THE IMPORTANCE OF BOUNDARIES FOR ALL HUMANS

My hope is to explore the notion of boundaries or parameters about how I view communicating with God. My thinking, as of right now, is to use the Teilhard map (unattributed) against which I show that the notion of boundaries is an integral part of human decision-making.

I will outline three different dimensions or principles against which I will categorize what I consider to be a series of behaviors or experiences. I took the three principles from the Teilhard map (above) and will attempt to list all the boundaries peculiar to each of those principles. Here are my three principles in the cosmic design above.

THE GENESIS PRINCIPLE— The scope of this principle is from the creation of all that is through the complexity and consciousness of matter, the beginning of organic life (fulfillment of God’s fingerprints on creation), up to the time of Christ. (See Teilhard’s map from creation to Christ)

THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE — From the Incarnation of God into time and space (a new paradigm), (Philippians 2:5-12), this Principle contains a roadmap of how to act as one who is an adopted son or daughter of the Father. Not only does it contain the WHAT of the Old Testament, but its fulfillment in the New Testament. This Christ Principle shows each human their worth and value as humanity and how to move to the deepest part of their evolution, one that requires a choice of the will with the mind telling you all along you must be crazy. Baptism is the occasion where Christ meets us individually and dwells in our depths. But, there is a problem (Isn’t there always?). Humans have two properties (reason and free will without repercussion) that no one else has. Why? One often overlooked reason is to give each human the potential to choose to go to the next level of human complexity and consciousness, one requiring an act of free will by the individual to acknowledge God is the ultimate boundary maker, not me (or you). Such a jump is not from one nature (human) to another (divine), but rather to the deepest and most fulfilled part of human nature. (See Teilhard map from Christ to Spirit, the Pneumatoosphere, or from the Incarnation to Pentecost.) Christ is the ransom for many that fulfills the Genesis Principle, restoring its main purpose to have humanity reach heaven, despite the seemingly futile life events around me. To accomplish this, Christ had to create footsteps through the minefield of original sin, not to give us a free pass to heaven, but to allow us, and me, in particular, to walk that pathway that leads to the truth and so finally lead a life we were meant to have before the fall. I am that nexus that makes the decisions that affect my life, and I do this by moving to the next step in my evolution, the reality of invisible truth, essential for my transitioning to the environmental condition of heaven after I die. All of this demands a free choice on my part, and all the while, my human instincts and urges tell me to hold onto myself as the center of reality. Dumping that human tendency in favor of assuming a will and system of beliefs that are the opposite of what the world thinks is meaningful is the abandonment (continuous until we die) of self to only discover that there is a higher self hidden in plain sight and free for the taking. Being Catholic means I trust that the Church, Christ’s real presence through the Baptism of all believers in each age, has given to me personally and all the you’s out there collectively, a continuous pathway, a respsitory of what is true from Christ, and a life that is characterd by the indelible sign of the cross on our spirit.

THE CHURCH RECEIVES THE BATON FROM CHRIST TO MOVE FORWARD: — THE PRINCIPLE OF SUSTAINABILITY — This next stage in our evolution is the introduction of the Spirit of Truth, from the Christ Principle to what Teilhard de Chardin calls Pneumatosphere. This period takes what the Christ Principle advances from the Apostles at Pentecost to reality today, and beyond that to Omega (The fulfillment of my humanity and also that of all reality). It actualizes the teachings of Christ by safeguarding truth as found in the Councils and Teachings of the Magisterium down through the ages. It exists from the Christ Principle through to Omega. Along this path of consciousness and complexity, each individual surfaces from the beginning of life to the end of it in death. The Catholic Church is the collection of sinful individuals who are prone to making poor judgments but always return to the Scriptures and Tradition of the Church (Magisterium). (See Teilhard map from Spirit and Pentecost through to this day)

