W I N D O W S : Soulful Glimpses into Primavera · The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you./...
1
Wander! Follow your heart until a threshold invites you to enter. Go through the portal with keen eyes and ears open for a new experience. The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you./ Don’t go back to sleep./ You must ask for what you really want./Don’t go back to sleep. -Rumi A long drive to the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia to listen for secrets being whispered of a new story finds all my senses on full alert. This story is about crossing the portal into experiencing Sacred Other, about opening myself to conversion. Our planetary and cultural story, my own story are dependent upon what theologian, Bernard Lonergan calls a “radical shift from an old horizon to a new horizon” (Min-ah-Cho,Sojourners, 10/5/14), his understanding of conversion. You must ask for what you really want./ Don’t go back to sleep./ People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open./ Don’t go back to sleep. -Rumi Crossing the portal between the corner of a little library and a rotting stump, anticipation rises. I really want to be encountered by the other than human community and am not disappointed. The kinds of encounter that Jesus has in the Temple with the chief priests and elders is filled with trickery. The religious leaders are not excited about having horizons expanded. Instead, the security of old systems of belief and rituals are threatened. Jesus is a portal. A true encounter with him presents new horizons, new ways of knowing. But sadly, the dominant authorities in the Temple do not have ears for The Mysteries being whispered. Stepping across the portal, I skirt the labyrinthian edges and come into the presence of the other than human community. A corridor of decaying leaves leads to a broken-off log brightened by deep ridges of autumn-orange lichen and contrasting green moss. This vivid remains of a once tall tree deep in the shadowy forest is startlingly illuminating. Drawing near to see what “sacred beings” dwell here, I meet a marbled brown slug slowly making its way across the mossy fungus field. Beside it a small brown ant is foraging. These two, eye to eye with Mother Earth know even the tiniest things up close. I linger a while and then return bringing a gift of melon. The slug, ant, moss and lichen have secrets to whisper. “Stay awake! You never “know” who passes bye and how you or they are impacted.” Matthew's story is of a property owner who buys land, plants a vineyard, leaves it in care of tenants, and goes away (Mt 21:33-46). The grapes ripen, and the tenants repeatedly refuse to share the grapes with the owner. The landowner wants his share and when refused has little compassion for weak and vulnerable tenants who work the land. This story has secrets to whisper, but only if as Rumi invites us, we walk “back and forth between the doorsill where the two worlds touch.” Jesus’ parables are rarely obvious for they always turn the social order upside down, present a hew horizon. The privilege of the ruling class, those who have the power and money is to be used for the common good. But these wealthy ones defend the rights of the rich. Jesus is not the portal they are seeking. They want to throw him out and refuse to cross the threshold of his Mysteries! IF we ever hope to get out of the planetary trouble we are in just now, we have to cultivate stories for a new era. The other than human community seeks co-creative partnership with us. People of old listened to their secrets. We will be wise to let our imaginations and our deeper hearing be attentive too. In the Appalachian forest, I ask for what I want and I receive a few secrets to guide me in return. www.primaverapeace.org September 27, 2014 W I N D O W S : Soulful Glimpses into Primavera Oct 5 17th Pent Isaiah 5:1-7 Psalm 80:7-15 Philippians 3:4b-14 Matthew 21:33-46 Oct 12 18th Pent Isaiah 25:1-9/Exodus 32:1-14 Psalm 23 Philippians 4:19 Matthew 22:1-14 “Thresholds of Mystery” Jesus is a portal! Susan Morley “Stay awake! You never know who passes by and how they or you are impacted.”
Transcript of W I N D O W S : Soulful Glimpses into Primavera · The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you./...
Wander! Follow your heart until a threshold invites you to enter. Go through the portal with keen eyes and
ears open for a new experience.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you./ Don’t go back to sleep./ You must ask for what
you really want./Don’t go back to sleep. -Rumi
A long drive to the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia to listen for secrets being whispered of a new story finds all my senses on full alert. This story is about crossing the portal into experiencing Sacred Other, about opening myself to conversion. Our planetary and cultural story, my own story are dependent upon what theologian, Bernard Lonergan calls a “radical shift from an old horizon to a new
horizon” (Min-ah-Cho,Sojourners, 10/5/14), his understanding of conversion.
You must ask for what you really want./ Don’t go back to sleep./ People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two
worlds touch. The door is round and open./ Don’t go back to sleep. -Rumi
Crossing the portal between the corner of a little library and a rotting stump, anticipation r ises. I really want to be encountered by t he ot her t han human community and am not disappointed. The kinds of encounter that Jesus has in the Temple with the chief priests and elders is filled with trickery. The religious leaders are not excited about having horizons expanded. Instead, the security of old systems of belief and rituals are threatened. Jesus is a portal. A true encounter with him presents new horizons, new ways of knowing. But sadly, the dominant authorities in the Temple do not have ears for The Mysteries being whispered. Stepping across the portal, I skirt the labyrinthian edges and come into the presence of the other than human community. A corridor of decaying leaves leads to a broken-off log brightened by deep ridges of autumn-orange lichen and contrasting green moss. This vivid remains of a once tall tree deep in the shadowy forest is startlingly illuminating. Drawing near to see what “sacred beings” dwell here, I meet a marbled brown slug slowly making its way
across the mossy fungus field. Beside it a small brown ant is foraging. These two, eye to eye with Mother Earth know even the tiniest things up close. I linger a while and then return bringing a gift of melon. The slug, ant, moss and lichen
have secrets to whisper. “Stay awake! You never “know” who passes bye and how you or they are impacted.”
Matthew's story is of a property owner who buys land, plants a vineyard, leaves it in care of tenants, and goes away (Mt 21:33-46). The grapes ripen, and the tenants repeatedly refuse to share the grapes with the owner. The landowner wants his share and when refused has little compa s s i o n fo r weak and vulnerable tenants who work the
land. This story has secrets to whisper, but only if as Rumi invites us, we walk “back and forth between
the doorsill where the two worlds touch.” Jesus’ parables are rarely obvious for they always turn the social order upside down, present a hew horizon. The privilege of the ruling class, those who have the power and money is to be used for the common good. But these wealthy ones defend the rights of the rich. Jesus is not the portal they are seeking. They want to throw him out and refuse to cross the threshold of his Mysteries! IF we ever hope to get out of the planetary trouble we are in just now, we have to cultivate stories for a new era. The other than human community seeks co-creative partnership with us. People of old listened to their secrets. We will be wise to let our imaginations and our deeper hearing be attentive too. In the Appalachian forest, I ask for what I want and I receive a few secrets to guide me in return.
www.primaverapeace.org! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! September 27, 2014
W I N D O W S : Soulful Glimpses into Primavera
Oct 5 17th Pent Isaiah 5:1-7 Psalm 80:7-15 Philippians 3:4b-14 Matthew 21:33-46Oct 12 18th Pent Isaiah 25:1-9/Exodus 32:1-14 Psalm 23 Philippians 4:19 Matthew 22:1-14
“Thresholds of Mystery”
Jesus is a portal!
Susan Morley
“Stay awake! You never know who
passes by and how they or
you are impacted.”
