It Isn’t This Or That

I grew up, as I’m guessing many of us did, with the language of natural and supernatural or sacred and profane. We were taught there were good things and there were bad things. Actually, that division—the belief that the world is divided into either good or bad—was condemned as a heresy called Manichaeism in the fifth century. Jesus overcame that absolute distinction by putting the sacred and the profane together. He united the spiritual and the material, the divine and the human, together in himself. He’s both at the same time. Once we encounter the Christ mystery, we know there’s only One Reality. We can no longer divide the world into natural and supernatural or sacred and profane. It’s all supernatural and sacred.  Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Seven Themes of an Alternative Orthodoxy, no. 3, accessed June 2, 2023, MP3 audio.  Link

Goodness these words from Richard Rohr spoke to me this morning.  Wow.  I read them after I got back from my regular (at least on this trip) walk down to Corozal Bay at the Belizean sunrise time of 5:00am.  This morning was the first one that we’ve been here that the sunrise hour has been largely cloudy.  It was tempting to feel disappointed in the sunrise this morning because it wasn’t vibrant and instagram-worthy.  But it had its own unique beauty and uniqueness.  It was a very different feel for the morning and still beautiful in its own way.

When I returned to the house where we are staying I read Rohr’s words and the Spirit spoke deeply to my heart about the reality of how we want to separate everything into A or B, right or wrong, this way or that way and don’t see the unity that is there between all things.  I loved the last few lines specifically... “Once we encounter the Christ mystery, we know there’s only One Reality.  We can no longer divide the world into natural and supernatural or sacred and profane.  It’s all supernatural and sacred.”. Yes. Yes. Yes.

This isn’t to say that there isn’t evil in the world or that people do not commit acts that are evil.  But instead, what I hear in this a push to focus on what is unity first before looking at what divides.  With the sunrise this morning, it wasn’t about “dang, that was a lame sunrise” but instead seeing it for what it was - another day to be alive, in a beautiful place, standing in front of beautiful water.

I’ll have more to reflect upon about my time here thus far in Belize but there’s a lot of processing and reflecting still going on.  But this is what spoke to my spirit this morning and I pray to yours as well.