Mini Encarnaciones de Cristo


La hermana franciscana Ilia Delio se centra en la teología de la encarnación y la naturaleza universal del misterio de Cristo: 

El mensaje cristiano es que Dios se ha hecho carne [sarx en griego o “materia”]; no una parte de Dios ni un aspecto de Dios, sino que todo el Dios Creador, infinito y eterno, se ha hecho materia. La afirmación –Dios se ha hecho carne– es tan radical que resulta prácticamente impensable e ilógica. El cristianismo es la más radical de todas las religiones del mundo porque toma en serio la materia como hogar de la divinidad. [1] 

Entonces, ¿todos tienen que volverse cristianos para conocer a Cristo? Absolutamente no. Cristo es más que Jesús. Cristo es la comunión del amor personal divino expresado en cada forma creada de realidad: cada estrella, hoja, pájaro, pez, árbol, conejo y persona humana. Todo está cristificado porque todo expresa el amor divino encarnado. Sin embargo, Jesucristo es “esto” de Dios, entonces lo que Jesús es por naturaleza, todo lo demás es por gracia (amor divino). No somos Dios, pero cada persona nace del amor de Dios, expresa este amor en [su] forma personal única y tiene la capacidad de estar unido a Dios…. Debido a que Jesús es el Cristo, todo ser humano ya está reconciliado con todo otro ser humano en el misterio de lo divino, de modo que Cristo es más que Jesús solo. Cristo es toda la realidad unida en una unión de amor.

 No podemos conocer este misterio de Cristo como doctrina o idea; es la realidad raíz de toda existencia. Por lo tanto, debemos viajar hacia adentro, a la profundidad interior del alma donde el campo del amor divino se expresa en el “esto” de nuestra propia vida particular. Cada uno de nosotros es una pequeña palabra de la Palabra de Dios, una mini encarnación del amor divino. El viaje hacia adentro requiere rendirnos a este misterio en nuestras vidas, y esto significa soltar nuestros “botones de control”. Significa morir a los seres libres que nos ocupan a diario; significa abrazar los sufrimientos de nuestra vida, desde los pequeños hasta los grandes; significa permitir que la gracia de Dios nos sane, nos sostenga y nos capacite para la vida; significa entrar en las tinieblas, en las incógnitas de nuestra vida, y aprender a confiar en las tinieblas, porque la ternura del amor divino ya está ahí; significa estar dispuestos a entregar todo lo que tenemos por todo lo que podemos llegar a ser en el amor de Dios; y finalmente, significa dejar que el amor de Dios nos sane de las tensiones opuestas dentro de nosotros. Cuando podemos decir con toda voz: “Tú eres el Dios de mi corazón, mi Dios y mi porción para siempre” [Salmo 73:26], entonces podemos abrir los ojos para ver que el Dios que busco ya está en mí… y en ti. Ya somos Uno. [2] 

Referencias: [1] Ilia Delio, “¿Cristogénesis con cualquier otro nombre?” Nueva Creación, Centro para la Cristogénesis, 12 de octubre de 2020, [2] Ilia Delio, Las horas del universo: reflexiones sobre Dios, la ciencia y el viaje humano (Maryknoll, Nueva York: Orbis Books, 2021), 105–106.

CAC meditations. Thursday, December 21, 2023.

The Universal Christ: Contemplative Retreat June 15, 2019

Nancy Moran and I have been working together to lead this retreat. Our intention is to bring the message of the Universal Christ in a contemplative environment. We really give thanks to Contemplative Outreach Northeast Ohio for allow us to plan this retreat, to the Center of Action and Contemplation for the use of the videos from the latest conference on March 28-31, 2019 and to Laurel Lakes retirement Community for allow us use this place and for all help provided to make this event free of charge for our community.

The Universal Christ: Another Name for Every Thing
Saturday, June 15, 2019
Contemplative Retreat

