But...if my life was perfect....
I would not:
Be sensitive
Be compassionate
Be understanding of other people--of the world around me
Be flexible in how I approach and accomplish physical tasks
Be flexible in how I view the diversity of people, beliefs, and cultures
Be awe-struck by beauty around me
Be wonder-filled about life within and around me--life distant from me
Be appreciative of basic human capacities--thinking, and walking, to name a few
Be attentive to how words are used--how I use words
Be attentive to how my words and actions affect other people I know and do not know
Be blessed with a sense of humor
Be determined to live my life fully
Be passionate about pursuing my interests
Be interested in learning every day--each moment--of my life
Be willing to apologize when I had offended someone else, or stolen someone's dignity
Be dedicated to fulfilling my human potential, and encouraging others to do so
Be open to the notion that this list is not complete
Be baptized...be willing to seek an ongoing living of baptism
If My Life Were Perfect, I Would Not Be Human.
Showing posts with label Universalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Universalism. Show all posts
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Sunday, September 11, 2011
September 11...1948
An oft-ask question is, "How will you be commemorating September 11th?"
I commemorate September 11th with my life. You see, on September 11, 1948, my parents were married. While others commemorate the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and on Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the people lost, the first responders--I celebrate the wedding of my parents in 1948--63 years ago.
I commemorate September 11th--with the pursuit of peace and understanding among people--each day. How? A cliche? No.
Among people is not a nebulous term. I pursue peace and understanding with each individual I meet, know, and love each day. I am not a Pollyanna. Not everyone shares my views and preferences on issues and matters large and small.
I do not claim myself to be a proud American. I wave no flags. I wear no pins. I parade no routes. I do get choked up on Election Day--on- and off-year elections just the same. I do get choked up on Inauguration Day. Party matters not to me. I am not a proud American. I am a committed world citizen.
By definition, I am no patriot--I am not patriotic. I devote my energies in search of peace and toward understanding, rather than in defense of America, and seeking vengeance, or being vigilant against acts of terror. I prefer to be vigilant for acts of peace.
I seek peace each day with each individual I meet that day. I seek not complete agreement. I seek understanding. Different views, different preferences--different perspectives--invite me to deeper understanding.
Seeking peace--seeking understanding--is not grandiose. Peace and understanding are my daily aspirations--one person, one day at a time.
I commemorate the peace and understanding that was married on September 11, 1948. Happy 63rd anniversary, Mom and Dad. Thank you for your example of love--your commitment to peace.
I commemorate September 11th with my life. You see, on September 11, 1948, my parents were married. While others commemorate the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and on Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the people lost, the first responders--I celebrate the wedding of my parents in 1948--63 years ago.
I commemorate September 11th--with the pursuit of peace and understanding among people--each day. How? A cliche? No.
Among people is not a nebulous term. I pursue peace and understanding with each individual I meet, know, and love each day. I am not a Pollyanna. Not everyone shares my views and preferences on issues and matters large and small.
I do not claim myself to be a proud American. I wave no flags. I wear no pins. I parade no routes. I do get choked up on Election Day--on- and off-year elections just the same. I do get choked up on Inauguration Day. Party matters not to me. I am not a proud American. I am a committed world citizen.
By definition, I am no patriot--I am not patriotic. I devote my energies in search of peace and toward understanding, rather than in defense of America, and seeking vengeance, or being vigilant against acts of terror. I prefer to be vigilant for acts of peace.
I seek peace each day with each individual I meet that day. I seek not complete agreement. I seek understanding. Different views, different preferences--different perspectives--invite me to deeper understanding.
Seeking peace--seeking understanding--is not grandiose. Peace and understanding are my daily aspirations--one person, one day at a time.
I commemorate the peace and understanding that was married on September 11, 1948. Happy 63rd anniversary, Mom and Dad. Thank you for your example of love--your commitment to peace.
Monday, May 16, 2011
A Universalist Catholic
I am a Universalist Catholic. Being raised as a Universalist informs my Catholic being.
