Whole and Holy

Mature People

“Mature people are not either-or thinkers, but they bathe in the ocean of both-and. As Albert Einstein said, 'No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that caused it in the first place.' God moves humanity and religion forward by the regular appearance of such whole and holy people.”

Richard Rohr (Falling Upward)

Without exception the whole and holy people of our time are forgiving, compassionate, and inclusive, just as was Jesus. People such as His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hahn, Ram Dass, Bishop Michael Bruce Curry and others, teach nothing but love. At their level of emotional maturity, they have become love; it's not just a concept but the fiber of their being. Perhaps this is because they have come to understand that love is all that matters, and only thing that will heal either a “sin sick soul” or a broken world.

As I wrote yesterday, we are moving forward in terms of our consciousness, but ever so slowly. We humans are still in love with power. We haven't yet discovered that the most powerful force in the universe is love. And we still believe that such powerful love has to be endowed from on high, that we cannot achieve it ourselves. In the face of defeat, we simply give up, or never even try. But transformational love is possible. If it were not so, the people mentioned above—humans, everyone—would not be who they are today. They didn't come here filled with compassion and forgiveness—they have learned it through practice and dedication. They have watched humans flail, and fight, and harm themselves and one another, and they have moved from anger and disgust to compassion. It's the same journey that Jesus took. The same one we all must take if we want to live in peace.

Emotional maturity is essential to our survival as a species. It is not something we are born with, and it doesn't come easy. We have to work for it. We have to choose it and monitor ourselves every minute of every day. And that requires consciousness—intentional awareness. We must want to be better people. We must realize when we are not. We have some great teachers to lead us. All we have to do is choose wholeness as our goal, and then walk the path that unfolds before us. Seek and you will find. That's a promise.

                                                          In the Spirit,

                                                             Jane