What if Christ is a name for the transcendent within of every “thing” in the universe?
What if Christ is a name for the immense spaciousness of all true Love?
What if Christ refers to an infinite horizon that pulls us both from within and pulls us forward, too?
What if Christ is another name for every thing—in its fullness?
—Richard Rohr
Christ is more than Jesus’ last name. Jesus is a person whose example we can follow. Christ is a cosmic life principle in which all beings participate. The incarnation is an ongoing revelation of Christ, uniting matter and spirit, operating as one and everywhere. Together—Jesus and Christ—show us “the way, the truth, and the life” of death and resurrection.
On June 15, join Contemplative Outreach Northeast Ohio for Centering Prayer, contemplative teachings and practices, and reflection with 3 videos featuring Richard Rohr during the March 28 – 31, 2019 Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Registration required for lunch planning. NO FEE. Free will offering will be accepted. Date and Time Saturday, June 15, 2019 9:00 am to 4:00 pm (8:30 am to 9:00 am Registration. Please arrive early so we can start promptly at 9:00 am) Location and Directions Laurel Lake Retirement Community  200 Laurel Lake Dr. Hudson, OH 44236 Contact Information To RSVP for this event, please contact Nancy Moran at email nancymoran94@gmail.com, no later than June 12. For further information: contact Josefina Fernandez at email fucsina@mac.com Retreat leaders Nancy Moran and Josefina Fernandez
More Information Click here for more information about the schedule on the website of Contemplative Outreach Northeast Ohio.

Jesus the Christ

Jesus: The Christ

Summary: Sunday, March 22-Friday, March 27, 2015

https://cac.org/jesus-christ-weekly-summary-2015-03-28/

Christ is a word for the macrocosm, Jesus is the microcosmic moment in time, and all else is the whole cosmos—including you and me. (Sunday)

Whenever the material and the spiritual coincide, there is the Christ. (Monday)

What was personified in the body of Jesus was a manifestation of this one universal truth: Matter is, and has always been, the hiding place for Spirit, forever offering itself to be discovered anew. (Tuesday)

I am making the whole of creation new. . . . It will come true. . . . It is already done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. –Revelation 21:5-6 (Wednesday)

As John Duns Scotus taught, “Christ was the first idea in the mind of God,” and then Teilhard de Chardin completed the cosmic schema by calling Christ the final “Omega Point” of history! (Thursday)

Authentic mystical experience connects us and keeps connecting us at ever-newer levels, breadths, and depths, “until God can be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). (Friday)

Practice: Unitive Seeing

Some of us may experience the mystical reality of oneness in our lifetimes. It might come through meditation or psychedelic substances, in washing the dishes or love-making. These encounters are always grace, never contrived by us nor given as a reward for being holy. Cynthia Bourgeault describes mystical experiences beautifully: “To perceive oneself as one with everything is to directly experience the flow of divine abundance that holds everything together; to know directly (rather than merely deduce) the extravagant Trinitarian joy with which everything is at all times giving itself away and receiving itself back from the molten flow of love at the center of everything.”

These experiences of ultimate and intimate belonging are not the norm for most of us. And when we do stumble upon and through them, the temptation is to cling to the feelings of bliss. Unless we let the experience move us out of our dualistic thinking—beyond the moment of ecstasy—our ego attaches to the mountain-top and claims it as its own. Mystical experiences are only a “sneak preview of what the universe looks like from the point of view of non-dual consciousness,” Cynthia says, and they invite us to integrate the momentary unitive perspective into our ordinary thinking. The goal is a permanent rewiring of our operating system. We must actually let go of mystical experiences in order to move into unitive seeing, which can happen at all times, in all places, with practice and patience.

Perhaps Jesus experienced profound union during his baptism, but we don’t know if there were many, if any, other such encounters with Oneness. Yet clearly, throughout his life, Jesus saw through unitive eyes. He saw the Kingdom of Heaven even “in the midst” of the Pharisees; he saw the real woman behind the label of Samaritan; he saw the thief on the cross with him in paradise.

So welcome mystical experience when/if it comes, but don’t measure your life by it, judging yourself neither as a spiritual hero nor loser. What matters is letting the awareness of your inherent union with God flow into every part of your life. The only way to do this is to die to self, as Jesus did, though for us it happens slowly, steadily, day-by-day through contemplation and letting go.

Gateway to Silence:
In Christ, we become God’s Love.

For further study:
The Cosmic Christ (CDMP3 download)

Hell, No! (CDMP3 download)

The Cosmic Christ

https://cac.org/the-cosmic-christ-2015-11-05/

The Cosmic Christ
Thursday, November 5, 2015

Franciscan mysticism has a unique place in the world through its absolutely Christocentric lens, although the Franciscan emphasis is actually nothing more nor less than the full Gospel itself. Most Christians know about Jesus of Nazareth, but very few know about the Christ, and even fewer were ever taught how to put the two together (which we are trying to do in these meditations). Many still seem to think that Christ is Jesus’ last name. By proclaiming my faith in Jesus Christ, I have made two acts of faith, one in Jesus and another in Christ. The times are demanding this full Gospel of us now.

