Dear All,
As part of Advent, we meditated the total picture of the sower, the seed, and the soil from Mark 4:1-21.
Each of us had reflections that started like this: There are parts of me similar to the birds who snatch away the seed and don’t let it grow at all. There are stony, fixed parts of me that won’t allow the good word deeply to take root. There are daily concerns that prevent any good thing from growing in me. And there is an aspect of me that welcomes the good, already is it, and allows it to flourish.
In our central meditation, we hewed closer to the line: The sower sows the word (Mark 4:14). What is the word? What is that good thing that Advent prepares us for? Can we let it flourish right now, in the act of meditating on it, so that the pondering/meditating becomes the thing itself?
The word in question can be understood in so many valid ways. Here’s one.
Apollo on Olympus becomes art and reason in the human. Aphrodite on Olympus becomes love and grace in the human. Ares on Olympus becomes power in the human. Hermes on Olympus becomes communication and trade in the human.
The persons, beings, gods in the heavens, become capacities in the human.
The Logos or Word that incarnated in Palestine long ago is the primal, total capacity, the very capacity for capacities, a power of meaning-potential so tremendous it could mean the whole universe into existence. Prior to male and female, as to all other categories, the word is pure relatedness, relationship in itself, the precondition for everything. A capacity in heaven, it turns into a person on earth.
On this reading, Christmas is not only about something that happened long ago. It is about a process that we gradually or suddenly undergo ourselves: the birth of the word in us as our own souls.
Next week, we’ll intensify our way into this central mystery to render it less mysterious: bringing the light into the light.
All blessings to all,
Michael
