An Addendum (see previous post)

This is an Addendum to my post of Thursday, April 10, 2008, entitled “our One Body of Humanity.”

I have edited/amended my post of yesterday to read (replacing the original parenthetical note in the midst of the apostles comments):


“(I will interrupt here to acknowledge that the apostle was addressing his intended audience which was the “Body” of Christian believers in Rome. He was applying a TRUTH that his Spirit directed to the specific need that was evident in that particular group ...at that defined juncture in the life of that assemblage of worshipers.

But it is my considered conviction that that TRUTH, applied by the apostle, and translated by him into that group’s interests in their struggles, is a TRUTH ... in independent, eternal and unconfined fact. (Just as Gravity is Gravity ... whether on earth, or in the most distant reaches of the Heavens.) And TRUTH ... any TRUTH ... is always of universal applicability. For, I submit, no TRUTH is only true in the confines of a limited sample … it is validated, and re-validated ... again and again ... without limit ... when proven in unbounded applications.

Therefore, for us to assume a position that Paul was so limited in his vision as to be confining his belief (in the TRUTH that he was applying) to be only true in that singular and peculiar circumstance, would require (what I consider to be) an enormous degree of underestimation of Paul’s intellect and vision. This man was a very learned and highly schooled person of diverse societal and cultural background. He had an awareness of the World that was certainly far wider in scope than any singular point of focus, for any particular problem’s solution. In today’s terms; it is extremely doubtful that Paul’s understanding of any TRUTH was confined in any “Box” of any brand, persuasion, label, or denomination. I am quite certain that Paul never felt that he (or anyone of his contemporaries) had an “Exclusive Franchise” on the Love, or Favor of The Almighty … the Creator of All.

I am comfortable in my conviction that Paul understood that he, and those who prescribed to his teachings, had something that “worked” for them … that met their spiritual need. And there can be no doubt that he fervently believed that all who would subscribe to those convictions and precepts that he espoused, would benefit to the fullest possible extent that he could conceive of. Hence his zeal in promoting an acceptance of and adherence to his understandings of the order of spiritual matters as he saw them.)”

For me to ascribe something that is an obvious TRUTH, in and of itself, to be the sole “property” of … and to assign exclusive “ownership” of that TRUTH to a people, place, or time of that TRUTH’s application is … well certainly not “open minded” … to say the least.

I am delighted in the realities that are mine to enjoy today. And chief among them is the wonderful awareness that all of those “walls” of sectarian fundamentalism that had confined my understanding and stifled my joyful celebration of the universality of my Creator’s powers, affections, and intimacies … are simply … GONE! Leaving me in this marvelous position and condition of anxious anticipation of WHATEVER infinite possibilities my tomorrows hold.

And the absence of ANY “need,” on my part, to define, package, pigeon-hole, label, affix ownership of, or explain any of what my Creator has Allowed, or Defined, as the Past, is no more. For, you see, My dearest Friend … I take every breath of Life in complete confidence that ALL of it … Past, Present, and most assuredly Future … is in “Hands” that are fully capable of handling it. It ain’t my job! Not the understanding, the explaining, nor the predicting of any of it.

I am free and enabled to go from this, and every subsequent, moment … and enjoy it all! And, believe me, I do! For my joy is realized every day in Your letting me know that You … yes! YOU … have had a moment’s peace where there was turmoil before. In You smiling when just a moment ago tears were your mask. In my awareness that my words … my Love … my demonstrated concern … my spreading of all of that “composted” pile of my experiences, around those hungry roots of your life-plant, has nourished and nurtured your growth and blooming. Oh yes, My Darling, I enjoy my ... “fundamentalism-sectarianism-free” ... life!

May the “walls” of your entrapping “box” of spiritual confinement come tumbling down … real soon! (But not a moment before you have grown and developed an individual strength that no longer benefits from their protection from the confusions and doubts that would assail you from without.)

NAMASTE, MY Darling Friend!