Today is the first Sunday of Lent. Its liturgy of the word reminds me of what's been on my mind these days as I'm working on my critical thinking book. For the last two weeks, I've shared some of those thoughts here on my blog.
So, I wrote a week ago about the stages of human development -- from egocentric to ethnocentric, to world-centric and cosmic-centric. It probably reminded some of the work of Abraham Maslow and Jean Piaget. Actually, though, my principal reference was to Ken Wilber who, in his A Theory of Everything and elsewhere attempts to integrate and transcend those more familiar works. I recommend Wilber very strongly.
In any case, it strikes me, on this first Sunday of Lent that the season's challenge is to expand our awareness to something approaching what Jesus manifests in today's Gospel selection. There, the carpenter from Nazareth is depicted as passing forty days in the desert enduring temptation the whole time. The story not only recalls the history of Israel's forty years in the desert; it tracks Jesus' growth through the stages of human development that all of us must pass through. No one can skip any of them.
And the limits of our particular stage of growth make it very difficult and even impossible for us to understand stages beyond our own. Thus, for instance, a person like Donald Trump cannot begin to understand someone like Pope Francis.
This means that when we were children at the egocentric stage, we couldn't really understand ethnocentrism, much less world-centrism or cosmic-centrism. Similarly, those at the ethnocentric stage cannot understand the evolutionary stages beyond their own. To them it all seems like nonsense and even dangerous.
No one is to blame for any of that. It's perfectly natural. However, the fear of moving forward can freeze some at lower stages of development. Some remain egocentric all their lives. And it's the same with ethnocentrism and world-centrism.
Nonetheless, we're all called to the fullness of being human as embodied in avatars like Jesus of Nazareth. In his fullness of human development, he recognized the unity of all creation and everyone's essential innocence. So as the Compassionate Christ, he saw that (given their stage of development) everyone's right and is doing the best s/he can. As a result, he could even forgive his executioners who (as he said) "know not what they do."
Jesus was committed, however, to moving human consciousness forward. He called that stage "the Kingdom of God" -- a this-worldly reality. To get there, Jesus recognized that it is not at all necessary for everyone to advance to Kingdom-consciousness or even world-centrism. A small group embodying such awareness would be sufficient to move the entire world forward.
[In Wilber's terms, there's a tipping point at about 10% of the world's population. He estimates that at present about 40-60% of the world is fixated at the ethnocentric stage. About 25% are at world-centrism, and about 7% stand at cosmic-centrism. Only a 3% growth in the latter would reach the tipping point.]
Notice Jesus growth as depicted in this morning's highly condensed symbolic story. Jesus' first temptation is ego-centric -- to feed himself by turning stones into bread. His second temptation is ethnocentric -- connected with his nation's temple and the quasi-magical attributes accorded the structure by his Jewish contemporaries. Jesus' final temptation is world-centric -- to exercise dominion of "all the nations of the world." By rejecting all three (including the imperial, dominator hierarchy implied in the final temptation), Jesus symbolically achieves the cosmic-consciousness we're all summoned to. The story ends with his being ministered to by angels. (Thus the divine growth hierarchy I'm trying to explain here is affirmed.)
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