Wednesday, February 13, 2008
For the love of Christ -- I get it!
(Continued from "A pair of remarks about breasts and the Lord.)St. Francis of Assisi, again:
In a vision
I asked for the most intimate experience with the Christ.
No one would believe what happened
in a vision more true than
this world:
The
sacred chord
pulsated light throughout the universe
as I nursed my own
Lord at my
breasts.
(from "Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West," Daniel Ladinsky trans, [New York: Penguin Compass, 2002,]55.)
It came to me about 2:30 a.m. Eyes popped open. Eureka. And it's all right there, in what he asked for: "most intimate experience with the Christ."
It's not about Christ getting nourishment, or getting nurturing, or getting love. It's not erotic, neither then nor now. It's certainly not homoerotic. It's not an example of confusion on his part or anything like that.
It's another example, to me, of how with Christ, power and relationships are totally at odds with expectations.
It's about Francis GIVING love intimately, not Christ GETTING love intimately.
I couldn't see that at first for a couple of reasons. Not only am I a man, but I've never even held a baby who was my own! My Bird was 9 when I came along. I have probably held a baby fewer than 10 times my whole life.
Trixie all but spelled it out:
"There is no more intimate or loving connection than that between a mother and baby. And the bond is not necessarily about nourishment, but nurturing and being in that relationship, profoundly close to one another."
But in that I still saw Christ GAINING rather than Francis GIVING -- but at the same time I imagined Francis gaining because, baby or not, we're talking about Christ ... dang it, this is hard to make clear.
Dr. ER saw the imagery as an expression of holy intimacy, too, and I think I totally missed it if she meant Francis was the actor, not the object. Big difference.
So, there I was, lying in bed, laughing, enjoyjng the glimpse of a different way to "love Jesus" -- and it could very well change the way I see Jesus in other people.
People are to be loved not necessarily because they deserve to be loved, or even need to be loved, but because I have a need to love them in order to love God, in order to strengthen the intimacy of my relationship with Christ.
Damn.
I've been saying lately that if I were to wind up in seminary, or theology school, it would be for academic purposes, to research and write, not to become a minister -- because I don't think I have the ministering gene. People? Eh.
Uncanny timing this epiphany, since I have an appointment to talk to the preacherman this very morning.
I think I might've done saw some of that light, through the initially disturbing image of the baby Jesus suckling at the breasts of St. Francis of Assisi.
--ER
(Yes, we can)
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Two other points that might help me explain the way I see the imagery in this piece of writing now:
1.
Imagine a baby nursing.
Now, Imagine a woman nursing a baby.
Same thing.
But, the default in my mind when I see that image is: I see a baby nursing.
Why? I guess because I have been a baby, but have never been a woman.
It's a matter of perception, kind of like that standard everybody-has-seen-it-who-ever-took-a-psychology-course-in-college image of the man's face -- or is it a rat?
2.
Worship, or adoration, of God, or Christ, is almost always in a congregational setting, and there is almost always an element of performance in it, for lack of a better word.
Prayer-meditation-quiet time, etc., is, to me anyway, more a time of openness to receiving than a time of openness to giving (and it only just now occurs to me that both require openness.)
So, now that I "get" what (I think) Francis saw in his vision, I actually see the act of giving adoration, or worship, or devotion, to God, or Christ, in a different way.
A more intimate way. Which, I'm sure, is the reason he was given the vision, and the reason he wrote it down, and the reason it has been preserved for posterity.
Very cool.
1.
Imagine a baby nursing.
Now, Imagine a woman nursing a baby.
Same thing.
But, the default in my mind when I see that image is: I see a baby nursing.
Why? I guess because I have been a baby, but have never been a woman.
It's a matter of perception, kind of like that standard everybody-has-seen-it-who-ever-took-a-psychology-course-in-college image of the man's face -- or is it a rat?
2.
Worship, or adoration, of God, or Christ, is almost always in a congregational setting, and there is almost always an element of performance in it, for lack of a better word.
Prayer-meditation-quiet time, etc., is, to me anyway, more a time of openness to receiving than a time of openness to giving (and it only just now occurs to me that both require openness.)
So, now that I "get" what (I think) Francis saw in his vision, I actually see the act of giving adoration, or worship, or devotion, to God, or Christ, in a different way.
A more intimate way. Which, I'm sure, is the reason he was given the vision, and the reason he wrote it down, and the reason it has been preserved for posterity.
Very cool.
If God is a God that suffers, why shouldn't God be a God that nurses, too?
What I am slowly but surely coming to understand is, whatever it is that God is, is only found in relationship/community/communion. That relationship is between us and God, between us humans here on earth, and between that community of humans on earth and God. Just like the Trinity, there is no break in this relationship between your relationship with God and community and God-and-community.
And haha, I said that about seminary, too. That ministering thang'll getcha!
What I am slowly but surely coming to understand is, whatever it is that God is, is only found in relationship/community/communion. That relationship is between us and God, between us humans here on earth, and between that community of humans on earth and God. Just like the Trinity, there is no break in this relationship between your relationship with God and community and God-and-community.
