Why I Remain A Christian

I am finally responding to a comment about why I remain a Christian and affirm the Apostle’s Creed given the things I write concerning the unity of religion, etc. The is a difficult response to formulate because it forces one to address the seemingly incompatible subjects of exoterism and esoterism.

The former has to do with traditional religion and dogma and the latter with universal spiritual truth that in essence cracks the shell of traditional religious dogma. In other words, exoterism is the form of religion while esoterism is its essence. Probably the foremost writer who has written on this subject is Frithjof Schuon in a number of books, starting with The Transcendent Unity of Religion.

The subject presents us with the paradox of different realities, both of which are true yet seemingly they are mutually exclusive. The Apostle’s Creed expresses a true reality. In terms of metaphysics, it is a relative reality because there are other true religious realities. However, the Apostle’s Creed is also universally true in the sense that it provides access to universal truth as it is expressed devotionally in a practice such as liturgy or the Rosary. If the Apostle’s Creed is not expressed–or practiced–devotionally, it becomes nothing more than a dogmatic formulation. Devotion in all religions is one of the means towards mystical experience.

Mystical experience does not have to be anything extraordinary, although it is extraordinary as it is the real experience of that Presence–the I Am–that is somehow beyond both thought and feeling. The reasons for the variety of mystical works throughout history is that the limits of language are quickly exceeded when attempts are made to express the mystical experience. But there have been wonderful attempts, which make up the treasury of mystical literature.

There has always been tension between exoteric and esoteric religion, and not a few times has this tension resulted in heresy trials and executions by burning at the stake, crucifixion, or dismemberment. The exoterist tends not to perceive the reality that the mystic–or esoterist–perceives. What he does perceive is a threat to his religion as he understands it.

The reason why exoteric religion must continue, however, is because–as the Bhagavad-Gita points out–few people are able to perceive God in his Universal aspect. Most esoterists understand this and remain faithful to their own religion after experiencing a foretaste of the Universal Truth. This is to the benefit of others. To the Christian esoterist, however, when Jesus says, “I am the only Way,” he is understood as referring to the Christ rather than the man, and the man Jesus carries out the will of the Father.

God bless.

Aldous Huxley: The Perennial Philosophy

For myself as a Christian, Jesus Christ is my only way to the Father. He is the only way by which I may be saved. My profession of the Apostles’ Creed is an expression of my faith and belief in my own redemption through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ,

A Muslim’s profession of faith is: “There is no God but God; and Mohammad is his Prophet.”

A Hindu’s way may be the practice of complete devotion and worship of Krishna as an incarnation of God, among other possible paths.

A Taoist might say that the Tao is the way of God’s working in the universe that existed before God had a name and before there was any religion.

An adherent to the Jewish faith believes in Jehovah as the Creator and Lord of all things, and who revealed his Law through Moses.

A Buddhist takes refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma (the spiritual law of the universe), and the Sangha (the spiritual community).

As Aldous Huxley stated in his famous introduction to Swami Prabhavananda’s and Christopher Isherwood’s translation of the Bhagavad-Gita that was first published in 1944:

But happily there is the Highest Common Factor of all religions, the Perennial Philosophy which has always and everywhere been the metaphysical system of the prophets, saints, and sages. It is perfectly possible for people to remain good Christians, Hindus, Buddhists or Muslims and yet to be united in full agreement on the basic doctrines of the Perennial Philosophy.

In Huxley’s opinion, “The Bhagavad-Gita is perhaps the most systematic scriptural statement of the Perennial Philosophy.” Father Bede Griffiths noted in his book, River of Compassion: A Christian Commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita:

A Christian who is open to the message of the Gita will find that it throws new light on many aspects of the Gospel.

Aldous Huxley identified four main characteristics, and later added a fifth, of the Perennial Philosophy that he sees as not only the common ground, but the highest common ground, of all religions:

First: the phenomenal world of matter and individualized consciousness…is the manifestation of a Divine Ground within which all partial realities have their being, and apart from which they would be nonexistent.

Second: human beings are capable of not only knowing about the Divine Ground by inference; they can also realize its existence by a direct intuition, superior to discursive reasoning. This immediate knowledge unites the knower with that which is known.

Third: man possesses a double nature, a phenomenal ego and an eternal Self, which is the inner man, the spirit, the spark of divinity within the soul. It is possible for a man, if he so desires, to identify himself with the spirit and therefore with the Divine Ground, which is of the same or like nature with the spirit.

Fourth: man’s life on earth has only one end and purpose: to identify himself with his eternal Self and so to come to unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground.

