, also we are not still. We either move toward the center (moving forward in Ray's prayer) or away from the center. That center is the divine. The world is in process. The divine is in process —always moving forward.
What would it mean to become closer to the divine? To become present, to become self-giving, and to move forward.
+Ab. Andy
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