JESUS AND THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF PEOPLE - Don Hanley’s blog #69

Leo Tolstoy, author of WAR AND PEACE, stated that the leader of any country reflects the consciousness of the people of that country. Consciousness is how people of that country act, think, and move about in this world. That is why I’m now worried about my country, the United States of America, which just elected a man who, I believe, is a bully and mean-spirited fellow who doesn’t seem to care about others. And I think that we, I mean all of my fellow citizens in our 21^st century, are doing something similar with our insistence that we must take care of ourselves and not worry or be bothered by what others think or NEED. 

I wonder if Jesus was thinking similarly as he repeatedly said that we must believe and love others and ‘love’ ourselves. I look forward to discussing this with Mary, John, and the others when we meet again.

And I didn’t have to wait long. Mary, John, Joshua, and Julie were joyfully chatting in Mary’s flower garden. After hugging and kissing all around, I told the little gathering about Tolstoy’s ideas about leaders. All four adults began thinking about these ideas as Ruth breastfed Izzy – i.e., Isiah. I had introduced the name ‘Izzy’ a few weeks earlier when I mentioned I had a teacher named Isiah, and we called him Izzy. Ruth and Joshus liked it. Ruth left us to put Izzy to bed and stayed there with him.

John looked thoughtful as he said, “I like your Tolstoy and believe it is true. Does he say anything about the leader needing people who are very needy and dependent?”

“It has been long since I’ve read Tolstoy, but I believe he did. And that would explain why people here in Judea clamored for Jesus to be their savior and why Hitler, Lenin, and our new 21^st-century leader all said they were going to take care of everyone.” Mary, Josua, and John all shook their heads.

John said, “Jesus often said that the various Jewish leaders, whether they are Pharisees, Sadducees, or whatever, had so many devoted followers – who did not know that they had the power to know and understand themselves and had the freedom to choose what kind of laws they needed and wanted to follow. And, he would always add that whatever they chose to believe and to believe in, it must be life-giving and loving and that each one, in connection with others, has the power to make it so.”

Mary added, “Jesus insisted on this from when he was a small child.” She chuckled and said, “Joseph and I didn’t know what he was talking about, but we kept listening to him and learning. We had learned that all we needed to do was follow what was taught by the leaders – and we needed to be with one of the groups, like the Pharisees or Sadducees or whomever.  To my knowledge, no one told us we should think for ourselves first.”

John grinned, saying, “That would take everyone away from them. Don, will this new leader of yours try to do that?”

“He’s going to try. Our country’s founding fathers …” 

Mary interrupted me, “Why didn’t they include some women - some founding mothers? They would have made it even better, no?”

“If it happened in our current 21^st century, they could have, and it would have made it better. Even as it was, the founding fathers wrote in the Constitution of our country three branches of government that needed to cooperate to take care of governing business. And Mary. did you and Joseph belong to any of the many groups of Jews here in Judea?” 

“No, we did not. Before Jesus was old enough to get us to thinking, we just followed the other Jews who followed the Mosaic laws – rather obediently, I guess you’d say. Looking back, I guess you would call us no-brainer faithful Jews.” She chuckled. “Jesus made us thoughtful Jews, and we began to do things and believe things only if they made sense and were what Jesus called life-giving.”

“I guess my parents and my family could have been called ‘no-brainer Catholic Christians’, and I think most of what they did was life-giving, too.”

John had been listening carefully and said, “I suppose this newly elected fellow believes that he is the 21^st century ‘Anointed One’ who will take care of you all.” I nodded and said, “I’m afraid so.” And with that, I disappeared …Now

“Keep an open and hopeful heart and mind, and don’t eat the menu and enrich the banquet of your life.”

CHRIST IS NOT JESUS’S LAST NAME – Don Hanley’s blog #68

As I arrived back in Nazareth, I was still in a somewhat depressed mood. Mary, John, and Joshua were waiting for me, as there was a vacant chair between them. They greeted me warmly, as usual. Mary opened our discussion, “Well, my time traveler friend, are you still moping about your election in your current 21^st-century home?”

