What good is it to me?
Most Rev. Theodore Feldmann, as published in the newsletter of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch.
“What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly, but does not take place within myself? And, what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of God is begotten in us.” Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) 1
I read this quote from Dominican preacher and theologian, Meister Eckhart, way back in 1986 when I read Original Blessing by theologian, Matthew Fox. I found it powerful then and it has become one of my guiding lights on the spiritual journey, especially at Christmas, because I believe that Christmas should not be about just one baby once a year, but also about all of us. In the sentence just before this quote begins, Eckhart suggests that we are all called to be “mothers of God.” I certainly do believe that. And I think the answer to his question, “what good is it to me,” is obvious: Not much good at all, unless we begin to embrace what he is saying.
Western Christianity has spent a good deal of its energy focusing on what Fox calls “fall/redemption theology,” the concept that we (and even the planet itself) are tainted with original sin and need to be redeemed. Jesus came to, as my Sunday School teachers used to say, “die to save us from our sins.”
But I have come more and more to the conclusion that Jesus’ message is about how we live now, not about some big pay off in the life to come. We are to be born and are called to give birth in, “our own time and place.” Now is the only time we get. If we are going to find the sacred; if we are going to live our lives “abundantly,” as Jesus says, then where else can we do that but now?
Holy Week and Easter are one of my favorite times of the year. As one parishioner said to me after a rousing Easter, “You’re an alleluia kind of guy.” Yes indeed. But, Easter must live in the context of Holy Week and the Triduum. I may be an alleluia guy but I am also a darkness and silence guy. So I would like to take this quote from the great Eckhart and apply it to the Triduum and pose some questions:
What good is it to me if Jesus enters into the tomb and I do not also enter mine? What good is it to me if Jesus dies and rises and I do not also die and rise? And, is it possible that we can do this throughout our lives, “unceasingly?” And what good is it to me? It is very good.
Resurrection is not the same thing as resuscitation. Bret Myers, makes that point this way:
“Being resuscitated brings us back to a life of the old fears, anxieties, and spiritual failings of the past. Being resurrected takes us to a new life…To be resurrected into a life of perfect love is to know the peace that Christ gives to us…a peace not of this world, but of a world in which love -unconditional love - is the only thing that matters.” 2
In the Easter stories, Jesus was resurrected. He was different. He appeared to people in very different and powerfully symbolic ways. He was transformed, one could even say, new born.
“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
Luke 24: 1-5
Good question. And when an angel is asking, you better pay attention. Why do we so often look for new life in places where there isn’t much on offer? Why do we repeat the insanity of expecting different answers from people and institutions that have no real intention of growing or changing? Why do we let people and events in our long gone past occupy so much space in our lives now? When we are seeking new life, are we willing to enter the tomb and the experience of the tomb and then let go of past hurts that are holding us back from real forgiveness and growth? I, for one, will admit that I am holding on to old hurts and betrayals that are taking up way too much space in my brain that would be better used for something new.
The Triduum at its most powerful is about walking with Jesus in his own betrayal, death, and resurrection…and ours. And that includes an Easter where we leave the past in our tombs and look up into the morning sun of a new day.
I think the wonderful author, Madeleine L’Engle, is on to something, as she often is:
“…when we try to control our lives totally with the self we think we know, the result is that growth in self-awareness is inhibited. Faith, on the other hand, consists in the awareness that I am more than I know.” 3
And elsewhere in the same book:
“How many of us really want life, life more abundant, life which does not promise any fringe benefits or early retirement plans? Life which does not promise the absence of pain, or which is not vulnerable and open to hurt? How many of us dare to open ourselves to that truth which would make us free?” 4
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12:24
We are part of an evolving universe and it is entirely natural that we, too, are called to evolve, to let old things die and allow new things to be born. We carry with us the lessons learned from what we have been. Let them germinate. What we are to become has yet to be revealed. Easter, among other things, is a time to “dare,” as L’Engle would say, to leave the tomb and be born again. And again.
1. Meditations with Meister Eckhart, Bear and Co. Santa Fe, NM, 81.2. Bret Myers on April 9, 2015, progressive christianity.org
3. Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, Wheaton IL, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1980, 162.
4. L’Engle, 48.
Copyright, Theodore Feldmann, 2023.
