The big hat lady arrived at Whole Foods patio with her young daughters. Surprisingly, she was not wearing a hat. “Is there anything we could pray about for you today?”
Um, about that. We entered into a lovely conversation about God, her version of religion, homeschooling, and the grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
“Um, this comes with a disclaimer. The book I’m about to tell you about may open your mind. It’s called Original Blessing, by Matthew Fox. He was a Dominican priest when he wrote this book.”
She left with her two daughters.
In my discussions with my two “Jesus-first” mentors, I am known as a seeker. I am seeking god in my life. Not Jesus. Here’s what one of them said to me.
“If you get the ideas of the holy trinity, it’s okay if you don’t understand all of it. It’s part of the mystery of life and living, seeking God, and Jesus, and his everlasting love and wisdom.”
Well, I get God. I get the Holy Spirit. I don’t get Jesus.
The hat lady quoted, “I am the way and the light of the world.”
Okay, I thought. What about the Jews? The Native Americans? New Age spiritualists? Seekers, like me? What about those of us who are still finding our human comprehension a bit muddled?
As the story goes, Original Blessing*, the book, upset the Pope and his bishops. The silenced, runaway monk. For one year, he was not allowed to publish, speak publicly, or preach. He was put in a time-out.
When he came back from his year off, he published a book with some of the most mystical evidence yet about humans’ conscious contact with God, beyond Jesus. It was about Thomas Acquinus. And with that, the pope defrocked Mr. Fox, and he founded his own theology at Mt. Holy Oak University, where you can get a doctorate of divinity in “Creation Spirituality.”
Fifteen minutes later, I saw them packing groceries into a car nearby. I tore out a piece of paper from my daybook and wrote the name of the book for her.
Subversion? Or enlightenment? An open-minded approach to a God that even the Pope can’t to comprehend? We cannot imagine the telemetry or influence of god on the great wide world of humans. It is beyond our tiny biological minds. God is unfathomable. We take comfort in sacred rituals and words spoken “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Your spiritual journey is entirely up to you, however. God doesn’t interfere much, as far as I can tell.
“See you around,” I said.
*Original Blessing, Matthew Fox
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