The above principles of the Perennial Philosophy are stated in philosophical rather than doctrinal terms so that they may be compatible with the various religions.

An example of its application is that, just as Eckhart and Ruysbroeck describe a Christian Godhead underlying the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Bhagavad-Gita states that Brahman is the Godhead which underlies the Hindu trinity of Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver), and Shiva (dissolver).

Another parallel can be found in that the Atman, the spark of divinity residing in the heart and which is directly related to Brahman (uncreated God in his unmanifest state) can be compared, not doctrinally but philosophically, to the indwelling Christ (“I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Galations 2:20).

Yet the language about the Divine Ground, and indeed all four characteristics of the Perennial Philosophy, are of a decidedly impersonal nature. It is indeed a valid spiritual practice to meditate on the impersonal aspect of the divinity; that is, divinity without what might be called anthropomorphic attributes such as love, goodness, compassion, and mercy.

But rare is the individual who can continuously maintain an impersonal approach to the divine. Even Buddhism developed bodhisattvas, beings who have achieved nirvana but have voluntarily postponed their entry into it until all beings are saved, and so are at the service of humanity.

And so Aldous Huxley identifies a fifth characteristic of the Perennial Philosophy, which is the belief in, and worship of, the divine incarnation. The Bhagavad-Gita describes the sacrificial worship of the divine incarnation–God taking birth as a human being for the sake of humanity–in great detail, and is known in Hinduism as bhakti yoga. The concept of sacrificial worship is mentioned by St. Paul in his letter to the Romans:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers (and sisters), in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. (Romans 12:1, NIV)

In “Appendix 1″ of Prabhavananda’s and Isherwood’s translation of the Bhagavad-Gita, it says, “Hinduism accepts the belief in many divine incarnations, including Krishna, Buddha, and Jesus, and foresees that there will be many more:”

In every age I come back

To deliver the holy,

To destroy the sin of the sinner,

To establish righteousness.

This is problematic for Christians, who believe that Jesus is God’s only begotten son, and also for Muslim’s, who do not accept the concept of incarnation. It might even seem problematic for Hindu’s as well in terms of the number of gurus in the modern age who have claimed to be divine incarnations.

Father Bede Griffiths, in his book, Return to the Center, does not oppose the possibility of more than one divine incarnation. But he does argue that, among the major claimants–he names three: Krishna, Buddha, and Jesus–Jesus Christ, through his life, death, and resurrection, represents the most perfect incarnation of God. His view is that Christ expresses what is most perfect in every religion.

All things considered, Aldous Huxley, in discussing the Perennial Philosophy–in his book by that name and in his wartime introduction to one of the best ever translations of the Bhagavad-Gita–makes an important contribution to interspirituality and to the peaceful coexistence of religions by seeking to define the Highest Common Factor that represents a metaphysical basis by which all religions can enter into the conversation.

God bless.

Jonathan Edwards: Mystic, Interspiritual Christian

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), a key figure in the American Great Awakening of the 1740’s, is famous for his Calvanistic sermon entitled, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1741), which imprinted upon the American imagination graphic descriptions of the terrors of hell.

Few Christians realize, however, that he and his wife Sarah were both mystics; fewer still, that Edwards was probably the first American Interspiritual Christian and, therefore, hundreds of years before his time. There is no little surprise in this since he is such a towering figure, impeccably credentialed, and a stallwart hero of evangelical Christianity.

Jonathan Edwards was both the son and grandson of Congregational pastors. He graduated at the age of seventeen from Yale University at the top of his class. In 1739, Edwards wrote of his “two seasons of awakening” in his Personal Narrative.

The first awakening occured as a boy, during a period when he prayed five times a day, retiring to a solitary place in the woods. The second awakening took place during his last years at Yale:

There came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the divine being….I thought with myself…how happy I should be, if I might enjoy that God, and be wrapped up to God in heaven.” (Pg. 193, Steven Fanning: Mystics of the Christian Tradition)

Thereafter, and throughout his life, Edwards experienced

a new kind of apprehension and ideas of Christ…an inward, sweet sense of these things…and my soul was lead away in pleasant views and contemplations of them. (Pg. 194, Fanning)

He often read the Song of Songs; and he would take solitary walks in the woods, because God

seemed to appear in everything; in the sun, moon, and stars; in the clouds, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, and trees; in the water, and all nature. (Pg. 194, Fanning)

Jonathan Edwards was ordained in 1727, and he also married Sarah Pierrepoint. In 1729, Edwards succeeded his grandfather as pastor of Northampton Church, where he stayed until 1750. He then moved his family to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he served as a missionary to Indians and pastor to settlers. He died in 1758, shortly after becoming the president of the College of New Jersy (Princeton University).

