MISSY SPEAKS ON RELIGION

Larry: Missy, please speak to me about religion.

Missy: Religion is the most important dimension of human’s existence. Religion has as its purpose preserving the stories of the experiences of the human with the Transcendent. It passes these stories to future generations so they in turn may identify with their ancestors’ experiences, be encouraged by them and so be empowered with trust in the Transcendent to move into the unknown - the new - the not yet. Without these ancestral stories individuals would be born into a vacuum. It would be like not knowing who they are or where they came from.

Larry: May I assume that religion is something of a stabilizing influence in the continuing evolutionary process of the human species?

Missy: Yes, religion gives individuals an identity in their relationship with their ancestors and their God. Individuals are invited and empowered to live their lives with moral values appropriate to their culture and, in many instances with compassion and love for other humans. All of the arts are enobled as they are used to express these relationships. In many traditions, especially in the West, religion has spawned and developed the revered intellectual tradition of Theology and Philosophy as its handmaidens. Religion is indeed a very integral and important dimension of the human experience.

Larry: Then why is it that so many people, good people, have difficulty with religion?

Missy: Larry, the first thing to keep in mind is that religion is made for human and not human for religion. This is expressed very well in the story given in the Gospel according to Mark, "One Sabbath day he happened to be taking a walk through the cornfields, and his disciples began to pick ears of corn as they went along. And the Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing something on the Sabbath day that is forbidden?’ And he replied, ‘Did you never read what David did in his time of need when he and his followers were hungry -- how he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the loaves of offering which only the priests are allowed to eat, and how he also gave some to the men with him?’ And he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for man not man for the sabbath; so the son of Man is master even of the sabbath.’"

(Mark 2: 23-28)

Larry: Come on, Missy, are you trying to say that Jesus was against religion?

Missy: Of course not. As he said, "I have come not to destroy the Law but to bring it to its fulfillment." (Matt. 5:17). Later Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians, "For he is the peace between us, and has made the two into one and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, actually destroying in his own person the hostility caused by the Law." (Ephesians 2:14). This Law is religion. The remainder of that chapter speaks of the unity of all in Christ. This is the Cosmic Spirit - the One in which humans and all creatures - even non-rational animals, canines like myself - are the many. Did Jesus as the incarnation of the Cosmic Spirit come to call all creatures out of their separatenesses and invite all, especially humans, to be aware of their essential, eternal unity in the One? Yes.

Larry: I am under the impression that you are saying that religions tend to separate humans from one another.

Missy: Yes, of course, all you have to do is to look at the many religious wars throughout history.

Larry: But, Missy, aren’t religions supposed to invite humans to worship God, Who loves all as His children?

Missy: Sure, that is true. But remember that each religion has its own human expression of how the ancestors experienced God or gods. The Creed, Code and Cult - Doctrines, Laws and Rituals based on these experiences become very sacred to the people of each religion. Without realizing it the religion tends to take the place of God. And when religions - the expressions of the experiences with the Transcendent - differ they tend to divide, cause tensions and conflicts - even wars.

Larry: We humans really seem to want to hold on to what we have - our property, our mindset, our status quo in any dimension of life.

Missy: Yes, Larry, its based on the fallacious need to survive by understanding and controlling. All of those dimensions of humans’ lives tend to become like household gods. You remember the story in Exodus, the Hebrews had to discard their household gods in the desert in order to follow the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day. So must humans’ household gods be discarded as human moves through the evolutionary process of the species, of the planet, of the universe.

Larry: Are you saying that religion as a whole and/or different aspects of religion can be compared to the household gods of the Hebrews?

Missy. Yes. For the movement of Cosmogenesis is always in the not yet even though it may take centuries in time and space to become aware of the new.

Larry: But we are taught to revere religion - the creed, code , and cult - as though it were given to us by God and engraved in stone.

