The only words reiterated by Jesus were: 'Fear not!' It would be wise for us to recall this in our fear-laden, evangelized society. So much of this fear is driven by the manipulative policies foisted upon the public by the few mega-rich, who pull all the political, economic and media levers in America. This 2012 presidential election process could not make that fact any clearer.
How casually the candidates and our media take death and dying, especially if those dying are in other countries or killed by our weapons. Death and dying play a big part in what we're served each day as 'entertainment'. How desacralized human life has become in America!
We've forgotten as a nation that we are immortal spirits with a common Source and Origin. We're taught to fear death as though it meant non-existence. Einstein taught that E=MC 2 , so nothing is lost, only transformed. And so are we, when we leave this mortal shell.
What modern physics call 'energy fields' are surprisingly similar to what the medieval theologians called 'souls', and what Native Americans call 'spirits'. These 'energy fields' are all around us and fill the entire universe.
We live in a world of energy fields (i.e. souls and spirits) but we don't see them, like fish don't see water. And our highly competitive and non-compassionate culture indoctrinates us to not even look. We cannot 'see' them with our physical eyes, of course. But we can 'intuit' them with our inner eyes. Thomas Aquinas taught that the faculty of intuition emanates from within the 'soul'.
It is not by coincidence that intuition is denigrated in our culture, and especially in our schools, where it is not referred to at all. Yet intuition was viewed as a key-aid to survival by all tribal peoples, from whom we're all descended and from whom we have lots to learn. We have two spiritual (i.e. energy-field) forces within us: love and consciousness. As incarnated spirits, our purpose is twofold: to grow in love and to increase in consciousness.
Consciousness is more than the physical brain just as love is more than the heart. (Otherwise, people with heart transplants would suddenly lose their love for friends and family!) Consciousness and love belong to the spirit-world (i.e. they are both amazingly strong cosmic energy fields) and will likely endure forever.
Fear not!
But what's to be done about our society that's gone awry? How can we continue on this road to social and ecological perdition without so much as raising a fuss? See the numbers of homeless children and adults walking our streets! See how many are dying worldwide from starvation and preventable disease! How many are dying in wars they had nothing to do with!
I ask those people of faith: Do we think the Creator of Life wants us to be living in this manner?
'To know is to do', the ancient Greek philosophers taught wisely. If we don't act on our knowledge, then we really don't know, and are therefore ignorant. Ignorance is the root of all evil.
As a senior citizen pushing seventy, I lay it in the lap of my own generation which looks like it will become the last generation to experience good jobs and careers, a good education for anyone who wants it, buying a house, getting a pension and retirement, medical plans, social security, etc. They're gone with the wind, unless we do something about it.
Are we seniors simply going to stand by, after our own parents and grandparents sacrificed so much to gain these precious things? We know that they weren't yielded freely, but only after a long and wearisome struggle for human dignity, and rights supposedly guaranteed by the US Constitution.
Are we going to let our children and grandchildren get sucked into this never-ending economic vortex we're in, because of the manipulations of a wealthy few? Do we not live in the 'home of the brave'? What would our grandparents have said!
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