This Tuesday we are finishing our Eastertide study of Richard Rohr’s book Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self. Beginning Tuesday, June 4 we will begin our summer study of Paul’s letters with 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus.
This week, we will be discussing Chapter 8 “Intimate with Everything” and Chapter 9 “Love is Stronger Than Death.” In the book, Rohr has taken us on a journey to find the True Self. In chapter 8, he shows us that in finding the True Self, we find intimacy with God. For “an infinite God seeks and desires intimacy with the human soul.” p.164. This intimacy is not a matter of us searching out and finding God, but simply allowing ourselves to be open to being found by God. Rohr takes us through the various post-resurrection appearances by Jesus. Jesus always comes to them, from Mary at the Tomb, Cleopas on the way to Emmaus, or the disciples in the Upper Room. In these appearances, Jesus both speaks to them intimately and shows himself to them intimately (think of Thomas). This intimacy with Christ as the penultimate step towards salvation is also seen in Revelation. There, in St. John the Divine’s vision, the marriage feast of the Lamb and his Bride occurs when all that is false has been swept away. Rev. 19:6-10.
Dinner is at 6. The menu is baked potato bar. Discussion about 6:45. Hope to see you here.
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:7-12