Missy: Yes. That is true. That also is rooted in the human desire for security in human’s compulsion to understand and control in order to survive. Actually the story of the Exodus and in fact the whole of the Judaeo-Christian Scriptures are an invitation to trust the Transcendent God leading humans in their individual and collective passovers.

Larry: So what about reverence?

Missy: Reverence is shown in accepting the invitation to trust. As humans revere and are grateful to their parents, grandparents and all who have nutured them, so are they invited to revere and be grateful for their religious traditions which have nourished them.

Larry: So the hymn Give Me That Ol’ Time Religion has merit?

Missy: No, Larry, that is not the same thing. To revere it does not mean to hold on to it. It means to be grateful for the nourishment and support and then to go on to the next step in the Cosmic Dance. Perhaps it is well to remember the incident recorded in Mark’s gospel. "His mother and brothers arrived and, standing outside, sent in a message asking for him. A crowd was sitting round him at the time the message was passed to him, ‘Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for you.’ He replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking round at those sitting in a circle about him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother, and sister and mother.’" (Mark 3:31-35).

Larry: I’m afraid you lost me.

Missy: What that means is that those who were doing the will of God are the ones who nourished Jesus.

Now let’s make a big jump in your thinking. As you humans approach the twenty-first century to do the will of God may be expressed in less anthropomorphic terms such as to be in harmony with the Energy Source of Cosmogenesis. This calls for a paradigmatic shift in human’s imaging the Transcendent. Chardin wrote of God as the Love Energy of Cosmogenesis.

Larry: Missy, are you telling me that you know about Teilhard de Chardin and his writings?

Missy: Larry, all the other angels and I were jumping with joy - to use a human metaphor - when Chardin was expressing his insights into the evolutionary process of Planet Earth and even of the Universe. We also rejoiced when Thomas Aquinas wrote in his Contra Gentiles that all of nature is the primary revelation of the Divine. To help him was one of my assignments. One of my greatest experiences with Tom was when he was near the time of leaving his body. I danced his spirit through the Milky Way and then through a few other galaxies. When his spirit was back in his body he was both laughing and crying. Speaking of all he had written he said, "Missy, omnia sicut palea," or, it is all like chaff.

Larry: Let’s go back to the writings of Chardin about Cosmogenesis and imaging God as the Energy Source of Cosmogenesis. Are you inviting me and other humans who care to listen into a great big paradigmatic shift in our way of thinking of God and Religion?

Missy: Yes. Remember God remains the incomprehensible Transcendent Mystery as always. What is changing is the way in which you humans are invited to image God. I know you slept through most of the course in logic but you may remember the distinction between id quod and modus quo. The id quod is the that which. The id quod in our discussion is the Incomprehensible Mystery of the Transcendent and Human’s experience of this Mystery. The modus quo is the manner in which that experience is experienced and then expressed, namely, the Creed, Code and Cult. These three constitute religion.

Larry: So we humans are invited to allow the modus quo to continually change with the evolutionary process of the species while holding on to and trusting the Incomprehensible Mystery - the id quod.

Missy: That is correct. And there are times when the changes into which you are invited are more noticeable.

Larry: We humans don’t like to do that.

Missy: That is true. From my vantage point as an angel intuitively perceiving the Universe, you humans are like the disciples of Jesus. The disciples marvelled at the beauty of the Temple. And Jesus said, "You see all these? I tell you solemnly, not a single stone will be left on another. Everything will be destroyed." (Matthew 24:2). The same can be said of any religion. Its houses of worship may all be destroyed; its Creed, Code and Cult may all cease. What remains is human in human’s evolutionary process, human’s relationship to all the other species on planet Earth and indeed to the Universe and the immanent presence of the Transcendent Mystery - the Energy Source of Cosmogenesis. As snake sheds its skin and lives on, so human is continually invited to shed the time-space constructs of religion and move into the new, the not yet, with trust.

Larry: OK Miss, can you tell me now exactly why it is that we humans are resistant to the on-going changes in religion that are demanded by Cosmogenesis?

