22 Nov

Our Paths to the Sacred

Posted by kjnelan in Thoughts |

:Image:Religious syms.png bitmap traced (and h...
Image via Wikipedia

There was a time in my life when I followed blindly, those who “seemed” to be the voice of reason: that is until the day ‘he’ showed me hypocrites really can wear monk‘s robes and are no better than the average person walking the streets looking for their own deliverance.

I became tired of those who would superimpose their own thoughts on people they didn’t even know, telling them what was going through their minds without so much as a simple question to verify the veracity of their claims.  No, instead those same people chose only to hear their own voices and power hungry egos (or superiority complexes), then claim they never responded with such angry vehemence.  (In other words, their own defecations never stank!)

I stopped all I was working on, with the exception of the spiritual directions and a couple of other things, out of fear I would become like them.  I then broke away from the organizations thinking they were the root cause of the problems which had arisen: all because one individual continually created organizations, decided he disliked those organizations, and moved on to the next one, and so on, and so forth.

Why on God‘s great earth would I ever look back to that experience?  Because that very same individual who now claims to not be a part of anything organized, has himself organized yet again, this time under the guise of not being organized, so it occurred to me that his example of attachment is  perfect representation of something deeply ingrained in our human nature.

I don’t know how I could have missed it.  It was something we studied at great lengths in college.  Humankind needs a common bond with other like-minded humans to share their own experiences of the Divine and culture, and also to maintain a sort of bond or connection with a community.

Looking back on my experience of that one individual, I blamed organized religion for his worthless angry expressions of fear, hate, and violence.  I chose to turn my back on the organizations, and focused instead on the people.  What I found was an deep seated need for some sort of organization.  And though I have been resistant to the call, I too am finding a need to belong to a community of like-minded individuals; only this time, one where compassion and understanding take the reigns and where one discovers the others around them rather than extolling their own virtues.

A once wise man told me, “Never screw with someone’s spirituality.  Accept people where they are, love them for who they are, and help them find their own way through this life.”  Though that person is no longer a part of my life, I will always remember the message those words imprinted deep within my own person.  It’s not my road, but theirs.  It’s not what I want for those who come to me for help, but what they want for themself.  I can help lead them to health, but ultimately they are the ones who decide where they are going.  What kind of person would I truly be if I turned my back on them because of their choices?  Not a very good one.

So I choose not to be like those in my recent past.  I choose instead to pick up where I left off and help others discover for themselves their own paths.

Camino al Edén (Santa Fé de Montseny)

Image by Reinante El Pintor de Fuego via Flickr

To that end, I am beginning to consider joining a group, or helping to develop a group where there is true universality: that is to say a group where all faith traditions are honored and not put down by any individual.  I was raised catholic in the truest sense, universal.  I still believe that every faith tradition out there is true to those who follow because of one simple word: belief.  When a person invests themselves into their belief system,  there can be no right or wrong.  There can only be truth because it exists whether it is my own truth, or someone else’s.

I am not the builder of paths, I am a person who walks my own path and others walk their own paths.

I follow my own faith tradition and have celebrated the mass in secret because I don’t have a “bishop” to pass on his “authority” to celebrate the sacred mysteries (as they used to be called).  But then it occurred to me, “Why am I hiding?”

There have existed Episcopi vagantes, or wandering Bishops, who have walked away from the Roman Catholic Church to either found their own, or join with others who have done the same.  If we have broken away from the Roman church, then why do we still subscribe to the old ways of doing things?

To that end, I officially announce myself as a wandering priest: a priest of the sacred Path, a path without beginning or end.  I am not beholden unto the Catholic Church and to those who walked away from the “Holy Roman Church”, why are you still letting them control what you do and say?  Why are you still fighting them, and following their rules when you should be focused on the people of God who truly need you?

I am still a Franciscan, in that Francis too turned his back on the organization, though he himself organized others.  It’s not about the rules.  It’s not about the titles, or the power-mongers, or even the priests and bishops.  It’s about our own separate paths.  It’s about our own need for fulfillment.  It is about our search or our own connection to the Divine!

I have been ordained, and so I will continue down that path, though the surroundings may have changed.  I will hold to my promise to serve the People of God, not those in charge of the churches.  I will hold to my calling to be a voice in the dark and help those who have stumbled on their paths.  It’s not about converting, it’s about personal discovery.

For now, I need to finish some other…  projects…

Peace
K

Related articles

Comments are closed.