I asked her, “What makes you think I’m moping?”

“Because you look like it – your smile is gone.”

“Yeah, I’m so darn sad about that damned election. You know, the very strict so-called Christians believe that this no-heart fellow was elected because God wanted them to. I wish there was an easy way to teach people that the real God does not order people to do anything, He just wants them to connect with one another in a loving way! But tonight, help me forget it, and let’s discuss whether or not I want to find out if the word ‘Christ’ was given to Jesus before He was murdered?”

Mary shook her head, not to say it was not true, but that she didn’t like it. John said, “I’m afraid many did. Of course, you know that it means ‘the Chosen One’ or the ‘Anointed One’; worst of all, they saw Jesus as the ‘Messiah’ who would lead the Jews out from under the yoke of Rome. I think the Jewish people were so hungry to have a leader who could free us from the Romans, and they liked the giftedness of Jesus that they insisted that he was the special one – the Messiah. Jesus insisted that he was only the Son of Man; he wanted every human to realize they could be connected, loving, and gifted. He repeatedly said that he, perhaps, was gifted in a way that allowed him to accept and love himself and others in a life-giving way, but he was not Yahweh nor the one and only son of Yahweh or the one we call our Father. Don, do the followers of Jesus in your home century know this and know that they are gifted in the same way Jesus was?”

I hated to tell John the terrible news that the vast majority of those who called themselves Christians were not in touch with the fact that they were gifted with the ability to love as Jesus did. They continued to hold on to the notion that Jesus was, and is, God – and one of the three persons in a small God. Three – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit- Jesus was and is on a completely different plane of existence from them. Mary shook her head, and John looked dismayed and said, “Do they, at least, realize that they have the giftedness in them that Jesus displayed in his earthly life?”

“Only the very holy ones whom they call ‘Saints.’ These saints are usually very conforming men and women who slavishly follow what they were told were Jesus’s commandments. I often heard ‘Christians’ say that the really ‘holy’ ones should just join a religious order of men and/or women and not bother the rest of us. So, many have done that and become very enlightened folks and do a great deal for one another and for other humans, Christian or not. I thought of joining one of those groups, but I wanted to be like my idol, Father Chisholm, who went to another country to tell them about Jesus.” I added, “And John, you stated in your  own Gospel that Jesus was the Messiah, didn’t you?”

John seemed a bit taken aback: “You know that my writings were not published in my lifetime, and it is possible that someone edited them so that they conformed to what was becoming the common belief of followers of Jesus. That makes me sad.”

John continued, “I would like to return to the formal names people here in Judea called my friend and mentor, Jesus.  Jesus repeatedly said that all of God’s children, old and young, black, brown, white, or whatever, were the same in God’s eyes. He detested the fact that too many societies formed special castes for different groups - and claimed to know God in a way that no one else could, and so they were the Chosen People to the exclusion of everyone else. He disliked that many passed this ‘specialness’ on to the next generation. A person could be chosen as a leader, like a king, but he should see himself as a servant of the people, not someone superior or able to order people around. He said that if everyone learned about and followed his ideas and created groups of folks who would help, cooperate, and love one another, then we would not need police and lawmakers.” John took a deep breath and slumped back into his chair.

I said, “Well, John, we in the 21st century have not made it much further. Too many so-called Christians are eating the menus as Mary said Jesus called those who did not live as they professed to do.” I paused and added, “But I believe there is an evolution of consciousness, which makes me hopeful.” … I then disappeared.

Please open your heart and mind and enjoy the banquet of life. Comment on this blog or help me find hope in our 21^st election.

