Spiritual suspension of disbelief

Image by janoimagine via FlickrSo, what do you do if you are trying to find, reconcile your problems with, increase the depth of your spiritual path? There are many possible answers, and no one can list or describe them all.

However, a major stumbling block is the suspension of disbelief.

When you read a novel, attend a play, or watch a television program or a movie, even when playing some video games, part of you agrees to react as if it were really happening. If you are unable to suspend your disbelief even a little, then the program can become tedious--perhaps straying into boredom, annoyance or frustration.

This can also be an obstacle when you are trying to search out the meaning and insights of a sacred tradition, and in fact, it can snuff out any chance of really appreciating that tradition or its wisdom before you've even really started exploring it. In that situation your future efforts have already been sabotaged and the pattern of your expectations has already been set.

For example.

I want what you have -- an Indian parable, the Gospel according to John, and the Christian witness

This past Sunday the Gospel reading was again from the Gospel of John, and a homily suggested that in the reading sin is associated with failure to believe. It was left hanging for us to ponder.

Many of us have heard the idea that we have to "believe in Christ," but this has been reduced by fundamentalists to an intellectual assent to a proposition, namely, agreeing to a particular identity for Jesus. Does Jesus deserve the title of Christ? That is, a piece of God in a human suit sent to be killed for your benefit? If so, and you if you publicly say so, you get a ticket stamped to a future paradise after you die where you get to be just like you are now but with a spiffier physical body. And this is where many people today head for the aisles or close the door. That model of proselytizing has poisoned the well for a lot of common phrases used in evangelizing.

I don't personally think that's the message at all. I don't think the apostle Paul does either. What if instead to believe that Jesus was the Christ is to believe that we were meant to be who we are and are cherished for that. Not for what we do, the good or bad choices we make or their consequences, but for being ourselves. What if believing that Jesus is the Christ means that we can also move beyond the lines that divide us, beyond the religious and irreligious squabbles, the petty tribal politics that persist even in modern nation states, and into a state of being in which we can appreciate and grow from all circumstances in our lives. To be able to maintain a subtle joy in our hearts and expand our consciousness and conscience into a unity with our Source. Out of many, One, and out of One, many. A wealth of diversity in unity known as Christ.

Solid rock or shifting sand?

Image via Wikipedia

How does one have faith in events such as the Christian teaching of the resurrection of Jesus?  Is it just agreeing because other people say they believe it?  Is belief in such a case solely matter of accepting or rejecting an idea?  A historical proposition? Or is it a matter of heartfelt trust and experience-inspired insight?

To try to make such an event into a mere historical fact or a mere historical falsehood or just a metaphor or any other easily accepted and comprehended label is a stumbling block because it denies or ignores the mystery at the heart of the matter.

As I am slowly coming to see it, if it were a simple thing that could be fully comprehended and conclusively decided at the level of our ordinary intellect, then it would just be an idea to reject or accept based on everyday standards for ideas. Instead, events such the Paschal mystery (including that of the Resurrection and the Ascension) are explored by living them out through liturgy and charity.