Though it overlaps with many aspects of non-Christian mysticism—such as nature mysticism, Islamic Sufi mysticism (ecstasy and joy), Hindu mysticism (unitive consciousness and asceticism), Buddhism (non-violence and simplicity), and Jewish prophetic oracles—Franciscan mysticism is both deeply personal and cosmic/historical at the same time. [1] We must know that Franciscanism is not primarily about Francis of Assisi. It is about God, and the utter incarnate availability of God. In fact, when some fixate on Francis and Clare too long their spirituality invariably becomes sentimental, cheap, and harmless. Franciscan mysticism is about an intuition of Jesus as both the Incarnate Human One and the Eternal Cosmic Christ at the same time. (For a deeper exploration of the Cosmic Christ, see my meditations from earlier this year.)

The first and cosmic incarnation of the Eternal Christ, the perfect co-inherence of matter and Spirit (Ephesians 1:3-11), happened at the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the human incarnation of that same Mystery a mere 2,000 years ago, when we were perhaps ready for this revelation. Christ is not Jesus’ last name, but the title of his historical and cosmic purpose. Jesus presents himself as the “Anointed” or Christened One who was human and divine united in one human body—as our model and exemplar. Peter seems to get this, at least once (Matthew 16:16), but like most of the church, he also seems to regress. Christ is our shortcut word for “The Body of God” or “God materialized.” [2] This Christ is much bigger and older than either Jesus of Nazareth or the Christian religion, because the Christ is whenever the material and the divine co-exist—which is always and everywhere.

Ilia Delio writes, “The conventional visualization of the physical world was changed by Einstein’s special theory of relativity, which showed that matter itself was a form of energy. . . . For all practical purposes, energy is the ‘real world.’” [3] There it is: science revealing that everything is both matter and energy/spirit co-inhering as one; this is a Christocentric world. This realization changes everything. Matter has become a holy thing and the material world is the place where we can comfortably worship God just by walking on matter, by loving it, by respecting it. The Christ is God’s active power inside of the physical world. [4]

Delio continues: “Through his penetrating view of the universe Teilhard found Christ present in the entire cosmos, from the least particle of matter to the convergent human community. ‘The Incarnation,’ he declared, ‘is a making new . . . of all the universe’s forces and powers.’ Personal divine love is invested organically with all of creation, in the heart of matter, unifying the world.” [5] For many years, imitating Teilhard de Chardin, I used to end my letters with his own complementary close,

“Christ Ever Greater!” This had little to do with my hopes for the expanding of organized Christianity, not that there is anything wrong with that. I think we are all sad to admit that organized Christianity has often resisted and opposed the true coming of the Cosmic Christ. The coming of the Cosmic Christ is not the same as the growth of the Christian religion. It is the unification of all things.

Gateway to Silence:
Evolving toward love

References:
[1] Adapted from Richard Rohr, “Franciscan Mysticism: A Cosmic Vision,” Radical Grace, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2012). You can read the full article in the Fall 2015 issue of CAC’s newsletter, the Mendicant.

[2] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass: 2013), 77.

[3] Ilia Delio, The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love (Orbis Books: 2013), 24-25.

[4] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, and Consciousness (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2010), MP3 download.

[5] Delio, The Unbearable Wholeness of Being, 127.

The Mind of Christ

Lectio Divina material for our online prayer group on Monday, February 25th.

…as it is written:

“What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, 

what God has prepared for those who love him, this God has prepared for those who love him”,

this God has reveled to us through the Spirit.

For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God. Among human beings, who knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. And we speak about them not with words taught by  human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.

Now the natural person does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually. The spiritual person, however, can judge everything but is not subject to judgment by anyone.

For “who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:9-16

The Christ Mystery Meaning – a Meditation

I am using this meditation for our prayer time of a our weekly group of Contemplative Prayer.

“…Sister Ilia Delio, unpacks what the Christ mystery means and how we might practice seeing Christ everywhere.

So does everyone have to become Christian to know the Christ? Absolutely not; Christ is more than Jesus. Christ is the communion of divine personal love expressed in every created form of reality—every star, leaf, bird, fish, tree, rabbit and every human person. Everything is christified because everything expresses divine love incarnate. However, Jesus Christ is the “thisness” of God (“God is like this and this is God”) so what Jesus is by nature everything else is by grace (divine love). We are not God but every single person is born out of the love of God, expresses this love in [their] unique personal form and has the capacity to be united with God. . . . Because Jesus is the Christ, every human is already reconciled with every other human in the mystery of divine [love] so that Christ is more than Jesus alone; Christ is the whole reality bound in a union of love.

