Our Spiritual Family

Do we understand our spiritual fraternity? Do we understand that we originated from one divine Father [& Mother] whose image we carry in ourselves, and for whose perfection we strive? Have we accepted that there is the same divine life in all people, as well as in ourselves? And that this makes a natural and free bond among people?

William Ellery Channing

Cited in A Calendar of Wisdom

As I am closing in on this year’s efforts and insights, I find myself asking…and re-asking certain questions about our lives, their priorities, and how our religious ideals and spiritual truths connect convincingly enough to truly matter for us; how to genuinely have a lasting impact and a sustaining importance in our lives.

To have a faith has to mean more than holding the deft accumulation of opinions, facts, and rationales by which one tries to organize or explain the who, what, and wheres, and whys of our lives…

All too often, we allow ourselves the ego based luxury of a faith that it is held at arm’s length, or that can be neatly described by way of theory and even through elegant argument so much so that it reminds me of the sharp critique of religious liberalism, which as a movement, demonstrates “a religion… from the neck up!”

Without a sincere investment in our aspirational feelings, without a heart connection to nature, and to one another, can we ever say we possess a religious connection? Commitment that will hold us up, sustain and console us, or provide us with cherished pathways towards hope and love?

An important part of that spiritual growth and the maturation process by which we can call ourselves a religious or a spiritual person comes from two points that Channing emphasizes in his quote on fraternity/sorority.

The first is acceptance… which is a product of our engaged humility and the reality that we are part of a grand cosmic design, united to one another by the strength and the grace of our humanness…

It is the gift of life itself and the ability to freely share with others in meaningful ways.

Granted, that Channing includes in his theology a striving towards being known and understood as being in the likeness of God, what his ideals have taught me was is that the striving, while noble enough, can never be completed by human efforts alone.

It can only be fully approached through a supreme awareness of a relational connection, a theology of the heart that offers us the intimacies and ultimacies of life.

And the second, is understanding. Not merely intellectual comprehension, or an abstract acceptance of natural laws and obtuse theories, but a full and grateful understanding that is completed by both wisdom and compassion.

This understanding is found in the full recognition of our connections to the earth, and to one another; that our understanding flourishes, and that we can approach the goal of wholeness and holiness.

Channing’s Likeness unto God, as I see and feel it, is my gracious cord of connection to the depths of the universe, to the depths of true community, and to and throughout the deepest parts of myself.