July 9, 2009

• Barriers to knowledge of God

• Life is for seeking

• Faith essential for peace

The God that you seek is here. The God that you pray to is here. The God whom you ask for hope, for faith, for courage, for forgiveness is here. The miracle of human life is that God is always here.

Why is it that human beings question the reality of the very force that created each of you? Why is it that it is so difficult to see with your heart what you are unable to see with your eyes? Why is it that God is for all an enigma, for there are many who claim to know God, yet there are none who truly have that knowledge? If your goal in life is to know God, why is it that such knowledge is so difficult for everyone? If God wanted you to have a clear vision, why put these blocks in your path, for wouldn’t it be easier to know God if you could, in some tangible way, see God?

The religions of the world expend seemingly limitless energy sharing, promoting, proselytizing, threatening, cajoling others to perceive God in some definable manner, yet no one sees, no one knows. We wish to begin a kind of exploration of why it is that there are so many barriers that hinder your full knowledge of God.

It is important that all recognize that the lack of clear vision of God is no different than the lack of clear vision of ethics. It is no different than the lack of clear vision of science, philosophy, of any pursuit. Human life is not designed with a purpose of knowing all. Your lives are given to you for the purpose of seeking and then applying what it is that has been revealed to you in that seeking. Your understanding of anything is entirely dependent upon your efforts to achieve that understanding.

You may spend an entire life seeking the secrets of the sun, and although your understanding will expand, it will never be full. It will never be complete, for if there were conditions of absolute understanding, there would be chaos, for there would be a class of individuals privy to full knowledge as opposed to those others viewed as being less worthy, who have less knowledge, and therefore no knowledge vis-à-vis full awareness.

In such a life, there is no sense of sharing beliefs as they evolve, and yet you are asked to share. You are asked to speak of what you believe, to speak of your commitments, to speak honestly of your feelings. It is in that sharing, and it is through such listening that vision is enhanced. What you believe to be true at this moment may be radically countered by what you believe at some later juncture in your lives. That changed belief is evidence of your own growth. If there is no evidence of growth, there is no reason to have faith in such growth. If there is no faith in growth, no growth takes place and you stagnate. You do not reach forward. Your soul does not grow through your efforts. All remains as it is.

No one is presented with a life for the purpose of knowing the answers. You are presented life merely to ask, because it is in the asking that you grow. That asking may be generated by curiosity. That asking may be generated by pain, by fear, but the asking is what is important.

When you wonder about what next steps should be taken in relationships, whether family or associates, neighbors, nations, communities, societies, such asking is evidence of your faith that you can be transported in some way to a place beyond your current understanding. You ask out of faith rather than fear. When you ask, you will find answers.

In asking these questions, you’re acknowledging there is something that can be done. There is a place to look. There is a resolution that brings peace. It is through asking questions that each of you is brought to action, to application. Sometimes the application of the answers does not result in action as you see it. For us, your guides, action is rather commitment. A commitment to listening is a commitment to action, for it is a conscious decision to be open, to be receptive. You are not doing, in terms of visible activity, but you are doing in terms of the process of being—being present, being there to listen, being there to hold a hand, being there to support a head, being there to caress the heart, being there with compassion, with a loving intent. It is not necessarily physically acting out in gestures which so often are interpreted as action, anything else being inaction, or being passive. The passive response to others, when you care, is never inaction.

Sometimes those for whom we are concerned are not in a position to speak, are not in a position to explain or defend or to justify. For others to express what lies within, they must feel always a connection with receptivity, most especially a recognition of loving acceptance.

If you are a counselor, you do not admonish, but you present an environment where an individual is ultimately free to speak. That freedom to speak comes with an assurance that no judgment is close at hand. It is natural to wish to do what can be done to help those for whom you most care. The question is not motivation, but rather means.

Communication between individuals and groups, societies, nations, communities is effective when all feel free. It is through an exchange in freedom that true progress is achieved that leads towards peace, towards an accommodation, towards faith in one another, for peace in reality is an exchange of faith. When you have faith in another nation being responsible, being restrained, being honest, there is no hindrance to the achievement of peace. War between nations is a breakdown in the presence of peace. Disagreements between people are a breakdown of that peace, that faith.

To achieve a level of peace that you pray for, you must create an environment of faith. If two individuals have faith in God and not in each other, there will not be peace, for there will be a sense of exclusive knowledge of God that is in conflict with another’s knowledge, and it is that conflict of perspective that is the wall that separates one from another.

When there is discord, resolution is not through the imposition of one’s perspective, but rather it is through an understanding of the other’s perspective. The only way to achieve that is through listening. It is through the establishment of an atmosphere of faith. When you approach a perception of God and you feel your approach is the true approach, you eliminate the option, the environment that encourages questions, and you are left with disagreement at best and subjugation at worst. It is for this reason that human beings are created in an environment where no one has complete understanding. All must seek. The journey of one seeker is equally important as the journey of another. The important point is that both are seeking, and when both express their journeys openly and with faith, both parties grow. It is through that exchange, not through its suppression, that the faith that is necessary to the achievement of peace becomes a reality.

You will not fully know God until you are fully God. We do not fully know God, but our knowledge grows. It grows through our experience. It grows through our sharing. It grows through our own vision. Our vision is a vision not of the body but of the spirit. We guide you because of our vision, but we never claim to have full knowledge of God. If we had full knowledge, we would say to you, “Your search is over. Listen to us. Do only as we say.” If such were the case, you would not grow. You would only obey. Obedience is not growth.

A society does not grow in a totalitarian environment. A society obeys, and when no growth takes place, a society is diminished. If your souls do not grow but merely obey, they are diminished, and it is for their growth that your souls are given the blessing of human life. It is for this reason that there is no absolute knowledge. That is what has been designed into human life.

But although you will never be given full knowledge in your current lives, there is no reason for resignation, for stepping off the path and just waiting, for by giving up there is also no growth. You can give up because you feel it is futile. You can give up because your position has been subjugated to the powers of others. It makes no difference. Both restrict the growth on the path you have been given.

It is therefore essential to embrace uncertainty, embrace the reality of less than full knowledge, embrace the potential for growth in depth and breadth achieved by asking and by constantly seeking. Accept your lives. Accept the lives of others. Seek. Encourage others to seek. And in seeking, open your eyes to what is revealed, for in seeking you do grow. Your lives become deeper and more profound. In seeking you find compassion. In seeking you learn what it is to be compassionate. In seeking you find love. In seeking you become loving.

Each of you has been given great gifts. Accept the gifts that all human beings have been given. Accept the paths that all human beings traverse. Accept your powers to listen. Accept your capacity to just be, and when you do, your souls take great flight.

We bless you in your seeking. We bless you in your seeing.

Amen.