Most Rev. Theodore Feldmann, as published in the newsletter of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch.
“What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly, but does not take place within myself? And, what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of God is begotten in us.” Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) 1
I read this quote from Dominican preacher and theologian, Meister Eckhart, way back in 1986 when I read Original Blessing by theologian, Matthew Fox. I found it powerful then and it has become one of my guiding lights on the spiritual journey, especially at Christmas, because I believe that Christmas should not be about just one baby once a year, but also about all of us. In the sentence just before this quote begins, Eckhart suggests that we are all called to be “mothers of God.” I certainly do believe that. And I think the answer to his question, “what good is it to me,” is obvious: Not much good at all, unless we begin to embrace what he is saying.
Western Christianity has spent a good deal of its energy focusing on what Fox calls “fall/redemption theology,” the concept that we (and even the planet itself) are tainted with original sin and need to be redeemed. Jesus came to, as my Sunday School teachers used to say, “die to save us from our sins.”
But I have come more and more to the conclusion that Jesus’ message is about how we live now, not about some big pay off in the life to come. We are to be born and are called to give birth in, “our own time and place.” Now is the only time we get. If we are going to find the sacred; if we are going to live our lives “abundantly,” as Jesus says, then where else can we do that but now?
Holy Week and Easter are one of my favorite times of the year. As one parishioner said to me after a rousing Easter, “You’re an alleluia kind of guy.” Yes indeed. But, Easter must live in the context of Holy Week and the Triduum. I may be an alleluia guy but I am also a darkness and silence guy. So I would like to take this quote from the great Eckhart and apply it to the Triduum and pose some questions:
What good is it to me if Jesus enters into the tomb and I do not also enter mine? What good is it to me if Jesus dies and rises and I do not also die and rise? And, is it possible that we can do this throughout our lives, “unceasingly?” And what good is it to me? It is very good.
Resurrection is not the same thing as resuscitation. Bret Myers, makes that point this way:
“Being resuscitated brings us back to a life of the old fears, anxieties, and spiritual failings of the past. Being resurrected takes us to a new life…To be resurrected into a life of perfect love is to know the peace that Christ gives to us…a peace not of this world, but of a world in which love -unconditional love - is the only thing that matters.” 2
In the Easter stories, Jesus was resurrected. He was different. He appeared to people in very different and powerfully symbolic ways. He was transformed, one could even say, new born.
“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
Luke 24: 1-5
Good question. And when an angel is asking, you better pay attention. Why do we so often look for new life in places where there isn’t much on offer? Why do we repeat the insanity of expecting different answers from people and institutions that have no real intention of growing or changing? Why do we let people and events in our long gone past occupy so much space in our lives now? When we are seeking new life, are we willing to enter the tomb and the experience of the tomb and then let go of past hurts that are holding us back from real forgiveness and growth? I, for one, will admit that I am holding on to old hurts and betrayals that are taking up way too much space in my brain that would be better used for something new.
The Triduum at its most powerful is about walking with Jesus in his own betrayal, death, and resurrection…and ours. And that includes an Easter where we leave the past in our tombs and look up into the morning sun of a new day.
I think the wonderful author, Madeleine L’Engle, is on to something, as she often is:
“…when we try to control our lives totally with the self we think we know, the result is that growth in self-awareness is inhibited. Faith, on the other hand, consists in the awareness that I am more than I know.” 3
And elsewhere in the same book:
“How many of us really want life, life more abundant, life which does not promise any fringe benefits or early retirement plans? Life which does not promise the absence of pain, or which is not vulnerable and open to hurt? How many of us dare to open ourselves to that truth which would make us free?” 4
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12:24
We are part of an evolving universe and it is entirely natural that we, too, are called to evolve, to let old things die and allow new things to be born. We carry with us the lessons learned from what we have been. Let them germinate. What we are to become has yet to be revealed. Easter, among other things, is a time to “dare,” as L’Engle would say, to leave the tomb and be born again. And again.
1. Meditations with Meister Eckhart, Bear and Co. Santa Fe, NM, 81.2. Bret Myers on April 9, 2015, progressive christianity.org
3. Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, Wheaton IL, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1980, 162.
4. L’Engle, 48.
Copyright, Theodore Feldmann, 2023.
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