We cannot know this mystery of Christ as a doctrine or an idea; it is the root reality of all existence. Hence we must travel inward, into the interior depth of the soul where the field of divine love is expressed in the “thisness” of our own, particular lives. Each of us is a little word of the Word of God, a mini-incarnation of divine love. The journey inward requires surrender to this mystery in our lives and this means letting go of our control buttons. It means dying to the untethered selves that occupy us daily; it means embracing the sufferings of our lives, from the little sufferings to the big ones; it means allowing God’s grace to heal us, hold us and empower us for life. It means entering into darkness, the unknowns of our lives, and learning to trust the darkness, for the tenderness of divine love is already there. It means [being] willing to sacrifice all that we have for all that we can become in the power of God’s love; and finally it means to let God’s love heal us of the opposing tensions within us. No one can see God and live and thus we must surrender our partial lives to become whole in the love of God. When we can say with full voice, “you are the God of my heart, my God and my portion forever” [Psalm 73:26] then we can open our eyes to see that the Christ in me is the Christ in you. We are indeed One in love.

Ilia Delio, “A Reply to Richard Rohr on the Cosmic Christ,” October 16, 2017, https://www.omegacenter.info/reply-to-richard-rohr-cosmic-christ/.

Richard Rohr Meditation: The Universal Christ: Weekly Summary. December 8, 2018

Cosmic Christ: God in All Things

God in All Things
Sunday, October 23, 2016

(Daily Meditation Oct. 23, 2016, Fr Richard Rhor)

The day of my spiritual awakening
was the day I saw and knew I saw
all things in God and God in all things.
—Mechtild of Magdeburg (c. 1212—c. 1282) [1]

Understanding the Cosmic Christ can change the way we relate to creation, to other religions, to other people, to ourselves, and to God. Knowing and experiencing the Cosmic Christ can bring about a major shift in consciousness. Like Saul’s experience on the road to Damascus (see Acts 9), you won’t be the same after encountering the Risen Christ.

As with the Trinity, the Cosmic Christ is present in both Scripture and Tradition and the concept has been understood by many mystics, though not as a focus of mainline Christianity. We just didn’t have the eyes to see it. The Cosmic Christ is about as traditional as you can get, but Christians—including many preachers—have not had the level of inner experience to know how to communicate this to people.

The Cosmic Christ is Divine Presence pervading all of creation since the very beginning. My father Francis of Assisi intuited this presence and lived his life in awareness of it. Later, John Duns Scotus (1266-1308) put this intuition into philosophical form. For Duns Scotus, the Christ Mystery was the blueprint of reality from the very start (John 1:1). Teilhard de Chardin brought this insight into our modern world. God’s first “idea” was to become manifest—to pour out divine, infinite love into finite, visible forms. The “Big Bang” is now our scientific name for that first idea; and “Christ” is our theological name. Both are about love and beauty exploding outward in all directions. Creation is indeed the Body of God! What else could it be, when you think of it?

In Jesus, this eternal omnipresence had a precise, concrete, and personal referent. God’s presence became more obvious and believable in the world. But this apparition only appeared in the last ten seconds of December 31, as it were—scaling the universe’s entire history to a single year. Was God saying nothing and doing nothing for 13.8 billion years? Our code word for that infinite saying and doing was the “Eternal Christ.” (See John 1:1-5, Colossians 1:15-20, Ephesians 1:9-12 if you think this is some new idea.)

Vague belief and spiritual intuition became specific and concrete and personal in Jesus—with a “face” that we could “hear, see, and touch” (1 John 1:1). The formless now had a personal form, according to Christian belief.

But it seems we so fell in love with this personal interface with Jesus that we forgot about the Eternal Christ, the Body of God, which is all of creation, which is really the “First Bible.” Jesus and Christ are not exactly the same. In the early Christian era, only a few Eastern Fathers (such as Origen of Alexandria and Maximus the Confessor) cared to notice that the Christ was clearly historically older, larger, and different than Jesus himself. They mystically saw that Jesus is the union of human and divine in space and time, and the Christ is the eternal union of matter and Spirit from the beginning of time.

When we believe in Jesus Christ, we’re believing in something much bigger than just the historical incarnation that we call Jesus. Jesus is just the visible map. The entire sweep of the meaning of the Anointed One, the Christ, includes us and includes all of creation since the beginning of time. Revelation was geological, physical, and nature-based before it was ever personal and fully relational (see Romans 1:20).

Gateway to Silence:
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

References:
[1] Sue Woodruff, Meditations with Mechtild of Magdeburg (Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 1982), 46.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Cosmic Christ, discs 1 & 2 (CAC: 2009), CD, MP3 download; and
Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Media: 2014), 185, 210, 222.