Dear People Whom God Loves,
Are we like animals? Partly so. Are we like angels? Partly so. We are human. This means that all parts of the brain must be woven together. This means that we must integrate them. That is the human journey. This human journey is sometimes called the spiritual journey. The term spiritual journey can bring with it some unfortunate conclusions. It can lead us to believe that goodness means getting rid of the animal parts (which is impossible.) We may repress them, but they are still there. Repression means to deny their presence. We honestly don’t know that they are there.
When we repress these animal parts, we often feel self-righteous, morally superior. It becomes difficult for us to have compassion and empathy. We easily become harmful to people and disguise it from ourselves by thinking that we are doing what is right and doing it to save people. This doesn’t mean that we are bad or evil. It means that we have confused our so called “spiritual journey” with our human journey. Trying to be an angel is not human. Being human requires accepting that we are also animals. There are usually experiences—often not consciously remembered (though our animal parts of the brain remember)—that have led us down this path.
More next time.
Smile, God Loves You,
Father Clay
Leave a Reply