Under the Mercy- the Piercing Joy of Embracing All of Reality

Last updated on: November 25, 2017 at 1:20 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

Under the Mercy- the Piercing Joy of Embracing All of Reality 2017-11-25T13:20:50-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

photo-1470843810958-2da815d0e041_opt

A mind and a body . . .

To embrace all of reality, metaphysical and physical, is to find beauty, but as any sage knew from Plato to CS Lewis, beauty is piercing and brings pain as well as pleasure. Christianity is great and good (whatever is true of other views), because it is unafraid of reality.

There are some Christians I am told who retreat from reality and plaster the supernatural where it does not belong so they can no longer see the glory of the natural that God made. We do not need to create devils in the glen to make the glen meaningful or see angels in the flock to enjoy the dumb jolliness of sheep. We should enjoy the glen as a glen and the sheep as sheep.

Stripping away mental confusion, where each one of us lives in a weird religious apocalypse novel (see Perretti, Frank) is a great improvement, not because there are no angels or devils, there are, but because putting them where they are not is to miss what is there. If in the grip of mental confusion, any clarity is welcome and an improvement!

If one only sees Mind, then we miss the beauty of matter, though perhaps strong clarity about Mind (without reducing it to matter and energy) will be beautiful. Similarly, if we see matter as it is, purging ourself of religiously based confusions (“Is that rock a devil?”), we at least get the God-given beauty of nature. Sad, however, to lose the world of numbers, ideas, consciousness, and Mind in the process!

The stars are to be seen first as stars and not as gods, even if gods came to associate themselves with a star or planet! The entire distinction between “natural” and “supernatural” is simply confusing talk. The natural is what is and includes personality and it is personality we often mislabel supernatural. When I kiss Hope goodbye, there is the physical pleasure, but also knowing a free and independent person. Her consent, so critical to real love, is not reducible to matter and energy, but to consciousness. . . Mind.

You cannot solve a physical problem in marriage with personal answers, but then you cannot solve a personal problem with mere physicality. We need all of reality: the mind and matter and should avoid confusing the two. Christianity gives us a world where the assumption by mathematicians that numbers are real works, but also the beauty of chemistry and physics as a method to describe stuff and the interaction of stuff with the world.

We are stuff and mind.

Reason and experiences brings us into confrontation with Mind, God Himself, and (perhaps) at times other minds. We can enjoy the wonder of a waterful and work with our psychologist to gain mental health and our pastor to gain full mental freedom. Why?

We aspire to something more: eternity is in our hearts. We can and must enjoy finitude: life is good and life will pass. Yet seeing the beauty of ending does not prevent us from also enjoying the possibilities of life without end in the age to come. We embrace both without confusion and so enjoy all of life while denying nothing that reality shows us. We fall short, all of us, and there are no gurus who are perfect. Instead, we journey in a dialectic between what is and what Mind tells us ought to be.

This is the Mercy: matter and energy in Mindful motion, an arc of history in which we are allowed to participate as Mind bends matter to better ends.

Thank God.

Spiritual Reflections

Previous Post

November 22, 2017

Perverse Matter? What Plato and (Some) of the Fathers Mean

Next Post

November 24, 2017 Sad, but Better: Four Things that Help

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Apologetics Art Culture Education On Books On Education Philosophy Politics Pop Culture Spiritual Reflections Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 July 2025 June 2025 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 June 2023 September 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said: "Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Paul Peter James Jesus

Books by This Author John Mark Reynolds

See All Titles »