And haha, I said that about seminary, too. That ministering thang'll getcha!
Trixie said: "We are vessels through which love was meant to FLOW. Not collect."
Let us hope that the love that flows through us, unlike the milk a babe may suckle, does not require a diper change when it comes out.
Let us hope that the love that flows through us, unlike the milk a babe may suckle, does not require a diper change when it comes out.
Oh yes, one thing for sure. When Bird provides you with a hatchling to hold and love you will turn into a pool of goo. I can see the smile on yor face now.
Ah, but drlobojo, it does. That's what sin is about. Lucky for us, that diaper change comes courtesy of the best Mother in the Universe.
Maybe so, but breast milk produces the least offensive diapers one could ask for. So maybe the metaphor is that mother's own milk is like God's love, the perfect nutrient for us, especially as a young Christian. It is only as we progress to that utter milk and eating things off of the floor that the output becomes truly horrid.
By the way ER, Assisi said, "I asked for the most intimate experience with the Christ."
Don't try this at home.
You would be well advised to use caution when you ask God for experience. He does have a cosmic sense of humor you know.
By the way ER, Assisi said, "I asked for the most intimate experience with the Christ."
Don't try this at home.
You would be well advised to use caution when you ask God for experience. He does have a cosmic sense of humor you know.
Re, "use caution when you ask God for experience. He does have a cosmic sense of humor you know."
Yep. I needed a companion -- and he gave me a cat! As I've said, until Ice-T, cats one purpose: to maintain the balance of power with the rats in the hay barn.
You should see me baby that critter. I've blogged this once or twice: I have in fact learned some things about Grace by interacting with and lovin' the kitty cat.
Hapa: Amen and amen on the relational. Without that, it's all just a bunch of words.
Yep. I needed a companion -- and he gave me a cat! As I've said, until Ice-T, cats one purpose: to maintain the balance of power with the rats in the hay barn.
You should see me baby that critter. I've blogged this once or twice: I have in fact learned some things about Grace by interacting with and lovin' the kitty cat.
Hapa: Amen and amen on the relational. Without that, it's all just a bunch of words.
OK, thank you for this opening to express this lesson:
Mother's milk is perfect -- for babies. But as Christians there DOES come a time when we have to take off the bib and put on the apron and learn to SERVE. It is only in the active caring for others, rather than being CARED FOR, that we are able to complete that circle of life. That's why we're taught that we are saved by GRACE, but faith without works is dead.
Mother's milk is perfect -- for babies. But as Christians there DOES come a time when we have to take off the bib and put on the apron and learn to SERVE. It is only in the active caring for others, rather than being CARED FOR, that we are able to complete that circle of life. That's why we're taught that we are saved by GRACE, but faith without works is dead.
Awesome. In my upbringin' milk was to be folowed by meat -- and that IS Scriptural. But "meat" was understood, and taught, to mean more complex, deep or "mature" and "spiritual" ways of thinking and interpretation.
Amen that meat is meant to provide energy for action. Service, in other words, without which one gets fat and of no help to anyone.
Amen that meat is meant to provide energy for action. Service, in other words, without which one gets fat and of no help to anyone.
LOL LOL and LOL. I love it!
That is one of the songs I got fired for playin' at the Gospel radio station back in '82!
Hee hee. It is such an "inside" song. Lots of jargon in there, for lack of a better word. But so cool.
Didja notice the first comment under the vid?
"Is this supposed to be like a Christain related song?? Thats what I had heard but it doesn't sound like one ..."
LOLOL. Some. People. Still. Don't. Get. It. The liberty of Christ, I mean.
Hoo hoo hoot! Thanks, so much, for that. I hadn't heard the song in years!
Note: she makes "doctrine" something that comes after milk. I've slammed "doctrine" around here at times. I shouldn't. I should slam, and do, the kind of rigid doctrine that is impossibly declarative, to the point of alienating those whose thinking isn't perfectly aligned.
I love that song, and I love Amy!
As a radio jock, I got to meet her briefly about the time this song came out, when "El Shaddai" was on its rocket and she was gaining real fame.
Vince is a lucky, blessed dude!
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That is one of the songs I got fired for playin' at the Gospel radio station back in '82!
Hee hee. It is such an "inside" song. Lots of jargon in there, for lack of a better word. But so cool.
Didja notice the first comment under the vid?
"Is this supposed to be like a Christain related song?? Thats what I had heard but it doesn't sound like one ..."
LOLOL. Some. People. Still. Don't. Get. It. The liberty of Christ, I mean.
Hoo hoo hoot! Thanks, so much, for that. I hadn't heard the song in years!
Note: she makes "doctrine" something that comes after milk. I've slammed "doctrine" around here at times. I shouldn't. I should slam, and do, the kind of rigid doctrine that is impossibly declarative, to the point of alienating those whose thinking isn't perfectly aligned.
I love that song, and I love Amy!
As a radio jock, I got to meet her briefly about the time this song came out, when "El Shaddai" was on its rocket and she was gaining real fame.
Vince is a lucky, blessed dude!
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