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A
monk in his travels once found a precious stone and kept it. One
day he met a traveler, and when the monk opened his bag to share
his provisions with him, the traveler saw the jewel and asked
the monk to give it to him. The monk did so readily. The traveler
departed, overjoyed with the unexpected gift of the precious stone
that was enough to give him wealth and security for the rest of
his life. However, a few days later he came back in search of
the monk, found him, gave him back the stone, and entreated him,
“Now give me something much more precious than this stone,
valuable as it is. Give me that which enabled you to give it to
me.”
--from a story told by Anthony de Mello
Having
offered his testimony, Morpheus wastes no time in presenting Neo
with the opportunity to begin initiatory rites. Though they have,
in a sense, already begun, Neo has to decide before he enters
the point of no return. As Tresmontant explains, the "personal
act of judgment, of refusal, of choice" cannot be avoided;
the No to the old world and the Yes to the new. This is only the
beginning, but it isn't too late to turn back. The red pill or
the blue pill: "You take the blue pill and the story ends.
You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe."
In spite of Morpheus' charisma, the viewer knows that the blue
pill is a genuine temptation of comfortable numbness and ease.
The red pill is the avenue to truth, the unmasking of fictions,
and as-yet-unimagined strife: "Remember, all I'm offering
is the truth. Nothing more." Neo takes the red pill.
--from David Dark, "Who
Put These Fingerprints On My Imagination? - Engaging the Matrix,"
Adapted from Everyday Apocalypse (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Books, 2002)
We
know [true spirituality] when we see it. We may not be able to
articulate what it is we see, but we see it. We all, at one point
or another, seek to be in the presence of [such] a holy person
because we somehow sense that if we can sit at the feet of such
a person, the inner disparities of our own life will be gathered
together and resolved. That is why people search out spiritual
guides and gurus. There is a hope and anticipation that there
is someone who is somehow closer to divine truth than we are and
that their truth will somehow be conveyed to us.
When
we seek out holy people and find them, what is most palpable about
them is that they have a sense of "completeness"--they
seem free of the anxiety, duplicity, and complex desires that
so characterize and plague our daily lives. They seem to have
become detached from what is extraneous. They have a single-minded
focus and there is a peace and contentment about them that seems
strangely absent in our own lives.
While
this is attractive, we are shy about seeking to become holy ourselves.
Partly this is because we misunderstand holiness. We think holiness
is something that can only be acquired by heroic effort. We are
sure it will require all night vigils, being a member of a monastery
community, living a life devoid of fun and frivolity, meditating
for hours each day, wearing out our knees and our backs in prayer,
never lying or cheating or feeling lust in our heart. Or, if none
of that, at least it will be a life that is dreary, so concentrated
and focused as to be boringly dull.
Let
me suggest to you that holiness is not what you think it is. In
theological terms we talk about holiness as being ‘set apart'--set
apart for God. Even that, however, is a misunderstanding of the
word. The actual root word is hool with "w"
placed at the beginning, and it literally means whole. The simple
duty of us all becomes nothing more, nothing less than becoming
whole. Holiness is the process by which we integrate the loose
threads of our life into a whole tapestry of beauty and divine
grace. This is a creative task for the entirety of our lives.
The Good News is that we can set aside all the to-do lists of
things that we think are required for reaching some standard of
moral and spiritual perfection, and open ourselves instead to
the invitation and creative possibility of becoming whole in God.
To
become whole in God means aligning our lives with God through
such things as: Seeing the world and ourselves through
God’s eyes. Forgiving others even when the pain
of hurt and betrayal sticks in the throat like hard, dry clay.
Not judging others even when their behavior makes our
heartbeat quicken and our breath shorten. Having the courage to
face evil and overcome its power with the goodness that
is foolhardy in the eyes of the world. Staying in the place of
unconditional love even when love seems imprudent and
so difficult as to make us want to run away.
These
are the loose threads that we spend our lives weaving together
into the beautiful tapestry of holiness--wholeness in God. Far
from being dull and drear chores of the soul, becoming whole in
God can be an adventure as thrilling and dramatic as the latest
Hollywood action movie, and the result is that we no longer need
someone else's holiness to rub off on us just so we feel better
about ourselves.
--Renee Miller
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