Missy: (She is laughing) Larry, you didn’t even want to change the manuscript - to rewrite the expressions of your own ideas! (She is referring to the fact that the Advisors to my religious superior suggested changes in the first writing of the manuscript. When I was invited to change it I wanted to hold on to some of the expressions simply because they were mine and had become sacred to me.)

Larry: OK OK Now please tell me more.

Missy: The beloved Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once wrote something to the effect that insights once conceptualized tend to fossilize. And as St. Stephen said to the members of the Sanhedrin (referring to the worship of the golden calf), "They were perfectly happy with something they had made for themselves." (Acts 7:41) And so, my dear Larry, it frequently happens that much if not all of the energy of human goes into preserving and quibbling over the precise meanings of the expressions of what has been. They like to celebrate what has been. They find such security in these exercises that their whole beings remain closed to the invitation to move into the unknown - the new - the not yet. Then the purpose of religion as a dynamic, life empowering proclamation - that God has been compassionately present to them from the beginning, is compassionately present to them now and will be compassionately present to them in the future as they go through their various passovers individually and collectively - is frustrated. Humans simply become more concerned with the Creed, Code, and Cult which tell them what has been, and so are closed to the invitation to the next passover step of the Cosmic Dance. They learn how not to hear what they should be listening to.

Larry: My dear Missy, do you have any suggestions for us humans?

Missy: Yes! Wake up! Become aware of what you have done to the gift of religion. Instead of using it as a support system in the journey you tend to worship religion rather than worshipping God. Let’s just take a look at how religions develop, and I’m going to use the Roman Catholic Church as an example. You grew up in that religion. It has served you and millions of others very well over the centuries.

1. The experience of the Transcendent by the human

2. The imaging of the experience

3. The conceptualizing of the image

4. The wording of the concept

5. The story of the experience

6. The discussion of the meaning of the story

7. A Creed to which all can agree

(this is a lowest common denominator of the meaning)

8. A Code: the combination of cultural customs

influenced by the Creed

(this may gradually include a body of legislation)

9. A Cult: a manner of worship appropriate to the

Creed, Code and Culture

of the people

10. An Ecumenical Council to determine what the Creed means

11. Theological discussions to determine

what the documents of the

Ecumenical Councils mean

12. An adult catechism to bring the teachings to the laity

13. Finally, a children's catechism

with which most have been raised,

and by which many continue to live as they learned it as

children

Larry: Thanks, Missy, for that outline. I and thousands of others in the United States learned the teachings of the Church through the Baltimore Catechism which dates back to April 6, 1885.

Missy. You did some research on that didn’t you?

Larry: It was very easy, Missy. I found it on the inside of the front cover of a 1933 edition of the Catechism once used by my brother, Kenneth. I discovered the book in the attic of my parents’ house when I cleaned it out a few years ago. You must know, Missy, that every Catholic girl and boy had to memorize the smaller Catechism before they made their First Communion, and then a larger Catechism before they could be confirmed and make what was called their Solemn Communion. We were well taught. I am told, though I have no proof of this, that this was true for other countries throughout the world wherever the Catholic Church thrived.

Missy: Yes, that is true. This developed generations of Catholics with a firm grasp of the doctrines of the Catholic Church in Catechetical form. Since there was little or no understanding of symbolism, it was all taken as literal truth.

Larry: Why are we discussing this? Where is the problem?

Missy: The problem is that in trusting the literalness of the catechism answers, individuals tended to think that there is no mystery - that they know what the mystery is all about because they have the answers. To put it bluntly, Larry, as youngsters you were accustomed to being catechised and told what to do and how to think. In school you were programmed to learn by conceptualizing, analyzing, and proving.

Larry: Wasn’t that a necessary structure for us as we were growing?

Missy: By all means. But little value was placed on intuition and a feeling of awe before the mystery of Transcendence revealing, manifesting, in the phenomena of the universe. One way of interpreting the story of the Fall is that humans lost their sense of awe of the mystery of the Transcendent when they ate of the Tree of Knowledge.