In 29 years, my understanding of being Catholic has evolved. Raised as a Universalist, more commonly referred to as a Unitarian, my basic orientation was different than it is now--not in opposition, but different.
Catholic means universal. For many years, I was timid in admitting, "I am a Catholic." That proclamation was ladened with many stereotypes. To say, "I am a Universalist Catholic," sounded as a contradiction of terms. It is not.
Just now, I am able to articulate a distinction that has been elusive to me. By external terminology, the name Universalist-Unitarian Fellowship identifies the religion.
Faith is a term anthetical to many Universalists, or Unitarians. I was raised to believe that intellect and faith were mutually exclusive. I continue to discover how faith is informed by the intellect, and how the intellect is informed by faith.
I did not know any Unitarian individuals by name. Yet, I had a sense of a distinction between the two. I am willing to be challenged as to my claims. Yet, I resent attempts to engage in "gotcha" discourse in which my knowledge is challenged as a means of discrediting me. The first is possible. The first is enlightening. The first is engagement that broadens everyone involved. "Gotcha discourse" begins when someone asks what you know about a given person, term, or basic tenet central to faith and religion without any interest in broadening anyone's understanding.
Being raised in the Universalist tradition, I was raised to believe that there is good to be found in all world religions--in all traditions. Although I identify myself as Christian, and Catholic now, my belief that there is good to be found in all world religions--in all traditions--is strong. It is alive and well within who I am, and how I pray I live in communion with family, and friends.
Although I never knew an individual who identified themselves as Unitarians, I had a militant sense of what it meant to be a Unitarian. Part of that sense was in the context of the time--the end of the 1960s in the midst of the Vietnam War. I do not know if there was a Unitarian church in my area that was engaged in a vociferous protest of the Vietnam War. The sentiment was certainly the same in the Universalist church community in which I was raised. The distinction I sense may be Uni tarian versus trinitarian. There was no way to intellectualize the Holy Spirit. The notion of Holy Ghost was still alive and well casting white shadows over any understanding that may have existed.
My return to my Universalist roots is inspired by a change in pastors, where I belong. My approach to any announcement was cautious patience. I wanted to wait until I met, and worshipped with the priest before making pronouncements about those in leadership, who are responsible for the naming.
I am encouraged by what I have read and heard. I do not want any excitement I feel cloud my experience of his preaching--of his pastoral care. I want a keen ear, and an open heart to greet him--to greet how we come together in communion.
Much has changed in 29 years.
I entered the Catholic Church with clear values, and instructions. Be intellectual. Obey my admonitions. "Don't keep your mind outside the door of the church." "Know the meanings of the words you utter them."
Twenty-nine years later, different values guide me. I have not abandoned my intellect.
I am guided by different voices. Although the voices have no human faces visible to me, the message is clear.
Don't let your mind consume awe--swallow wonder.
Treasure each moment.
Life is a gift.
For better or for worse, life is a lesson to be learned--answers to be lived.
In 29 years, my understanding of being Catholic has evolved. Raised as a Universalist, more commonly referred to as a Unitarian, my basic orientation was different than it is now--not in opposition, but different.
Catholic means universal. For many years, I was timid in admitting, "I am a Catholic." That proclamation was ladened with many stereotypes. To say, "I am a Universalist Catholic," sounded as a contradiction of terms. It is not.
Just now, I am able to articulate a distinction that has been elusive to me. By external terminology, the name Universalist-Unitarian Fellowship identifies the religion.
Faith is a term anthetical to many Universalists, or Unitarians. I was raised to believe that intellect and faith were mutually exclusive. I continue to discover how faith is informed by the intellect, and how the intellect is informed by faith.
I did not know any Unitarian individuals by name. Yet, I had a sense of a distinction between the two. I am willing to be challenged as to my claims. Yet, I resent attempts to engage in "gotcha" discourse in which my knowledge is challenged as a means of discrediting me. The first is possible. The first is enlightening. The first is engagement that broadens everyone involved. "Gotcha discourse" begins when someone asks what you know about a given person, term, or basic tenet central to faith and religion without any interest in broadening anyone's understanding.