As for the interspiritual thought of Jonathan Edwards, he believed that–beyond God’s revelation to Christians and as testified to in the Bible–God also reveals himself to every religion and every culture in the world. He further held that there were non-Christians who were gifted by God with an “inner religious consciousness,” and that this was “the only prerequisite to salvation.”

He therefore did not restrict salvation to Calvanists or even Christians in general, but held that salvation was possible, through the agency of God, for all peoples.

It is amazing that this great precursor of evangelical Christianity held interspiritual views. Equally amazing is that he arrived at the apprehension of salvation in other religions over 200 years before Vatican II.

God bless.

On Three Spiritual Practices

As I mentioned in the previous post, the Sufi concept of passing-away (fana) can be instructive to the Christian seeking to surrender his or her will to the will of Christ. Such a surrender is to go beyond external doctrine and into the heart of the Savior.

The prerequisite to this transformation is the annihilation of the ego. In Christianity, this is symbolized by our Baptism, as we have died unto our sinful selves and are reborn into the life of Christ. The annihilation of the ego as the entryway to the Divine Life is a universal concept in religion.

Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:24-25, NIV)

There is a saying in Islam: “Die before you die.”

This state of surrender is most difficult to attain in a culture based on materialism. We cannot surrender to God’s will while we have our own agenda. Among the Islamic mystics, even the desire for Paradise or the fear of Hell are seen as egoism.

True surrender is an act of God’s grace, although it can be facilitated by a spiritual practice. A spiritual practice is NOT an act based on “works” in order to gain merit; it is in itself an act of submission to the will of God.

There are many spiritual practices, which would take an entire book to cover. The three I will mention in this post are the Jesus Prayer, the dhikr, and the Rosary.

The great Russian classic about the Jesus Prayer is The Way of the Pilgrim. The Jesus Prayer can be practiced with the aid of Jesus Beads, which consist of 100 beads, usually wooden, plus a cross. The 100 beads can be used to count one series of repetitions of the prayer. Several forms of the prayer can be used. The full form of the prayer is:

Lord Jesus Christ, son of the Living God,

Have mercy on me, a sinner.

A common (silent) form of the prayer is to recite, “Lord Jesus Christ,” on the in-breath and, “Have mercy on me,” on the out-breath. The goal of this prayer is to facilitate the surrender of the individual will into the will of Christ.

This is similar to the Sufi practice of dhikr. The most common way to practice the dhikr is the recollection or remembrance of God by the recitation of the shahada: “la ilaha illa’ llah” (There is no God but God”). The negative statement, “la ilaha,” is recited on the out-breath, while the affirmative statement, “illa’ llah,” is recited on the in-breath.

There are several Catholic websites which give detailed instructions on how to practice the Rosary. As Wayne Teasdale has noted, the effectiveness of the Rosary as a spiritual practice has been proven.

The Rosary beads are used to keep track of the prayers and meditations. One of the characteristics that makes the Rosary effective is that the repetition of prayers engenders tranquility of mind while simultaneously meditating on the “Mysteries,” which are primarily centered on Jesus Christ. It takes some doing at first to learn the Rosary, but once learned it can be practiced almost anywhere.

For those who might object to the “Mariology” implied in the Rosary, rather than discard this effective practice, one can employ a few substitutions. In place of the “Hail Mary,” one could use the following:

My heart is glad, my soul rejoices.

You will show me the path of life;

The fullness of joy in your presence;

At your right hand happiness forever.

Similarly, in place of the extra-biblical Mysteries of the Assumption and Coronation of Mary, one could substitute the raising of Lazarus and the conversion of Saul. Lastly, one can finish the Rosary with an “Our Father” (The Lord’s Prayer) instead of the “Hail, Holy Queen.” And there you have a fully Protestant-ized version of the Rosary.

The simple rule about spiritual practices is to use what attracts you and,

Pray as you can, not as you can’t.

Open your heart to Him and He will open the door.

God bless.

The Sufi Way and the Christian

Although Sufism has flourished as the mysticism of Islam, according to Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan, “Sufism has never had a first exponent or a historical origin. It existed from the beginning, because man has always possessed the light which is his second nature.” (“The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan”)

Some religionists have laid the claim that Sufism is the sole property of Islam, but from an interspiritual standpoint, this could be no more true than saying that the truth is the sole property of one religion. As a Christian, I have experienced a great kinship with Sufism, and its teachings have invigorated my faith in Christ, despite the fact that Islam is not an incarnational religion.

