PARADISE is receiving the Spirit of the resurrected Christ, who is Love, Peace and Joy, so completely, that we are transformed bb His indwelling; so that God's will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. PARADISE is God's new Earth. The end of human vanity. For geologian, Thomas Berry, this "Ecozoic Era" is the beginning of human humility. It is the Christ in us bringing restoration.
The Spirit of the Resurrected Christ is all around us. It is the Peaceful Presence that surrounds us; the all-pervading Love and Light; the Heaven in all the Earth-Universe, unconditionally ours for the receiving. It is reception or choice to live in that Spirit that is uniquely human. Humans have been given the freedom to choose to live in that Spirit, become One with It and bear the fruits of a holy, Godful life in the Spirit: one of kindness, love, peace, joy to experience true happiness hope, health, renewed by the indwelling Spirit. Humans also have the choice to turn away from Presence of the Spirit of the Resurrected Christ to live a life separate from God, a Godless life and bear the fruits of a sinful life: hate, anger, jealousy, greed, abuse to experience pain from separation, substance abuse, fear and death. When Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, He meant that no-one can come to the Father but by Him, or...no-one can come to God until they receive the Spirit of the Resurrected Christ...and are renewed.
Is it any wonder then, that our brokeness with Creation is a result of our broken relationship with God, our choosing to live outside the Spirit of the Resurrected Christ! For Creation advocacy to be accepted within the traditional Church, before environmental action programs are implemented, Creation advocates must convey that the environmental crisis (like the drug crisis and the crime crisis and the racial intolerance crisis) is a crisis of the human spirit and is the result of our broken relationship with God and disregard for all that is God's. The crisis is a result of our choosing to live apart from God in us. It is the result of our not receiving the Holy Spirit into our lives; the result of our refusal to repent or turn toward God for our direction. Creation advocacy must remind us that to love God is to love and care for all that is God's and that to love and care for all that is God's is to love God.
To live in the Spirit of the Resurrected Christ is to also know that God's Grace abounds. We are reconciled to God through the birth, life and death of Jesus Christ, God incarnate; who intervened in worldly affairs to teach humans how to right or align their broken relationship with their Creator by turning away from a non-spiritual life and its deadly consequences. What we are experiencing now, in our time, is the consequence of our choice to live outside the Spirit of Christ, outside of God's Word, which is simply to love God and neighbor (all species!) as ourselves. What we do have however, is the gift of Grace, God's gift of unconditional love and forgiveness of our choices outside the Spirit.
God has atoned for and redeemed Creation through reconciliation of the world through His Son. We need only to receive the ever-present Spirit of the Resurrected Christ to turn from a Godless life to a holy or Godful one. We can choose to live, think and act in the Spirit. We can believe that by so doing, as Jesus has told us, that we will enter a life that is eternal. When we drink from the eternal well of the Spirit we are renewed. By tapping into the Spirit of the Resurrected Christ, we live forever.
Emmanuel, dwell in me
Emmanuel, dwell in me,
That I may live in You in Peace;
Whole, unbroken, free
To live in Thy mind, Thy will.
You who reconciled with me and
Thy Creation, through Jesus Christ,
Keep me open to receiving Thy Spirit
And bearing the fruits of
That life-Love and Joy;
Renew me every morn; let me never
Turn away from You, awake or
In deep sleep. Let Your all-
pervading Love and Peace
Be in me and all that is Yours.
The above pieces were written by Sandy Smyth.
© 1993 in Paradise Within: Intimate Earth, Intimate Spirit. Available from the author - 517 Roxbury Rd., Southbury, CT 06488.