THE PRINCIPLE OF ME — I bubble to the surface as part of evolution that I play as an individual, where I must discover how to grow deeper in my humanity through my Catholic Faith, plus the added dimension of being a Lay Cistercian. I begin to know that I know, and ask questions about the purpose of all this growth in consciousness. In my quest to have the mind of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5) within me, I consciously and consistently strive to place myself in the presence of Christ, accompanied by the Holy Spirit as my advocate. (My Catholic Faith is how I react to these principles to help me find the deepest part of my humanity and thus fulfill my destiny. I( recreate boundaries in which I discover who I am the the purpose of life, not from human nature, but from being in the presence of divine energy (Christ) and waiting in the silence and solitude of that upper room of my inner self. I inherit from my human nature the ability to reason, but lack the parameters with which I can judge what is good for my destiny (not just to make me happy right now). Compounding all of this is a condition known as original sin, or the ambiguity that is within me to choose what is the truth versus what is easy at the moment. I don’t know what is good or bad in my search for meaning and the truth. I have to assume into myself either that I am the center of all this is and thus anything I do is correct (Adam and Eve), OR, dump all that is reasonable plus that which my reason tells me is true, for its opposite (God is the boundary maker, not me). I must voluntarily abandon my right to reason and freely choose the good or bad in my life by

BOUNDARIES FROM ALPHA TO OMEGA

What I describe below are the various categories listed above, but some detailed examples of thoughts I had based on my recent Lectio Divina experiences.

THE GENESIS PRINCIPLE

• God is three persons but one nature, who doesn’t have or need boundaries.
• God created boundaries in all five of these principles to help me and you navigate the seemingly irrational step to move to the next level of my humanity, one I can’t do by myself, nor can my human nature alone, without God’s energy.
• God places boundaries on all matter, all mental processes, and all spiritual dealings with the nexus between God and humans (prayer).
• Matter, animality, and humanity all point to spirituality as the fulfillment of the natural pathway to be fully human.
• God sets the boundaries of matter with time (movement of complexity of everything that is coupled with ongoing consciousness. There is a beginning and an end to existence from Alpha to Omega.
• The boundaries God set are with purpose and a trail of reality that reflects its creator. God is the energy of change that never changes but always is and was and will be. The product of this energy produced the angelic chores and the corridor of life from Alpha to Omega.
• This boundary is like the banks of a river that contains life as it flows through space and time towards its inevitable conclusion, which is reality without boundaries (of which we are a part).
• God set boundaries for humanity, but humans responded by wanting to covet the ability to set personal boundaries based on the individual and not God. Humanity thrashes about searching for the resonance to the obvious dissonance of individual decision-making, e.g., Roman and Greek gods and goddesses.
• Early on, humans searched for meaning and what was good or bad. Humans made up characters of a system of gods and goddesses to help explain what was good or bad behavior. This leads to
• Beginning with Abraham, God spoke through humans to get back to God being the ultimate boundary maker. Again, this was better than the creation of false gods to worship, but humanity by itself was not able to reconcile human nature with the capability to move to the next level of human evolution (spirituality).
• As humanity and now the people of Israel grew in complexity and consciousness, it was time for a more sophisticated way to communicate with humans. This paradigm shift had to have God become human to show believers how to get to heaven (the fulfillment of their nature). (Phillipians 2:5-12)
• As reality inexorably moved forward in time (an increase in consciousness and complexity of all matter), one lifetime at a time, God, the boundary maker, allowed set boundaries of limitations for inert matter and chemicals to move to where the conditions of living molecules could exist and sustain themselves. Living matter now had natural boundaries, hence we call it animal nature.
• Time is the unappreciated ingredient in the divine equation of reality, one that allows for natural selection. It is, although invisible to the eye, a boundary within which all reality thrives or not.
• Human life came from animal life, and animal life came from the unseen force that deposited its DNA or fingerprint on each molecule and gas. We are, indeed, star stuff, but more so, those who can realize that God’s DNA on all reality causes progressive evolution so that we can achieve what is designed to be according to the boundaries set by the creator, not us.
• These boundaries are those of the physical universe, not only what I can see during my lifetime, but those that have been archived in time and space (the past).

THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE— FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTPRINTS OF CHRIST ON THE SAND

In the context of the stream of life (See Teilhard’s map of Alpha to Omega above), everything grows in complexity and consciousness. Humans have and still confront the primal question of what is good or what is evil. The answers come from two sources: from God or from our individual free will to do what we think is best for us. In the Christ Principle, Jesus sets boundaries based on the parameters established by Israel in the Old Testament, but more so, to fulfill those prescriptions of the Law and Prophets by drilling down into a deeper meaning and fulfillment.

