I AM a Power Spiritual Being!

Here is Elizabeth Gilbert and Oprah Winfrey pushing what the Holy Fathers call, "the happiness seeking sickness."  Some Christian Traditions also falters in their witness of the Gospel for reason of this very philosophy creeping into their theology, where one is taught that Christian Faith is about seeking and finding "happiness" in this life.  No, rather Christian Faith is about seeking and finding Eternal LIFE, regardless of the pain and pleasure of the journey. It is about abandoning everything that is death engendering, no matter how pleasant and pleasurable it may seem and embracing everything that is "eternal life" engendering, even if it is great suffering and struggle.  The life engendering grace of God may come to us via many experiences. Many LIFE LESSONS may engender great happiness and joy, but the most profound lessons are those that challenge this sort of "surface emotional living."  All REAL Life Lessons have ONE common source. For Elizabeth, the power of her happiness is "photosynthesis." She would reel in deep depression in the Winters in my neck of the woods where the Sun does not shine sometimes for many weeks. She would be suicidal in Alaska.  



The weakness of the various "spiritualisms" (New Age, the Mind Sciences, Motivational Enthusiasm Movements, the cults of every ilk) is that they "make something special of the devotee."  You are a "powerful spiritual being" is an oft stated mantra of these groups, a statement that is not devoid of Truth. Or that we should act only upon those things that make us experience surface "happiness."  Who could deny that Genghis Khan, Mao, Stalin, Hitler were powerful spiritual beings? Who could doubt that they experienced great moments of happiness, victory, even elation at pressing their hellish will upon the earth.  A great many people use their natural innate human spirituality to align with dark forces that destroy their own "person" as they attempt to destroy the "personhood" of others. This is the modus operandi of every Utopian fantasy, every atheist/secularist "empire," every "re-education" and indoctrination program, every secular philosophy, science and psychology devoid of the Cross of Christ, every attempt at the recreation of the Towel of Babel, that is Wisdom and Order devoid of the Cross of Christ.  

AS an individual, coming to realize that we are more than flesh and bone, that our consciousness is more than the physical aspect of the human brain, that cognition is beyond the scope of science and is "spiritual" is a step toward wisdom, a step out of the extreme materialist mentality of our age, but may or may not be a step toward our own healing/salvation. 

On his lenten blog, Fr Robert Barron stated, "Something I have noticed over the years is that the holiest people in our tradition are those who are most aware of their sinfulness. Whether it is Paul, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Teresa of Avila, Thérèse of Lisieux, or Mother Teresa, the saints are those who are convinced of their inadequacy. (I wish he had used the word, sinfulness instead of "inadequacy" which lends itself to the delusions of secular psychology and away from the absolute Truth.) 

"When Isaiah encounters the Lord he says, "I am a man of unclean lips!" When Peter is in the presence of the Messiah he says, "Lord, leave me, for I am a sinful man." G.K. Chesterton once said, "A saint is someone who knows he's a sinner."  I could state further than Chesterton and say that one who does not recognize his own sinful nature, is not a Christian, not a true follower of Christ, but is rather a deluded "religionist."  i.e., sickened by religion. The human spirit is naturally religious and absent the true spiritual comprehension of the Cross of Christ constructs theologies proclaiming the primacy of its own reason and emotions, and the kingship of its own carnal mind, via the delusion of its own religious (spiritual) constructs or those it has adopted. No human philosophy is constructed of benign and antiseptic reason alone, but rather each springs from a spiritual base, which is drawn to, or repelled by TRUTH, who is a person.   

Two things expose the sinfulness of even the greatest saint, and thus all us lesser "saints."  (1) The Glorious Luminosity of God, who is wholly OTHER. (2) The true spiritual comprehension of the Cross (and I don't mean the ability to expertly explicate every aspect of it, but rather to be truly submitted to communion in Christ's Blood, which is participation in its healing power.) 

Every saint in the presence of an "angel of God" or a "theophany" (an appearance of God's Word) is first overwhelmed by the difference in their "state of being" and that of God's.  Instantly they recognize their inferiority, that is their sinfulness. Ultimately, from this view, at the foot of the Cross, one comes to comprehend the true meaning of the Cross, how that Sacrifice defines EVERYTHING.  The first comprehension is the total, absolute and unreasonable condescension it is, that was prepared for us. Yet comprehension is meaningless if we do not "participate in that sacrifice." So the second comprehension is that we, with unclean lips may share in the sacrifice of the Life Producing Cross. We participate in the Divine Liturgy where Jesus Christ shares His Body and Blood in a spiritual sacrifice, because Jesus, as they were eating, took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, (New Covenant) which is shed for many for the remission of sins.  - Matthew 26:26-28 (King James Version) That Body and Blood IS Jesus Christ. HE is the New Covenant, HE the Divine Human Person. The Covenant is not a legal agreement, but a FAMILY TIE, Sharing in the same Divine/Human flesh and blood. It is the Covenant Family, that gathers together, presenting their own bodies in the "unbloody" sacrifice, their "rational liturgizing" their proper worship that is Holy and Acceptable, so that they may experience the transforming of their mind, so that they may come to know the good, acceptable and perfect will of God.  I said it is a FAMILY BOND, of the same Divine/Human Flesh and Blood. It is a bond of those who through The WAY of the Cross, gain the Holy Spirit within, and HE turns to us and says, "Behold my mother and my brethren!  For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." 12:48-50 (King James Version) It has nothing to do with a legal contract! It is a FAMILY BOND.     

 Anyone with this comprehension never participates in an egotistical spiritual evaluation of themselves, but rather say, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."  No Holy Roller, self-righteous ACT, no prattling about the pristine condition of our "salvation" and our "mature spirituality" has any place in the vicinity of the Cross of Christ.  How else can we with unclean lips touch the cup of this sacrifice and not say, "Lord, I am unworthy that you should come under my roof, but only say the word and I will be healed." 

Abject spiritual prostration at the Cross of Christ is our ONLY true Spiritual strength.  All else is darkness and death, though it may seem for a period, "great enlightenment."  "Nothing is more common than Satan teaching theology to those he fears may slip from his grasp."

Think about the "Family of God."  After the fall, it was Adam and Eve, grieving in extreme remorse, then by promise it was Abel.  Yet in that first chaotic period after many centuries, alive on this planet, that Family of God was only Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives.  By the time of Abraham it was a tribe of kinsmen. Then by the time of Moses twelve tribes. Then it became a nation of people and through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is has become a family of many nations.  Yet it is a family, who participate in the same Sacrifice, who spiritually prostrate themselves at the foot of The Cross, and hold FAITH in nothing else.