Being raised in the Universalist tradition, I was raised to believe that there is good to be found in all world religions--in all traditions. Although I identify myself as Christian, and Catholic now, my belief that there is good to be found in all world religions--in all traditions--is strong. It is alive and well within who I am, and how I pray I live in communion with family, and friends.
Although I never knew an individual who identified themselves as Unitarians, I had a militant sense of what it meant to be a Unitarian. Part of that sense was in the context of the time--the end of the 1960s in the midst of the Vietnam War. I do not know if there was a Unitarian church in my area that was engaged in a vociferous protest of the Vietnam War. The sentiment was certainly the same in the Universalist church community in which I was raised. The distinction I sense may be Uni tarian versus trinitarian. There was no way to intellectualize the Holy Spirit. The notion of Holy Ghost was still alive and well casting white shadows over any understanding that may have existed.
My return to my Universalist roots is inspired by a change in pastors, where I belong. My approach to any announcement was cautious patience. I wanted to wait until I met, and worshipped with the priest before making pronouncements about those in leadership, who are responsible for the naming.
I am encouraged by what I have read and heard. I do not want any excitement I feel cloud my experience of his preaching--of his pastoral care. I want a keen ear, and an open heart to greet him--to greet how we come together in communion.
Much has changed in 29 years.
I entered the Catholic Church with clear values, and instructions. Be intellectual. Obey my admonitions. "Don't keep your mind outside the door of the church." "Know the meanings of the words you utter them."
Twenty-nine years later, different values guide me. I have not abandoned my intellect.
I am guided by different voices. Although the voices have no human faces visible to me, the message is clear.
Don't let your mind consume awe--swallow wonder.
Treasure each moment.
Life is a gift.
For better or for worse, life is a lesson to be learned--answers to be lived.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Maundy Thursday and Disbelief
Last night, belief, logic, and belittlement clashed, and I failed on all counts to live with integrity within its triangle. I was raised by my parents--two individuals who were raised during a time when they experienced the rituals of Christ's life. Absent from their experience, as I understand it to be, was a lack of how Christ teaches us to meet and build upon the events of his life--the spirit and wisdom by which he lived his life. How do you explain Holy Spirit in logical terms--a 1940s white ghost?
How do we affirm the life of Christ without sterilizing it to its bare realities? How do you prove the truths Christ lived in concrete terms. These questions drove two people of integrity from the Christian Church. The subsequent answers they have lived, in part, is to belittle individuals, who commit themselves to Christ's life as being simple-minded. My parents do live lives built upon much of what Christ taught and advocated--called for in our lives.
In 1982, I committed myself to a life of celebration that exceeded logic's limits--reason's realm. I committed myself to learn from, grow through, and live what Jesus lived. In so doing, I was not decrying the foundation of the Universalism of my upbringing--there is good to be found in all world faith traditions, and we should support one another in a free and disciplined search for truth.
Drawn to Christ by questions in search of answers beyond logic, or logic as it was lived in my home, I committed myself to listen to the words of Christ, to observe, and affirm--authenticate--Christ's teachings in my own life going forward. Contrary to first glance, Universalist/Unitarian fellowship is not, or need not be diametrically opposed to Christianity. I did not reject my Universalist roots as it seemed to my family and a Christian mentor. No. I embraced Christ as I saw him in expressed in a Catholic campus community, through Mass, and in the diversity of friends.
Since 1982, I have not done well in meeting the criticism of faith in Christ. The only meeting I have done has been in trying to share my life freely--trying to share how I live my life. I do not do well to meet questions of fact that I understand to be static within Jesus' life historically ignorant of its vibrancy to life today. I do not mean to imply that the way I live is better. I do not want to entrap myself by belittling logic's limits, or reason's realm.
In recent years, I have heard two types of Catholics, and Christians identified. There are the thinking Catholics, and then there are Catholics. Polite disdain is the best description I know to give to the attitude toward Catholics. Rather than engagement with all Catholics, as I understood the call of Universalism to be--finding the best in all faith traditions--I am met with belittlement of other Catholics, and the smug tolerance of thinking Catholics. I hear complaints that Catholics, and other Christians, I do not witness the recognition of the smug criticism, and intolerance. I speak of Catholics, because it is in the Catholic Church that I have met beauty. Yet, the same basic distinction has been drawn between Christians and Christians.
