Lenten Reflections: The Paschal and Cosmic Mystery
The climax of our Lenten Reflections coincides with our participation in the Easter Mysteries: the celebration of the Sacred Triduuum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil.
Throughout these days we become sensitive to the alignment of the cosmic drama of the Universe with the singularity of the theodrama of Jesus's passion, death and resurrection. In the final days of Jesus's life and its transformation in the Resurrection we experience the cosmic interplay of the divine drama, God's self-revelation in the story of the Universe and in the story of Jesus.
It is a drama in which we as human beings are profoundly implicated as the bearers of the sacred grace of consciousness within the Universe. This has profound ethical and spiritual implications for the way we live our lives.
Our Lenten and Paschal Journey
- Week 1: Awakening
- In this first week of Lent we are invited to begin the journey of awakening to a new awareness of our place in the Universe. In contemplating the new and amazing story of the Universe we begin to understand better how Jesus calls us to a new life in the divine mystery.
- Week 2: Metanoia
- Conversion or "Metanoia" lies at the heart of every human life. Throughout our lives we open ourselves to challenges that lead us further along the path of growth to fullness of life. Each such moment is a new Creation, a new dawn and new consciousness of who we really are.
- Week 3: Kenosis
- From the exploding stars came the stardust that ultimate led to life itself. In the story of the Universe we discover again the dying that had to take place for new forms of life to emerge. During Lent we learn to embrace our private moments of loss and letting-go. Of such moments is crafted the embrace of God's own life within us.
- Week 4: The Mystery of Death
- Death, as the famous philosopher Heidegger argued, is not outside life, but rather within it. The Universe Story illumines this understanding of death. It is not so much an 'event' as an intrinsic dimension of the larger processes of life. Death and the greater life to which all aspire belong together.
- Week 5: The Sacred Earth
- Our contemporary alienation from the Earth is the outcome of the banishment of the sacred from our everyday world. Even Christianity has unwittingly assisted this process. Jesus proclaimed that God is with us and around us. The path to a re-discovery of the divine entails an opening to the greater God revealed in our everyday encounters with the Earth, our home.
- Week 6: The Cross
- The Death of Jesus is an event in history, an event within our story. What is its meaning within our new understanding of how God relates to us and to Creation. Is Jesus punished in our place for our sins? The search for a new understanding of the Passion brings us to a new place in our experience of God.
- Week 7: Cosmic Resurrection
- The Cosmic Christ stands at the end-point of history, point Omega. The Risen Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. It is towards the goal of the transformation of humanity by the Spirit of the Risen Jesus that the total dynamic of increasing complexity and transformation is directed.
In a quiet space
As you reflect on these topics you are invited to enter into your own inner source of wisdom – the God dimension within you – to see how the New Story:-
- Resonates with your own personal story
- Evokes resistance within you for whatever reason
- Challenges you to a re-alignment of your own life to a way of living more in harmony with Divine wisdom as revealed in the New Story.
It might be helpful to record your own insights and reservations in relation to the New Story as the process unfolds. If you can find a soul companion with whom you can share these insights and reservations that would be better still. Best of all would be to find a little group of like-minded seekers to do this reflection and sharing together. Remember that communion is one of the three defining qualities of the Universe, and when we commune together we are allowing this power of the Universe to manifest in us.
Recommended Reading: Evening Thoughts by Thomas Berry
Why not share a response to your experience of the Lenten reflections by writing for our Blog. All you need to do is:
- Take some time to write something.
- Use this link: Click Here. Or if, you like, email your reflection directly to this email address: donal.leader@gmail.com
- Your text will be placed in the Lenten Reflections Blog the very same day.