Us ONE IN BEING with God

Hierarchy--IDOLATRY?

Dominion theology-nothing to do with the way Heaven is...nothing to do with the way the "Kingdom" will be established on earth. Everything to do with God as Divine Egoist.

Hierarchical justification...everything to do with control and nothing to do with God. Did God create us in order to have something to do? something to control?

Infallibility...everything to do with the certainty we crave in idolatry. Nothing to do with the response-ability of Truth in Love.

Maybe we "need" these ideas as the ancients "needed" their idols to feel certain and secure in a tumultous world. Yet, Jesus was always calling us away from idol ways of thinking...into lives of continuous faith in the God Who is not as we make "Him".

Thank you, Sylvester and all, for responding and calling forth response.
Sister Lea

I echo the loving comments about the beauty of your soul, Sister Lea.

I believe that the concept of "equality" is born of this world. Inequality and predjudice can damage our souls, and we must come together to transform society. We do this each time we share peace and love with each other. We do this each time we help one another.

I acknowledge that I am an individual, who lives in union with God. I also acknowledge that when I unite with my fellow man to perform deeds of charity, I become more able, more productive and more holy than I could've been on my own. This doesn't make me less, but it is true that together we are greater than we are in isolation.

God is at the center and we live through Him, with Him and in Him. Believing in something greater than ourselves does not diminish us. Our faith is not based on levels of divinity. It's about a Love more pure than we can imagine. The more we can lift up our hearts, and connect with the Love of God, the more we can effect His Light and Love on this earth.

As we learn to live through Him, with Him, and in Him, we become one body, and our need to measure things sublimates. My right thumb is not greater or less than my left pinky. The whole will always greater than the sum of its parts.

I send this with love and gratitude for your kindness!

'I believe in God.' I don't think the best way to understand this is to compare it with 'I believe there are nine planets (although I haven't counted them)' or to believe 'Australia is there (though I've never seen it)'. I think when I say 'I believe in God' does mean that I believe some propositions are true. The whole of our faith is the belief that God loves us; there isn't anything else. Anything else we say we believe is just a way of saying God love sus. These are the thoughts of the late Fr. Herbert McCabe, OP.

We have to test and criticize our beliefs and question what we are making of them and what the Church is making of them. Are they just an expression of loyalty? Are they really still about God's love?

This is a kind of doubting because of questioning. It is an integral and necessary part of faith.

Michael

Dear Sr.Lea~ I too like the way your mind and soul seem to work.

"My thoughts are higher than your thoughts... so are my ways higher than your ways...," our Lord God says in Isaiah. It's okay if we don't have all the answers; just keep looking for God.

There came a point in my life when I began to question the physical implications of my faith. Although it's not a necessary step, it was necessary for me and it became a means to make my faith stronger. Even though I had questions, I did not give up my faith. I just accepted that I didn't understand everything. Over time, I came to understand the presence of God in a much stronger way.

There came a point in time, a point of great liberation. I said, "The sky is blue. Jesus Christ came down from Heaven, suffered, died and was buried. On the third day he rose from the dead, fulfilling the scriptures." My faith in Jesus Christ had become stronger than my faith in the blue sky. This was and still is a liberating experience. We all journey in our faith. It is a journey of Love. I am lucky that I've had many beautiful experiences. I constantly look for more of those experiences, even when they seem difficult to find. I thrive on them.

I have met people who have challenged my faith. For some reason I had to listen to them in order make my faith stronger. It might have been easier for me to ignore their words. Although I don't believe in taking the hard route through life, I knew that it was necessary for me to listen. Who knows? Maybe the understanding I have gained will help others on their journey.

If it ever happens that you find it's a challenge to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He was the physical personification of God, accept the challenge. I hope it never happens, but it's okay to have questions. PLEASE don't give up on the possibilities. I have seen non-Christians struggle to understand what we mean, when we discuss the Holy Trinity. It's not always easy to fully express it in words. Sometimes it takes a little time for the understanding to grow. Sometimes it takes a little time to feel it deep down.

I have heard people filled with questions say, "I hope it's true." I feel better when I hear those words. Hope is a means to strengthen our faith; we need only be persistent in our faith. Faith is the bridge between believing and knowing. It's a very strong bridge. As long as we continue to pursue our love of God, looking to share God's love with the world, our faith will always grow. Don't give up; that's what perseverance means.

"I am the LORD your God… You shall have no other gods before Me. Yahweh is the God of freedom and there are to be no other gods… The important thing is not just to be religious, to worship something somehow. The important thing is to find, or be found by, the right God and to reject and struggle against the others... This God of freedom will allow you none of the comforts of religion. Not only does he tear you away from the old traditional shrines and temples of your native place, but he will not even allow you to worship him in the old way. You are forbidden to make an image of him by which you might wield
numinous power, you are forbidden to invoke his name in magical rites. You must deny the other gods and you must not treat Yahweh as a god, as a power you could use against your enemies or to help you to succeed in life. Yahweh is not a god, there are no gods, they are all delusions and slavery. You are not to try to comprehend God within the conventions and symbols of your time and place; you are to have no image of God because the only image of God is man."

-- Herbert McCabe, OP

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I am so grateful that NCR set up this site. The Cafe is certainly given me very creative way of exploring my faith and letting go of some old ideas and making room for the new.

Sister Lea, I always like your posts. Thank You again.

I entertained something similar on another site. Here's a link and excerpt. It was a question on when did Jesus realize His Divinity. I had ventured a possibility and scenario of a naturally occurring and maturing awareness of His Divinity on His Part. I also mentioned that we too have that spark of divinity within us to guide us. So His burgeoning awareness of His Divinity would not be unlike our own Life long developing awareness of our maturing spirituality.

http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6356&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30

When did Jesus learn He was Christ?

Cathar1950 my friend, Thank You for your conscientious post. I actually don't equate Jesus to Divinity. I believe Jesus is congruent with divinity which means having a similar value as divinity but distinctly different than other congruently divine personalities, Like The Father and The Holy Spirit. So this idea evolves from the mystery of the Holy Trinity - three persons in One God. Perhaps you believe in two equivalent but NOT EQUAL divine personalities? Maybe you see The Holy Sprit and The Father concepts as equal in Power and Capability BUT different on personality attributes.

I’m not exactly sure how you see God. BUT I do see Jesus as an attenuation of divinity. Distinctly divine, personal, and of capabilities equivalent to those of the father SINCE as Jesus said all power comes from The Father.

So I believe Jesus was born Human and as ALL of us received a spiritual endowment of divinity which already had divinely existed before his mortal being was created and which he became aware of as he naturally developed. As he slowly realized his divine existence, the plan and the reason for His being here on earth that HE determined before giving himself to the Mission of being born in the Flesh to reveal to humankind the truth of God's Love and Mercy and the beauty of living a life consecrated to doing God's Will, began to be recognized by Him and He dealt with the acceptance of His Divine Mission humanly in the form of humankind.

And I believe he had to deal with all the doubts and concerns concerning this understanding just as any human would.

I don't think anything was by accident. It was a quite conscious and deliberate act, (Jesus’ mission on earth).

http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6356&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=10

The more we discover how much we are Loved by God, the more we want to do God's Will

OK, but the "problem" is that hierachical justification might be challenged. What would that do to patriarchy, dominion theology? Infallibility?