Holy
Reality, Batman!
“Mundane
reality and sacred reality are one and the same
reality-truth-continuum. This very life you are living is a Divine
drama, the play of a Living God. The whole of life is sacred. The
whole of life is a Divine revelation, God revealing itself. The
mystery revealed in plain sight...”
Tau
Malachi (The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas)
In
Verse 5 of the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus instructs his disciples to
“Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you
will become plain to you. For there is nothing hidden which will not
become manifest.” Malachi translates this to mean that when we
recognize the divine light in the world, it is the divine within us
that sees it. When we observe holiness in another person, it is the holy in
us that recognizes. Once we connect the dots of our own existence in
the spiritual drama that is life, then we cannot help but see it
playing out.
I
don't know about you, but for many years I looked outside myself for
divine happenings in the world. There were people to whom I attached
myself who showed more supernal light than others—teachers,
ministers, writers, poets. They all seemed to be on a different wave
length with a mainline to God. Certain books pointed the way. At one
time, I simply couldn't get enough information about all of it. I
read voraciously, all the while wondering why my own life was such a
mess and theirs was not. And then, I got to know some of them as
people, not objects of my imagination, and discovered there was just
as much drama and misfortune in their lives as in mine. In some,
there was seemingly more! How could it be that their holiness did not
shield them from disastrous relationships, from pain and suffering.
In fact, it was their very humanness that led them to discover the
truth of God's presence.
I
met a man recently who is going through an existential crisis.
Trained as a minister, counselor, teacher, he came to realize that
all he had learned and believed to be true was smoke and mirrors.
There was no solid ground on which to stand; he was falling into the
abyss and searching desperately for a life line. Where is God in all
of that? All I can say is—God is there because God is within him
and around him, even when everything he believed in deserts him. All
of life--the good, the bad, the ugly and the mundane--is part of a divine drama
leading each of us face-to-face with the holy, every minute of every
day.
You
know those chocolate eggs; the ones you can only buy at Easter? You
have to crack them open to get to the creamy, delicious inside. We're
the same way. The good stuff is hidden within.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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