I was a post-war baby and grew up in a time of significant change as austerity and economic restraint gave way to growing prosperity in the 1950s and the emerging youth culture of the 1960s. I remember the counter-cultural ferment that challenged every arena of Western society, especially in religious belief and practice.
On the one hand, they were exciting times. Anti-war marches, liberation from traditional mores, and the rejection of traditional values, beliefs and practices that resulted in particular emphasis on personal experience and deep spiritual exploration. On the other hand, I wonder what has happened to the lasting legacy of all that energy, new life and hope?
I remember the first time I read Matthew Fox and his Four Paths of Creation Spirituality – how enlightening and revolutionary that was for me – or fed upon the soul-food poetry of the Irish born David Whyte or John O'Donohue! When I discovered the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and his Mass on the World, for example, or engaged with the writings of John Dominic Crossan and the work of the Jesus Seminar.
In the face of the current renaissance of religious conservatism – where do we now go for fresh food for our souls? These thoughts came to me after finding in a local Opportunity Shop, a discarded copy of Geza Vermes' 'The Authentic Gospel of Jesus'.
Vermes was the greatest Jesus scholar of his time. As a one-time Catholic Priest, he wrote out of his Jewish background, with an intimate knowledge of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, as well as a lifetime of studying the Gospels in their original cultural background and language. He produced five significant volumes on the life, times and sayings of Jesus which convinced him that Jesus was no more than a charismatic Jew, who could only be understood within the culture and time in which he lived. A finger pointing us towards the mystery and reality of the One whose presence fills all creation.
Vermes' writing reminds me of something I read last night in Arthur Green's Seek My face (referred to in my earlier Blog). Green reflects on the meaning of the Divine Name given to Moses in Exodus 3:14, and how in Jewish Mystical thought, Creation is the supreme revelation of the face and presence of God if we only but open our eyes to see and our hearts to wonder.
“Is not Creation itself sufficient revelation, the One manifest throughout the world,
‘renewing each day, constantly, the act of Creation’?
What more could we need?”
When the Divine voice spoke human life into existence at the dawn of time, the Divine voice and our human voice are now 'fully intertwined'. Each one of us – you and I – are already God carriers, created in the Divine image and likeness. The Divine image still glows within our inner depths, says Rabbi Green. It is as we allow ourselves to become still and listen for and hear the echo of the voice of God within,
that will also take us back to the source of our inner light.”
Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and good will on your journey.
Phil
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Arthur Green, Seek My Face: A Jewish Mystical Theology, Amazon.com Services, 2011
