In our day ... love of neighbor needs to take a form that goes beyond the realm of private, individual relationships. Given our knowledge of how systems affect the individual, love today must be expressed also in Christian responsibility for the social sphere. Acting in this way is more than a humanitarian undertaking, noble as that would be. In a time of growing solidarity on a global scale, work for justice is stimulated by the Spirit of Jesus, for whom the neighbors’ good has an incomprehensible value, commensurate with the love of God poured out upon them.
Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Quest for God, by Elizabeth Johnson, p. 46.
Weekly Pause & Ponder
Love energy marks the history of the universe. It is present from the Big Bang onward, though indistinguishable from molecular forces. It amplifies itself by way of union because it “is the most universal, the most tremendous and the most mysterious of the cosmic forces....The physical structure of the universe is love.” It draws together and unites; in uniting it differentiates. Love is the core energy of evolution and its goal.
The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love, by Ilia Delio, p. 44.
Weekly Pause & Ponder
Somewhere deep down we are all filled with a mystical longing, with a longing for ultimate meaningfulness, and therefore we need to see all of our world in that context. To attain this in today’s climate, we need a new theology of the cosmos–one that is grounded in the best science of our day. It will be a theology in which God is very present precisely in all the dynamism and patterns of the created order. A theology of evolution sees God as deeply involved in the evolutionary process of the world. God is making the world by means of evolution. And the evolutionary process in its turn is seen as striving toward God. So, you see, God is Self-expressing and Self-realizing in evolution.
An interview with Beatrice Bruteau, An article from Enlightenext. First appeared in Issue 21, “The Future of God.”
Weekly Pause & Ponder
Life exists in an ever-present state. It is never created, never destroyed. Life continually evolves itself, expressing various dimensions, forms and conditions. Our view of life is too often limited to the particular expressions that we witness in the world, remaining oblivious to its eternally present nature that supersedes all physical, mental and material forms.... There is one life in all of existence and non-existence, Infinite Consciousness, and we are one and the same with this life. There are unique, innumerable expressions of Consciousness, but they are all united with the central life from which all emanates.
Enlightened Consciousness: Entereing New Dimensions of Spiritual Awareness by Griff Obrien, pp.82-83.
Weekly Pause & Ponder
For much of Christian history, Christians have usurped the vision and challenge of the Companionship of Empowerment (Kingdom of God). We tend to overspiritualize the concept, assigning it to personal spiritual growth or salvation in a world beyond.... The Companionship of Empowerment is based on a vision inspired by the lure of the future. In essence, commitment to the Companionship is about striving to make the world a better place for all God’s creatures, a rediscovery of paradise where all can live in the nonviolent power of justice and love. It may sound utopian, but without this utopia, evolution can never advance into the greater complexity that God seems to intend for all creation. In this understanding, the new vision of empowerment is not merely about people and the human situation; it also embraces transformative challenges of global and cosmic proportions.
Christianity’s Dangerous Memory: A Rediscovery of the Revolutionary Jesus by Diarmuid O’Murchu, pp.34-36.