As to the preexistence of Sufism, about the location of Persia, and the mutual influence of religion, according to Khan,

Persia, lying between Greece, Egypt, Arabia, and India, came under the influence of Plato and Socrates, of Hinduism and Buddhism, and especially of their poetry and philosophy. Everything in the world is influenced by other things, so it cannot be said that Sufism was born in Persia and that it did not exist before; it is an undeniable fact that Sufis existed in the time of Muhammad and even previously, and that Muhammad liked to converse with them and advise them. Thus Sufism in the course of time absorbed the influence of many religions, and in turn also influenced many other religions. (Khan)

As with Christianity, the path of Sufism begins with repentance (tawbat). The original sin in Islam is said to be self-existence, or the belief that there is a self that exists independently of God. The product of this self is selfish desire, which is the cause of every sin. Repentance is an act of God’s grace upon humankind. The Sufi turns to God because God has gone to him and called him out (i.e. of himself).

There are several ways to describe the Sufi Way, and among these descriptions are several sophisticated theological concepts that I cannot hope to cover in a posting such as this. But an early account enumerates seven stages of the path: (1) repentance, (2) abstinence, (3) renunciation, (4) poverty, (5) patience, (6) trust in God, and (7) satisfaction.

One of the Sufi concepts that I have found most valuable and fascinating as a Christian is called fana, or the “passing away” of the individual self and absorption in God. It has also been described as “going out” from the individual will and abiding wholly in the will of God.

This is a mystical state equal to the realization of the Hindu or the satori of the Zennist. Through the practice of dhikr–the “recollection” of God through the repetition of one of the Divine Names, a verse from the Koran, or more commonly the shahada (“There is no God but God”)–there becomes a sense that the individual existence of the self dissolves, as if it were “annihilated.”

That which remains is the mystical apprehension of the Islamic concept of the Unity of God–God alone is. There is not even a “self” being aware of God; it is God being conscious of himself.

This experience has been compared metaphorically to the moon seeing itself reflected in the light of the sun and exclaiming, “I am the sun!” It is only in the light of the sun that the moon is aware of itself, and the soul only has its true existence in the light of God.

As a Christian, I find this to be a beautiful way of understanding my life in Jesus Christ. The fact is that I only have a life in the sense that it is reflected in the light of Christ. It is not even I myself that lives, but Jesus Christ who lives his life, in the eternity of the present moment, through my body. (i.e. Galations 2:20) This is also what Christian mystics have called the “mystical marriage,” or the union of the soul with Christ.

God bless.

About Interspiritual and Ecumenical Religion

One of the main premises of this blog is that religions must show the nations how to live in peace by their own peaceful coexistence with each other. Every religion needs to re-examine itself in this light. Also, as part of a global community, members and especially leaders of every religion need to become conversant in multiple religions. As a Christian, learning about world religions has contributed a great deal to my relationship with Jesus Christ.

For those who are traveling along the path of interspirituality, I believe it is important to remain grounded in one religion. Although, in this interspiritual age, it is not uncommon for some people to observe a “second religion” in addition to the one that they are grounded to. Examples of this are Ruben Habito, a Catholic Christian who is also a Zen master, and Bede Griffiths, the Catholic priest and monk who also lived the life of a Hindu sanyassin in India. Unless a person feels especially called to a second religion, I believe it is best to have one religion to be grounded in.

My calling is to be a follower of Jesus Christ, but in the same sense that Gandhi intended, I am also a Sufi, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist, and a Muslim. This is to say that I recognize one common humanity which has one God, by whatever name he or she may be called.

Even in confirming that I am a Christian, it could be asked what kind of Christian am I, as there is a wide variety of Christian traditions. Again, my answer would have to be that I am both a Catholic and a Protestant; and within Protestantism, I am an Episcopalian, Evangelical, Baptist, Charismatic, and etc. The best term to use, perhaps, is ecumenical. The term interspiritual was coined by Bede Griffiths to apply to the crossing of religious boundaries. The term ecumenical is commonly applied to the crossing of denominational boundaries within one religion.

I used to believe that I had to make a distinct choice to the exclusion of all the other choices. This is the main reason why I ended up studying so many different creeds and traditions. After many years, I finally discovered Bede Griffiths, the great interspiritual pioneer after Gandhi, and Brian McLaren, the Christian elder and pioneer in the emerging church movement. One of my intentions for this blog is to offer ideas and information that took me so many years to discover, in the hopes of saving a lot of time for younger people.

