Integral Philosopher, Ken Wilber, insists that in our reality, we cannot have singular without plural. Everything about me has something to do with others. In my own simplistic understanding of this, history, society and culture (and so many other influences) contribute to my view or perspective on life and on everyone else’s view and perspective as well. Taking this a step further, the surprising thing that happens when we interact with one another is that the interaction itself is not simply the sum of those individuals interacting, but in fact a greater we, which Wilber refers to as the ‘miraculous we.’ [i]. In this miraculous we space, we come into mutual resonance with one another in a mysterious yet overwhelmingly wonderful way that exceeds the imaginations and even limits of any one person in the interaction, and indeed creates a transformative environment for everyone.

Philosophy aside, today’s Gospel reading (JN 12: 44-50), I believe, provides a perspective on this way of experiencing not only life itself, but even our relationship with God:

Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness.

Jesus is saying that belief in him is not a lonesome affair. He is sent by the Father into the world to bring light to us, so that we will not remain in darkness.  Elsewhere In John’s Gospel, we hear Jesus’ discourse on his relationship with the Father through the Holy Spirit.  It seems quite clear that the life of God itself is a relationship – a divine relatedness of receiving, being sent, and returning.  The operative movement in this divine relationship is Love.  Love itself is that which is being sent, receiving, returning, and then giving again.  The mystery of the Trinity seems to hint to this mysterious God in three persons Who constantly flows into, outward, and returning in a type of ebb and flow which is the very movement of Love itself.

So, what would it mean to believe in a God Who is Love as relationship? Could it be that what it is that we are offered to believe in is precisely this Divine relationship itself?  And here I don’t mean belief as strictly assenting to some dogma or truth, but rather belief that involves first, the awareness that we are already within the divine relationship through Christ and the Incarnation, and secondly, the full engagement in this relationship.  Could this be the light that Jesus is shining upon us in his life, death, and resurrection?  Is Jesus indeed the light of the divine Life that we are participating in already whether we know it or not and our opportunity in this moment and in every moment is to see this and respond by receiving it into our lives?

The ignorance that we have about this life in God that we share in would be similar to the fish that swims about without realizing the sustaining and enlivening water all around. Paul himself in Acts tells us that ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ Yet, this life that we already share in – this divine Gift – we fail to realize. We do not see, and indeed reject, the light, and prefer oddly enough the discomforting darkness that we seek to protect and defend, as if it were the treasure beyond price. Even so, this disbelief does not warrant condemnation, as Jesus tells us…

And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day, because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father told me.”

So it appears that God wants to show us in the human person of Jesus that we are already in God’s Life of Love through Creation and Incarnation. This Light has the ability to save us, but only to the extent that we accept it.  This must have been what made Jesus cry out, as we hear at the beginning of the Gospel.  A God in humanity looking with the only eyes He has to look with – LOVE – offering himself, yearning for just a simple reception of the great gift, and yet we many times refuse to hear the invitation.  As John tells us, we hear the words but do not observe them.  Our God who is Love must anguish over our non-response!

This is not a question of being right or wrong, it’s a matter of being saved…not from ourselves, but IN ourselves – our true selves. We are invited to be saved from the dark notions that we have about ourselves.  We have grown too used to self-deprecation and ego-enslavement so that it becomes internalized to the extent that we project it out onto everyone else in many hideous forms, such as racism, sexism, bigotry, and all their violence as accompaniment.  Any condemnation comes only from ourselves because we failed to take God up on the invitation to live a divine life – to live in the Love relationship of our God through our interactions with one another.  It’s not about doing the correct or right thing, unless we cast those terms (correct and right) within the context of the Divine Light of awareness of WHO we are as Children of God, which means Children of Love.  If this is the case, the only viable (Life-Giving) option is to live in LOVE.  All else is a lie!

This idea of being sent and speaking in the name of another that Jesus is speaking about is not only a description of the life of Christ in the Father through the Holy Spirit, but it is telling us about ourselves and the beautiful and miraculous “we” that we all are when we embrace ourselves in the Loving Life of God. It all comes down to receiving and engaging as our response.  When we receive the God of Love ‘sent’ to us and ‘speaking’ to us in Christ, IN EACH OTHER, then we are automatically caught up in the Life of God!

It is a curious paradox that the receiving of Love is the giving of Love, but that seems to be exact point of the life of Jesus. The Life/Death/Resurrection mystery that Jesus inhabited is the pattern of Receiving/Surrendering/Transforming/Engaging that marks the fullness of the miraculous “We” that is not simply a sum total of everyone involved , but, as Jesus tells us in the Gospel, is eternal life itself.  When you and I interact and engage as this miraculous we, we are mirroring the Loving Gaze of God’s own Life within us.

Peace,

Thomas

(Originally published May 10, 2017)

[i] Ken Wilber, “A Miracle Called WE,” Integrallife, https://integrallife.com/miracle-called-we (March 16, 2016)