I confess I do not understand the distinction--the need for smugness, intolerance, and recognition. I want to understand. I do understand that I met a different Catholic Church--a different expression of Jesus--in 1982 than was experienced in the 1940s. I do know that they experienced a monolithic expression of Christianity. There was one, and only one, way to be Catholic.
I was astounded to discover the rich diversity of Christian faith's expression. My new college friends did not fit into neat little boxes. Intellect was not mutually exclusive to Christian faith. Yet, intellect was not a guarantor of Christian faith. Integrity was not the titled property of intellect. Christian faith was not--is not--integrity's competitor.
I can etch in stone definitions of Christianity's core--of Catholicism's essence. Yet, I cannot etch in stone a static description of Christ, of Catholicism, of Christianity, as I will live it for the rest of my life. I can and will share as much as a tolerant door--a tolerant window--is opened to me.
How do we affirm the life of Christ without sterilizing it to its bare realities? How do you prove the truths Christ lived in concrete terms. These questions drove two people of integrity from the Christian Church. The subsequent answers they have lived, in part, is to belittle individuals, who commit themselves to Christ's life as being simple-minded. My parents do live lives built upon much of what Christ taught and advocated--called for in our lives.
In 1982, I committed myself to a life of celebration that exceeded logic's limits--reason's realm. I committed myself to learn from, grow through, and live what Jesus lived. In so doing, I was not decrying the foundation of the Universalism of my upbringing--there is good to be found in all world faith traditions, and we should support one another in a free and disciplined search for truth.
Drawn to Christ by questions in search of answers beyond logic, or logic as it was lived in my home, I committed myself to listen to the words of Christ, to observe, and affirm--authenticate--Christ's teachings in my own life going forward. Contrary to first glance, Universalist/Unitarian fellowship is not, or need not be diametrically opposed to Christianity. I did not reject my Universalist roots as it seemed to my family and a Christian mentor. No. I embraced Christ as I saw him in expressed in a Catholic campus community, through Mass, and in the diversity of friends.
Since 1982, I have not done well in meeting the criticism of faith in Christ. The only meeting I have done has been in trying to share my life freely--trying to share how I live my life. I do not do well to meet questions of fact that I understand to be static within Jesus' life historically ignorant of its vibrancy to life today. I do not mean to imply that the way I live is better. I do not want to entrap myself by belittling logic's limits, or reason's realm.
In recent years, I have heard two types of Catholics, and Christians identified. There are the thinking Catholics, and then there are Catholics. Polite disdain is the best description I know to give to the attitude toward Catholics. Rather than engagement with all Catholics, as I understood the call of Universalism to be--finding the best in all faith traditions--I am met with belittlement of other Catholics, and the smug tolerance of thinking Catholics. I hear complaints that Catholics, and other Christians, I do not witness the recognition of the smug criticism, and intolerance. I speak of Catholics, because it is in the Catholic Church that I have met beauty. Yet, the same basic distinction has been drawn between Christians and Christians.
I confess I do not understand the distinction--the need for smugness, intolerance, and recognition. I want to understand. I do understand that I met a different Catholic Church--a different expression of Jesus--in 1982 than was experienced in the 1940s. I do know that they experienced a monolithic expression of Christianity. There was one, and only one, way to be Catholic.
I was astounded to discover the rich diversity of Christian faith's expression. My new college friends did not fit into neat little boxes. Intellect was not mutually exclusive to Christian faith. Yet, intellect was not a guarantor of Christian faith. Integrity was not the titled property of intellect. Christian faith was not--is not--integrity's competitor.
I can etch in stone definitions of Christianity's core--of Catholicism's essence. Yet, I cannot etch in stone a static description of Christ, of Catholicism, of Christianity, as I will live it for the rest of my life. I can and will share as much as a tolerant door--a tolerant window--is opened to me.
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