Excellent responses from Cal and RB - I have no doubt that prayer is not for the likes of the lottery, but rather to align with God. Often when we get what our limited selves think we want, it is more a test and challenge than a reward. To be in tune with the will of God - it is this that we pray for in the Lord's Prayer and it forms the basis of the Tao. What that is, our true destiny, may come as a great difficulty, but such difficulties are inevitable for everyone. Even the rich and famous have children die and inevitably suffer themselves.
From John Hellman's outstanding work on Simone Weil (I recommend it to anyone interested in theological thought), we get Weil's perspective that human life is meant to mirror creation itself. In her understanding, the strength of God is found in his self-imposed weakness - which is us. True religion reflects this - that God works through restraint rather than power (religions that work through power are false and contrary to the designs of God found in creation). We are tissue paper in the hands of God, but we are allowed to live our imperfect lives to learn what is to be found in the act of creation itself - to restrain our own power in consideration of others (we are all weaker or stronger than someone else at any point). At bottom is the lesson of empathy, and above and about that is the lesson of Love. Care rather than force is the nature of creation, and thus it should be for we who have been given the ability to mirror God. The lesson is most supremely stated by the story of Christ himself, where God became manifest in man, only to deny the use of His power to show sympathy - in suffering - to those of so little power. It is, to Weil, the story of creation, of Christ, and the mind and intent of God, all in one.
What is most interesting about Weil is her refusal to bend to canonical understanding. Dissenting with the clergy of her day, she claimed that, as Christ is beyond time and space, so is his representation on Earth. By this she means to say that Christ may well have appeared - and continues to appear - in different guises at different times and places. As God, he IS above time and space, after all; and the parallels to Christ in true religions throughout the world are startling. Thus, she would both agree and disagree with RB Rooson's comment that one can find salvation only through Christ; she would agree with this on its face - that we must follow God in his utmost humility and compassion in the likes of Christ - but disagree, too, for Christ for her is and has been given to us throughout the ages. It is, she says, a Roman (and Hebraic) perversion of Christ which nails him to a specific point in history.
And it is because of such perversions that he (Jesus) came as he did to the Romans and Jews - not because the former were better, or the latter the chosen people (as in elevated), but because their style of thought and governance needed the help of Christ the most. He did not come to serve the powerful, but the afflicted; and in Weil's conception, there were few more sinful groups than the Romans and Jews. They idolized power; and, worse, were idolaters of the highest order because they idolized themselves. It was they who needed to learn the lessons of humility and compassion the most.
Such was her position, writing from Christian Europe at the time of the second world war. Could there be any LESS Christian nations than those of Europe? For her, Rome - and the affects of the Old Testament - were still despoiling the West. Salvation was to be found,as always, in humility and empathy, and ultimately, in spirit. Can we deny her thesis? Can we say we see improvement now? In her view, the power of technocracy reigns, with little thought to the lives of those under its sway. Her solution, I think, was that we must recognize this and build on the true lessons of Christ, wherever and whatever his representations might be, as individuals, as communities, and some day, as nations. FK
From John Hellman's outstanding work on Simone Weil (I recommend it to anyone interested in theological thought), we get Weil's perspective that human life is meant to mirror creation itself. In her understanding, the strength of God is found in his self-imposed weakness - which is us. True religion reflects this - that God works through restraint rather than power (religions that work through power are false and contrary to the designs of God found in creation). We are tissue paper in the hands of God, but we are allowed to live our imperfect lives to learn what is to be found in the act of creation itself - to restrain our own power in consideration of others (we are all weaker or stronger than someone else at any point). At bottom is the lesson of empathy, and above and about that is the lesson of Love. Care rather than force is the nature of creation, and thus it should be for we who have been given the ability to mirror God. The lesson is most supremely stated by the story of Christ himself, where God became manifest in man, only to deny the use of His power to show sympathy - in suffering - to those of so little power. It is, to Weil, the story of creation, of Christ, and the mind and intent of God, all in one.
What is most interesting about Weil is her refusal to bend to canonical understanding. Dissenting with the clergy of her day, she claimed that, as Christ is beyond time and space, so is his representation on Earth. By this she means to say that Christ may well have appeared - and continues to appear - in different guises at different times and places. As God, he IS above time and space, after all; and the parallels to Christ in true religions throughout the world are startling. Thus, she would both agree and disagree with RB Rooson's comment that one can find salvation only through Christ; she would agree with this on its face - that we must follow God in his utmost humility and compassion in the likes of Christ - but disagree, too, for Christ for her is and has been given to us throughout the ages. It is, she says, a Roman (and Hebraic) perversion of Christ which nails him to a specific point in history.
And it is because of such perversions that he (Jesus) came as he did to the Romans and Jews - not because the former were better, or the latter the chosen people (as in elevated), but because their style of thought and governance needed the help of Christ the most. He did not come to serve the powerful, but the afflicted; and in Weil's conception, there were few more sinful groups than the Romans and Jews. They idolized power; and, worse, were idolaters of the highest order because they idolized themselves. It was they who needed to learn the lessons of humility and compassion the most.
Such was her position, writing from Christian Europe at the time of the second world war. Could there be any LESS Christian nations than those of Europe? For her, Rome - and the affects of the Old Testament - were still despoiling the West. Salvation was to be found,as always, in humility and empathy, and ultimately, in spirit. Can we deny her thesis? Can we say we see improvement now? In her view, the power of technocracy reigns, with little thought to the lives of those under its sway. Her solution, I think, was that we must recognize this and build on the true lessons of Christ, wherever and whatever his representations might be, as individuals, as communities, and some day, as nations. FK
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