God bless.

Jesus, Christ of the Cosmos

The appearance of Jesus marks the intersection of eternity with time and history. The man Jesus, through his life, death, and resurrection, reveals to humankind the character of God. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)

Although Jesus lived in a specific time in history and in the culture of Israel, he is not only the Jewish messiah, nor is he only the Christian savior, he is the Redeemer of all humankind, of every nation and every creed. And he is not only the Redeemer of humankind, but also of all life and the entire universe.

In Ephesians 4:10 St. Paul tells us that, through his ascension, Jesus Christ is the Christ of the Cosmos:

He who descended is the very One who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. (NIV)

We see that God’s plan is that everyone and everything in the cosmos is to be reconciled in Christ:

It pleased God to make absolute fullness reside in him and, by means of him to reconcile everything in his person, both on earth and in the heavens, making peace through the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:19-20, Liturgy of the Hours)

Through the Christ of the Cosmos, the ultimate destiny of humankind, and for the universe as a whole, is peace and unity; for God has:

A plan to be carried out in Christ, in the fullness of time, to bring all things into unity in him. (Ephesians 1:10, Liturgy of the Hours)

Through his life, teachings, and sacrificial death, Jesus shows us how to live our lives, as Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, or whatever our creed. In his resurrection and ascension, Jesus Christ has become the Christ of the Cosmos and thus crosses over all religious and cultural boundaries. This is why, as a Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi could put into practice the teachings of Jesus so effectively and become himself an embodiment of the teachings of Jesus Christ.

The potential of the Cosmic Christ is all-pervading and fills up the entire universe, including the sun and moon, mountains, oceans, trees, rocks and birds. Jesus is incarnated in the poor, the homeless, the sick and disadvantaged. Jesus Christ is also in every religion that promotes peace and social justice.

Those who follow the teachings of Jesus throughout history–one might call them saints: St. Francis of Assisi, Mahatma Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Franklin Graham, and many others–remind us of the potential in the teaching of Jesus and of the Christ of the Cosmos which is given to people of all faiths.

Blessings and Peace.

The Trouble With Mystics

Wayne Teasdale, a Catholic contemplative monk and interspiritual pioneer whose mentor was Bede Griffiths, observed that the convergence of religions rests in mysticism. The trouble is that mystics of all religions tend to draw the wrath of orthodox religionists. This is because mystics perceive a fundamental Source that is beyond, even, the dogmas of the particular religion they are faithful to.

The result is that mystics have often suffered the ultimate persecution at the hands of orthodox practitioners of their own faith, including burnings at the stake, torture, and death by dismemberment. Ironically, most of these victims later regain a high standing in their faith, even sainthood, as in the case of Joan of Arc in the Catholic Church. Christian mystic Meister Eckhart, who proclaimed that the soul and God are of the same substance, spent the last years of his life on trial for heresy.

Sufi mystic Al-Hallaj said that, when his ego disappeared in fana (self-annihilation), the only existent being was God. This lead to his ecstatic utterance, “I am He,” which is comparable to the words of the Hindu Upanishads, “That thou art.” The closest Christian parallel would be, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Galations 2:20)

For the orthodox religionists of the time, this was a heresy, and Al-Hallaj was condemned to a protracted death by torture and dismemberment. Yet he said–while he was still able to speak–”Though I am killed and crucified, and though my hands and feet are cut off–I do not recant.” (Nicholson, Idea of Personality, 32)

Fortunately, such actions are illegal now, but the mystics are still vigorously attacked today by orthodox religionists. The objection seems to be that the perceptions of the mystics undermine the fundamental doctrines of orthodoxy. Nevertheless, the three examples of Joan of Arc, Meister Eckhart, and Al-Hallaj were all faithful to their religions.

The problem is that mystics are able to perceive truth on different levels–the literal level and at the level of the Absolute, which is beyond the symbols of religion–whereas their persecutors function only at the literal level.

Al-Hallaj spent years studying spiritual traditions other than Islam and had this to say:

I have meditated on the different religions, endeavoring to understand them, and I have found that they stem from a single principle with numerous ramifications. Do not therefore ask a man to adopt a particular religion (rather than another); for this would separate him from the fundamental principle; it is the principle itself which must come to seek him. (Divan: Muqatta’at)

This is very interesting because it implies that, once we are fortunate enough to discover the Source that is beyond all dogma, we remain adherent to the faith to which we were called.