OUR MIND MUST BE CONNECTED WITH OUR HEART - Don Hanley’s blog #67

Last evening, I watched an inspirational movie entitled I CAN ONLY IMAGINE. I’ve never been a fan of Country-Western or Gospel music, but this is the story of a fellow who writes and sings both. He was alienated from his alcoholic Dad, and he had left his faithful girlfriend and joined a band. He is an excellent songwriter with a fantastic voice, but he didn’t make it ‘big’ until he had an ‘ah-ha’ experience of enlightenment and ‘found’ or ‘saw’ Jesus.

His singing and songs didn’t have ‘soul’ until he forgave his dad – who had a similar encounter with God- and reunited with his girlfriend. I wanted to tell my Nazarene folks about the film, but then I would have had to explain films, the Gospel movement, and modern culture more than I already have. So, I decided to try to explain my ideas that we needed to have the ‘right’ mind as it is connected to the open heart. I wanted them to know that I know that our heart needs to be connected to our brain to be truly enlightened, i.e., transformed into a total Christian follower of Jesus.

Again, John was the only non-Nazarene sitting with Mary and Ruth this evening. Joshua was with Julie and Isiah in the house. Both women greeted me warmly, and Ruth stood by to hug me. Mary was, like me, old enough to have the privilege of remaining seated. Mary had a topic she wanted to discuss, and it matched mine.

“Don, we’ve been talking about love a great deal – going back to when Jesus was a young lad. I remember one day when he was around twelve. We had gone to Jerusalem, and while Joseph and I were shopping, Jesus talked with a group of elders who spoke Greek and Hebrew. I spoke a little Hebrew, and neither Joseph nor I spoke Greek, but Jesus, to our surprise, seemed to learn both almost instantly. As the three of us were returning home, Jesus was very excited to learn that the Greek language had two words for love – Agape for Yahweh’s love for humans and all creation and eros for the positive feelings between a man and a woman and deep friendships. Jesus wondered if his love for his father and me was a combination of agape and eros because it was too strong to be only one. So, Don, what do you think? After all, you are, in a way, 2,000 years older than we are.” Ruth and John nodded in agreement.

 I was flattered that Mary would ask me about love as she was the living specimen of love – SHE IS LOVE! Anyway, I answered, “First, I want you to know that I’ve learned more about love, or being love, from meeting with all of you than I did in all my ninety-plus years of life. So, you validated and enhanced the ideas I had about love. I’m afraid that the Catholic Church, and Christians in general, have put too much emphasis on what we intellectually think about what Jesus said and stood for than they are about being kind, joyful, and experiencing love. Too often, I fear thoughts have become more important than being. Too often, our 21^st century Christians are more worried about being orthodox thinkers than being loving human beings.”

I continued with a personal experience: “When I was accepted as a candidate to become a priest by a very kind bishop, or high priest, I believe you would call him, I did not realize that I would be expected to conform to all kinds of restrictions to be a ‘good’ or respectful priest. Nor did I know that I would be expected to unconditionally accept as absolutely true all that I would be asked to memorize during my eight years of training.  But I thought I could still be like Father Chisolm in the film Keys of The Kingdom. Anyway, my accepting bishop had retired before I became a priest, and we got a new fellow who was very unkind and completely orthodox. One time, I celebrated Mass with a small group of nuns (I had explained earlier what a Mass was and who nuns were) without wearing all the required vestments. One of the nuns reported this to the bishop, and I was ordered to report to his office.

In a very tone of voice, he said, “Father Hanley, do you think that you know more about the sacred rites of our church than the holy congregation in Rome?” I knew he expected me to apologize and promise to be more obedient in the future, but after I hesitated a few moments, I said, “You know, Bishop, for a small group of nuns in Kansas, I believe I do.” The poor man turned crimson, shook, and yelled, “You, Father Hanley, are a Free Thinker! Get out of my office right now!”

“He confirmed what I had already believed but had not said aloud – We are born to be and/or become FREE THINKERS, and I believe Jesus believed that also.” Mary and John confirmed it, and I was satisfied with myself as I vanished. Now…

Please open your heart and ensure it is securely connected to your brain—not to someone else’s brain—and enjoy the adventure that is your life!  "And let us use this time to reflect, recharge, and emerge stronger than ever. And together we can create a brighter future."  Patrick Ball, my friend and mentor. 

