WHAT WE'RE BECOMING, WHAT WE ALREADY ARE

In the thirteenth century, the Franciscan Angela of Foligno wrote:

I beheld the fullness of God in which I beheld and comprehended the whole of creation, that is, what is on this side and beyond the sea, the abyss, the sea itself, and everything else.  And in everything that I saw, I could perceive nothing except the presence of God, and in a manner totally indescribable.  And my soul in an excess of wonder cried out: "The world is pregnant with God!"  Wherefore, I understood how small is the whole of creation - that is, what is on this side and beyond the sea, the abyss, the sea itself, and everything else - but the power of God fills it all to overflowing.

This indescribably beautiful expression of non-dual seeing reminds me of Romans 8: that since the very beginning of time up to this present moment, the whole earth and everything that is has been groaning, striving, in one great act of giving birth.  And what is it giving birth to?  Christ.  Scotus once said that Christ was the very first thought in the mind of God, and that this thought was to become manifest, to reveal and share himself in the very act of creation and the continued emergence of the universe itself. 

I used to think of God as one who created something outside herself, like a potter working a piece of art.  Such imagery has a beauty of its own, but it's suggestive of a God that influences the inner-workings of the universe from outside it - which appears to be contradicted by modern science.  But if I were God, what if instead of molding the clay I became the clay?  What if I infused myself into the makeup of the material itself as a creative impulse?  An onlooker would behold the wondrous transformation of clay as it became me, giving birth to me through the very act of being itself. 

This is how I see Christ now, as the Logos, the Word, the very blueprint, design, and destiny of all that is.  Christ is the alpha and omega point, the birth and final consummation of all existence becoming the full, free manifestation of God's infinite love.  He (Logos) is the evolutionary impulse driving life toward greater complexity and coherence.  She (Sophia) is the perceptive wisdom waking life up in ever-more expansive ways to the Christ mystery unfolding within us, before our very eyes. 

Jesus was one with this mystery.  He was awake, as awake as a man or woman can be - entirely aligned and receptive to this mystery pouring forth from him like a healing river of life.  He stepped into it, became one with it, and invited us as a brother to follow him into this univocity of being.  We are all living Christ's life and becoming Christ - along with everything else - and the only thing incumbent upon any of us is allowing this beautiful, terrible realization seductively enticing us against every ounce of pride or shame our egos can muster against it to become the full expression of who we objectively are in God. 

Jesus modeled this with both his life and death, demonstrating that kenotic love is the new driving force of evolution emerging in the world.  As Father Richard suggests, when the Trinity is nothing more than perpetual self-emptying love being filled with the perfect self-emptying of the other, God becomes both all-powerful and all-vulnerable.  We enter this dance when we follow Jesus' example and lose ourselves in it.  We lose ourselves to find ourselves, die in order to live, surrender who we think we are in order to uncover the truth.  And the truth is that we're beautiful - treasures hidden in the dark waiting to be drawn into the light, and once having been drawn are illumined and transformed into lights ourselves (Ephesians 5.)

I believe this is the Christ that Jesus revealed and invited people into.  This is the Christ I worship, the Christ I love, the Christ I know.  This is the Christ I am, that we all are, that everything is becoming, that everything already is.