I HAVE TO DIG DEEP INTO MY HUMAN NATURE TO UNCOVER THAT NEXT LEVEL OF EVOLUTION, ADOPTION.

I still remember those cherished hardbound books from the Library of Literary Masterpieces that I suddenly discovered in Middle School. In those early years, especially when I was sick and in bed, for many long hours, I read classics, such as Charles Lamb’s Dissertation on a Roast Pig, Treasure Island, Gulliver’s Travels, and The Most Dangerous Game, to remember only a few. Just as my mom and dad wanted us to be exposed to what was, at the time, a basic library of thoughts and stories, I find myself wandering back to those dimly lit corridors of the mind and relishing those books and the leisurely time I spent browsing their message.

Fast forward to our time, which can be characterized as instant gratification, a lack of patience with anything that can’t entertain us immediately, and numbing of any ideas we can’t immediately understand. It is not the Age of Aquarius, but rather the age of the ostrich, most often characterized by sticking its head in the ground to avoid danger or having to dig deeper into the unlimited mystery of humanity and reach the next stage of our evolution. The psychology of choice is B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioning, the limitations animals experience with nature is all about pleasure and pain. It works beautifully for animals. The problem is, that it works beautifully for humans also since we are rooted in the heritage of our past. The insistence on ME, the glorification of what it means to be human is being able to do what our impulses dictate at the time, the relativization of absolute truth beyond human spoilage with the power to block reality and craft it in our own image and likeness, and finally, the false choices associated with authentic love driving our human inability to choose the contradictions that would enable humanity to move to the next step in their evolution, all mask the way I must follow, the sign of contradiction (truth) I must use, to lead a life that is in the world of not of it. I am a pilgrim in a foreign land with no room in the Inn, no place to lay my head in this world. When I reach the limitations of my human, I ask, “Is that all there is?” “Is there another step in my evolution, one which I must take with help from a source of energy outside of my humanity, yet very much dependent on my discovering the next step in my human evolution, intelligent progression.

My knowledge must not be limited to logic or scientific inquiry, although they are foundational to reaching my next level of awareness. My ability to love must not only be tied to this life but also an expanded view of love to include my adoption as a son of the Father and heir of a kingdom that is of this world while I live so that I can choose what to bring with me of value to that immutable or absolute love and reach fulfillment as my nature intended. The product of my special knowledge and love as an adopted son produces a product that, broadly describes my conversion from ME to THEE (capacitas dei through conversio morae). Like the Trinity whose image and likeness we have our being, our fulfillment when diving knowledge (Father) and divine love (Son)join together to produce the energy that created all that is and overshadows all reality with its presence (Holy Spirit).

As a Lay Cistercian (or other Lay Institutes, such as Dominicans, Jesuit, Carmelites, Franciscans, and too many other associations to mention), this gathering of people, all following the rule of St. Benedict as interpreted by Cistercian practices and charisms, allows me the spiritual framework of silence, solitude, work, prayer, in the context of a like-minded community. to reach beyond, above, and below my humanity to discover an infinitely deeper reality, one that is foundational and has the energy to transform me to that next level of my humanness, if only I realize it and choose it freely.

UIODG