The Twenty Second Sunday after Trinity
Intent: The Right Attitude Toward the World
Gnosticism is often understood as a dualistic philosophy. Certainly, many of the writings of the Christian Gnostics of the second century promoted a form of hard dualism by seeing matter and our world as evil and spirit as good. However, other Gnostics promoted seeing the Divine in all things; and some were strict ascetics, while others were enthusiastic libertines. So how do we reconcile these two seemingly opposite positions? Well, we don’t! Who ever said we had to?
Gnosticism is non-dogmatic and is not so much a religion of answers as it is a spirituality of questions. What many Gnostics have in common is not so much the answers they individually give to life’s great questions, but rather the fact that they are asking the same questions. As Gnostics we are called to ask for ourselves the hard questions about our existence and provide our own answers, as our ancient Brothers and Sisters did. We are not their followers, but their imitators.
Gnosticism fundamentally teaches that questioning and searching for answers is in fact an essential part of our relationship with the Divine, and that when we do so we engage in a kind of sacred dialogue with Divinity inside of us.
One of the age old questions and conundrums Gnostics ask is how suffering and evil has arisen in the world. The fact is that suffering is a reality. Human beings feel physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual pain; and no matter how feel-good a religion might be, it cannot avoid this fact, nor avoid answering this inevitable question.
Gnostics have answered the question of the presence evil in many different and often profoundly poetic ways. We can therefore only speak in vague generalities about the Gnostic understanding of the cause of evil and suffering. One of the most shared characteristics of Gnostic answers is that evil and suffering are the result of a cosmological process; that it is not so much the effect of the ancient choice of a distant ancestor (like Original Sin in the orthodox tradition), but rather the consequence of a distance from the original source of all creation. This distance is mythologized by Gnostics in many different ways and with many different characters in a kind of cosmic play, but the conclusion is often the same: that the human being must find a way to close the cosmological distance between him/herself and the original source of all things; and perhaps most importantly, that we are capable of doing so.
In fact, part of the solution is asking questions!
A commitment to finding a solution to this existential separation is the principal hallmark of a Gnostic. As the Great Repairer, the Aeon Christ, said through the Mouth of the Master Jesus: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
Therefore, let us as One Gnostic Community and One Universal Gnostic Church, with a boundless compassion, support each other in finding our own deeply satisfying answers to life’s great mysteries. Let us share our own answers but avoid imposing them on anyone; and let us above all else respect the right for every individual to engage in this sacred dialogue with the Divine directly, for it is by asking questions that answers will be revealed to all of us. Amen.
Gnosticism is non-dogmatic and is not so much a religion of answers as it is a spirituality of questions. What many Gnostics have in common is not so much the answers they individually give to life’s great questions, but rather the fact that they are asking the same questions. As Gnostics we are called to ask for ourselves the hard questions about our existence and provide our own answers, as our ancient Brothers and Sisters did. We are not their followers, but their imitators.
Gnosticism fundamentally teaches that questioning and searching for answers is in fact an essential part of our relationship with the Divine, and that when we do so we engage in a kind of sacred dialogue with Divinity inside of us.
One of the age old questions and conundrums Gnostics ask is how suffering and evil has arisen in the world. The fact is that suffering is a reality. Human beings feel physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual pain; and no matter how feel-good a religion might be, it cannot avoid this fact, nor avoid answering this inevitable question.
Gnostics have answered the question of the presence evil in many different and often profoundly poetic ways. We can therefore only speak in vague generalities about the Gnostic understanding of the cause of evil and suffering. One of the most shared characteristics of Gnostic answers is that evil and suffering are the result of a cosmological process; that it is not so much the effect of the ancient choice of a distant ancestor (like Original Sin in the orthodox tradition), but rather the consequence of a distance from the original source of all creation. This distance is mythologized by Gnostics in many different ways and with many different characters in a kind of cosmic play, but the conclusion is often the same: that the human being must find a way to close the cosmological distance between him/herself and the original source of all things; and perhaps most importantly, that we are capable of doing so.
In fact, part of the solution is asking questions!
A commitment to finding a solution to this existential separation is the principal hallmark of a Gnostic. As the Great Repairer, the Aeon Christ, said through the Mouth of the Master Jesus: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
Therefore, let us as One Gnostic Community and One Universal Gnostic Church, with a boundless compassion, support each other in finding our own deeply satisfying answers to life’s great mysteries. Let us share our own answers but avoid imposing them on anyone; and let us above all else respect the right for every individual to engage in this sacred dialogue with the Divine directly, for it is by asking questions that answers will be revealed to all of us. Amen.