For this very reason, whatever religion I may be studying or writing about at a particular time–and I am an enthusiast of many–I remain a Christian, and I affirm the Apostle’s Creed.

God bless.

Interspirituality: Seeing With God’s Eyes

There is a Sufi saying that declares, “When I see with the eyes of God, I see God everywhere.” Christian mystic Meister Eckhart proclaims, “The same eye wherein I see God is the same eye wherein God sees me.” In the religion of Vedanta, God says, “Whoever sees me in all beings hates no one.” Jesus teaches us that seeing with God’s eyes is to see every being, high or low, rich or poor, as a child of a loving Father, wherein we are all brothers and sisters. Like the Buddha, Jesus looks upon all beings with compassion. Compassion is his response to the human condition. When Mohamed first went to Medina, he desired to unite Jews, Christians, and Arabs under a religion of the God of Abraham.

As an interspiritual Christian, it is my mission to recognize truth in whatsoever religion it occurs; and all the while to see with the eyes of Jesus. When I see with the eyes of Jesus, I see Him in every being and in every religion, even those that do not recognize Him in the same manner which I see Him.

This process has taken me more years than I care to say. It is my fervent prayer that younger Christians–and young people of every religion–will take a much shorter time than I did to become interspiritual. For us Christians, this does not mean that we “compromise” on our own faith, as some fundamentalists claim. Nothing could be further from the truth. Studying other religions–looking beneath the surface waters of dogma and deep into the eternal waters of the Spirit–has given me a greater love for Jesus Christ than ever before.

I have discovered that, underneath the differences, every religion–in its highest expression–teaches us to die to self in order to be reborn into the Divine will. The Sufis speak of a drop of rain finding its path to the river and making its way into the ocean. Zen Buddhist master Shunryu Suzuki speaks of an individual drop of water going down a surging waterfall until at last it joins the vastness of the river below.

We Christians can speak of dying into Christ, being resurrected through Him, and ascending with Him into Heaven. While still on this earth and in this very body, we can pray, “May I no longer live so that Christ lives in me and through me.”

The prophet Isaiah spoke of a time when the lion will lie down with the lamb. He prophesied that God’s people will take their intruments of war, forge them into plowshares, and cultivate the earth in peace with all the nations. Every thoughtful person knows that this is what the nations of our globe must learn to do if we are to survive as a race.

As Hans Kung has pointed out in books, speeches to the United Nations, and talks to religious groups around the globe, “There will be no peace between nations until there is peace between religions.” Every religion must refuse to be used as a tool to facilitate war.

All religions must be examples of how nations can coexist peacefully by peacefully coexisting with each other in love and mutual respect. This is, after all, what every religion teaches in its highest expression, and I believe that this vision is to see with the eyes of God.

God bless.

Christianity and Sufism

Sufism is the mysticism of Islam. Mysticism is the direct experience of God. It is possible that Sufism was inspired when Muslims came in contact with the Christian ascetics of the desert. The meaning of the word sufi is related to the wool garments that Sufis wore in imitation of the Christian ascetics.

Many religious thinkers have observed that the common thread of mysticism runs deeper than doctrinal differences, and this is why the mystics of different traditions can learn from each other. While the earliest Sufis learned from the Christian ascetics, today’s Christians can learn a great deal from Islamic devotion to God.

The meaning of Islam is “submission” to the will of God. Three elements of Islam are faith, submission to the divine will, and virtue (or, the spiritual life). A saying often quoted by Sufis is “Die before you die.” According to R. A. Nicholson,

“fana, the passing-away of the Sufi from this phenomenal existence, involves baqa, the continuance of his real existence. He who dies to self lives in God, and fana, the consummation of  this death, marks the attainment of baqa, or union with the divine life.” (Reynold A. Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam, pg. 149)

We can recall the words of St. Paul, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Galations 2:20, NIV)

One of the doctrinal differences Islam has with Christianity is that, while it recognizes the “son of Mary” as a great prophet and gives Jesus the utmost respect, the God of Islam does not have a son, because He “is neither begotten not begets.” (The Holy Koran) This is no small doctrinal difference, but in my view there is grounds for inter-religious dialog, as the Koran, within the confines of Islam, shows absolutely no disrespect whatsoever towards Jesus.

And the two religions find a common thread in the mysticism of both our great faiths. The Islamic poet Jalaluddin Rumi says,

If there be any lover in the world, O Muslims, ’tis I,

If there be any believer, infidel, or Christian hermit, ’tis I.”