GOD DID NOT SCREW UP BY CREATING LGBT FOLKS - Don Hanley’s blog #66

As I looked forward to my next visit to Nazareth, I've been jolted out of my sense of optimism and hope by my American election of a very non-Jesus fellow who has been elected to be our leader - our president. I am sure there are some, maybe a majority of my fellow citizens who will sat that it is God's will but I still hold on to my belief that God does not micro-manage the world, nor our minds and hearts. I can't talk with Mary and John and others in Nazareth about my sadness and dismay because it would take too much time. So I will only give them a small bit of information about why I am so damn sad. 

The God I got to know while eating my pancakes created ALL THAT IS! And that means that I don’t know how He (or She) operates at all. I only know Him, or maybe Her, from studying His/her creatures, i.e., everything. Every person, like everything, is a bit different from every other thing that is most like him/her/it. So, God, I believe, created everything, and everything tumbled out perfect and imperfect, and “it was good” or “it is good.” I like the Zen thought that “I don’t know.” IS a kind of prayer. It means we are part of a vast and unknowable universe that we cannot know all about. I DON’T KNOW, AND THAT IS OK.

John, of my Nazarene family, asked me what 21^st-century Christians thought of homosexuality. I was not able to answer him because I suddenly vanished. But I have given it a lot of thought.  As far as he knew, John had said that Jesus never mentioned it. So that he was not going to be of help to me, he did say that Jesus indicated that God, or Yahweh, was not like a giant human who was creating everything in His imagination and sending each creation down to earth. Jesus, as far as John knew, said God created a tremendously powerful force that evolved into many different kinds of creations. So, humans came in different sizes, colors, levels of intelligence, dexterity, and all other possible combinations – and Jesus insisted that one version, like color, was not better than another. He insisted that it was wrong for one variation work to ‘lord’ it another version of humans. The most common wrong was the color of one’s skin. White was not better than brown or black. Jesus sought that all humans will accept and work with others to be co-creators and caregivers of all creation and never to destroy anyone or anything.

We had been talking about all of this, and I was glad that Mary shared with us that she was always pleased when Jesus, even at a young age, delighted to see a handicapped or crippled person smile and seem to love being alive. Also, her Son would disapprove of those who would say that the Father did not love those who were disfigured or handicapped from birth. We must learn to accept ourselves as we are, no matter how gifted or handicapped we are from birth. And we must work to help those less intelligent, strong, and all. He often said that no one is more pleasing to God than another person.

I asked John why God created some people as homosexuals. After all, they did not want or could not have children - and wasn’t that the reason He created humans as women or men? Some Christians even claimed that these people were simply going against the will of God. Again, John said that he heard people say that and that Jesus had responded that these people were simply being themselves. John hesitated a minute and then, in a near whisper, said, “We had two homosexuals among our twelve apostles, and Jesus insisted that they were equal to the rest of us. I wish that that had been repeated more often among the followers.”

I asked, “Is that the reason you are speaking in a near whisper?”

“Yes, I guess it is. It is a sad and troublesome issue, so I won’t tell you who they are. They are wonderful men, and I am proud to be among their friends. They are being who they are, and that is okay.” Mary, Ruth, and Joshua clapped and nodded, and I joined them.

I said, “Thank you, John. Our Christian world has been very slow in realizing that homosexuality is just a natural way of being in the world and in my country, the United States, and in Europe, nearer you, it is now considered normal and even now realizing that some folks have found that they are homosexual but in the body of the opposite gender - we call them 'transexual'. Now I know many in my century talk and think like you do, and I am one of them.”

Now, please keep an open heart and mind, don’t eat the menu, and keep co-creating all that is! AND PLEASE COMMENT.