You must understand, Larry, intuitive knowledge is what Jesus is speaking about when He says that one can not enter the kingdom of God unless one becomes as a little child - a child who has not yet been taught the names of anything, but simply marvels and dances in glee with all of creation. Most humans don’t remember the state of being in a sense of awe. Early on you humans were taught to "know" so that you could survive in your time-space experience.

At this time the disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ So he called a little child to him and set the child in front of them. Then he said, ‘I tell you solemnly, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. And so, the one who makes himself as little as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’ Matthew 18: 1-4

At that time Jesus exclaimed, ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.’

Matthew 11: 25-26

Larry: Missy, I have a story for you.

Missy: Good. I like stories.

Larry: The following was told to me as a true story.

A young couple had a little boy about four years of age. The couple then had another little baby. One day when the baby was about three months old and lying in its crib in the nursery the little four-year-old asked his parents if he could speak to Baby. The parents said, "Of course, let's go in and talk to Baby now." The four-year-old said "No, I want to talk to Baby alone." The parents said, "Okay, you go in while we stand here at the door." The four-year-old said, "No, I want the door closed." The parents said, "Okay, after awhile." They set up a monitor so they could hear what was going on, then they told the boy he could go in. Making sure the door was closed so that his parents could not hear, the boy went over to the crib and said to the baby, "Tell me what God looks like. I'm beginning to forget."

Missy: I like that story. Remember it is quite possible that the untaught child has an intuitive sense of the Transcendent, the Divine Ground, and the Mystery, but gradually loses it as the eternal Self is taught more fully the trappings of time and space. As the temporal persona develops there is less awareness of the eternal Self.

Larry: May I assume that union of the human with the Transcendent takes place through an intuitive experience? Whatever images, concepts and words we may use to describe the experience to ourselves and others greatly limit the experience. We seem caught in the fallacy that if we can't articulate the experience in some manner, then it is not valid. As A.A. Milne's "Winnie-the Pooh" and "Piglet" agree, "Rabbit" is clever and has a Brain, but that is why Rabbit doesn't understand. The experience of Transcendence in its purity, in its quintessential thusness is not communicable. Whatever images, words or movements - such as dance, music or drumming - we may use to help us express our experience of the Mystery are certainly valid but limiting; they simply fall short of the experience. How is that Missy?

Missy: Considering the limitations of language and your own limitations you are doing rather well. And I might add, what you have said is true of the Bible, the Koran, the Tao te Ching, the Bhagavad Gita, and any other Sacred Scriptures of the various religions of the planet. No written word exhausts the Transcendent Mystery. Joseph Campbell says that even the Kena Upanishad, written in the 7th Century, B.C. says very clearly that the Transcendent is that which words and thoughts do not reach.

Larry: Thank you, Missy. And now if you don’t mind I’m going to do a little monologue.

Missy: Be my guest.

Larry: We cannot know the Transcendent intellectually or conceptually. We can only be united with it in the daily and nightly rhythms of the Cosmic Dance; being in harmony with the Eternal Dancer Who is also the Choreographer, without asking why - simply allowing oneself to be led into the next step of the dance.

To use words for the Transcendent Mystery, the Source of the Cosmos, is at the very least to babble but more easily borders on blasphemy. And yet what are we humans to do? We risk using metaphors because when we do we then have a tendency to turn them into prosaic facts. Then, like children with building blocks, we construct various systems; we compare our systems and argue about the truth or falsity of each. Lo and behold, we have created our own gods, our own religions, each with its own Creed, Code and Cult. We have forgotten the experience of the Transcendent Mystery. Having diversified ourselves we then divide ourselves against one another; we build cultures around our religions and go to war. And if we are not at war with other religions and cultures we expend a lot of energy analyzing our metaphorical concepts as though they are facts. They become fossilized and lose their life because they are no longer pointing to the Transcendent Mystery but to themselves.

Missy: My dear Larry, I think you are beginning to learn.