If the Old Testament is step one for humanity to find answers to the questions of life, love and truth, then the New Testament ear of The Christ Principle has God leaving the security of being God to come down to earth to TEACH US AND SHOW Us the Way, what is trut, to lead to the fulfillment of each of us in our evolution.

Christ set boundaries, but not exclusive ones, but all-inclusive and Catholic ones for all humanity. My Catholic Faith means that I must take those teachings from Christ, conveyed down through the centuries, and make them real in my reality. I do this by accepting the boundaries of Christ, to abandon what seems like the meaning of life as presented by everything around me and culture, and take up the opposite view. This requires an act of will on my part that says, “I accept you as boundary maker for the way that I look at reality around me, what assumptions I make about what is true, and leads to a life while I am alive without boundaries on meaning, love, and service to others. (Deuteronomy 6.5 and Matthew 22:39). I say to God, “Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, and I want your boundaries, as far as I can know them through Scripture and the Church’s teachings, to be my own.” If the Old Testament (Genesis Principle) is the first step, answering the WHAT question, then the New Testament (Christ Principle) is the WHY AND HOW.

THE PRINCIPLE OF THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH: A GATHERING OF BELIEVERS AT ONCE HOLY AND PRONE TO MISTAKES AND FALSE PATHWAYS, YET RECEIVES THE BATON FROM CHRIST TO MOVE FORWARD.

• There is one more principle, and that is the sustainability of this message through time. Remember everything is being made new through evolutionary, intelligent progression, plus the dual forces of complexity and consciousness of not only physical matter, but its product, mental and now spiritual reality. This third Principle, which comes next, is the Principle of Truth, the advocate of which is the Holy Spirit, One God, One Lord, One Spirit. This principle encompasses the time from Pentecost to all humans to the end of time and answers the question, “WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?”
• All of this is to overshadow every human in existence to give them a chance to choose either God or themselves as god, even though they may never conceive of it in this context.
• This last Principle of Truth is the link between a God that is invisible but real (if you know how to speak silence) and me, and how I look at the world. God, once again, as God did in the Garden of Eden, sets the boundaries for humans to be fully human and to be what nature originally intended them to be. The sin of Adam and Eve, which we call original sin, or the archetypal choice of my will over God’s will, comes, not from God’s choice but from humanity’s. All of this to give boundaries to an amorphous and often contradictory human history full of contradictions and deceit. Baptism is not when I accept God, but when God accepts me as an adopted son or daughter. The Church Universal is the seedbed in which I am planted to confront the blight and bugs that come to eat my tender shoots and seek to cause me to die. Instead, God, the Master Gardener of Time, cultivates his adopted plants, gives the issue, allows me the tools to keep away the pests (but not without a struggle), and to grow as my nature first intended in the Garden of Eden.
• God sets boundaries for the physical universe, the mental universe, and now unleashes a level of humanity that leads to our having no boundaries at all, or basking in the warmth of God’s boundary in this life (heaven on earth as an adopted son or daughter of the Father) and later on in a place where there are no human boundaries and the fulfillment of our collective humanity.
• All of this God talk might seem to be fanciful and a fairy tale, like the tooth fairy, but it is precisely the process of my mind. It will to voluntarily abandoning my self and my boundaries to take on new ones (new wine skins) and sustain them each day through placing myself in the presence of God and waiting.
• To get to the deepest level of my humanity, I have reason for a reason and the ability to choose yes or no to any situation, even those forced on me. I choose the opposite of what the world says makes humans fulfilled, not to deny my humanity, but to take that next step in my evolution, one I can only make with the assistance of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Being a Catholic takes work each day to confront the martyrdom of ordinary living and to fight off the encroachment of making myself the source of my boundaries.
• I use the tools provided by the Catholic Church (Seven Sacraments, instituted by Christ to give us grace) and my more intense focus by using Cistercian practices and charisms to continuously place myself in the presence of Christ and wait for whatever happens. This is an act of love, one where I consciously and deliberately take the time to be with the one who makes me the happiest. “Happy are those who have not seen and yet believed.”

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