Art fights racism: what true art can really do!

Racism and it’s ways of seeing and interpreting things, is one of our largest global problems now. It’s not new, but is acute in our day. Racism is a a false view of others; it’s a faulty interpretation of things. So we need a clearer view in order to see others well. The roots of racism are fear and judging others from our own wounds, rather than for who they actually are in God’s View. Art can help us get more of God’s view on things.

One reason art matters so much now is that it informs how we see others and “other” itself. Starting with our image of who God is, and then our image of who other people are. It matters how we see one another. You see that racism sees others incorrectly. True art, a spiritual art would help correct racisms view of others. By healing the imagination, we start to see others as poems and as having innate dignity. This is why art and real symbol making is part of toppling racism. And racism is one of the worse “ways” on the earth. And contains a lie about how things really are. It’s a false vision or interpretation of things. Art combats that faulty vision!

True art helps reconcile things to what they really are. It is part of restoring dignity to self and others, seeing them more as they truly are, valuable, infinitely worth something.

When I see you as a piece of art made by God, i cannot hate and fear and murder you. So it matters how we see one another. Art then is not just decoration or escape, it is vital to how we interpret other people and nations, and is essential in overcoming the racist spirit which is running rampant again in our times.

True art, even if its subject is about the artist’s own healing journey points towards and redemptive, nuanced view of being human. It points, in short, away from the view of racism, which want to destroy self and other as worthless. If things and people, conversely, have intrinsic worth and dignity, as God says, then true art illustrates that healing reconciliation, making things more themselves, process.

If we can truly see others as thou’s (Buber) invested by God with dignity and unique beauty, we cannot live in constant fear of others as it they were “its” or objects of my fear’s projections. Art is medicine against a racist view of Reality. A dualistic I-it way of seeing. If I truly encounter another through art, i will see more of them than my worst fears. I will see the complex and redeemable poetry each of us is slowly becoming. Art helps us fight racism!

True art is trying to give us a clearer and more nuanced image of how things really are. When we see the truth of how things are, we can’t hate or kill others. When we see them through love’s lens, we will instead want to serve and honor them. We will see ourselves and others as having equal dignity, worth and a poetry of being, worth loving and beholding forever! Art is part of seeing things more as they actually are, and that truth will set you free from the hatred of racism. When I see you well, i will not hate you, i will find myself, instead, in love!

After the two world wars, many artists had no upper story of hope, and either got hedonistic or egotistic, or nostalgic, or protectionist of their own reputations. Why would that be? And how similar to art’s, and at times, the church’s response now!

The biggest global need now is for people to have the courage to continue living joyously authentically as themselves, not in denial of the millions of displaced, but willing to dignify them, and dignifying the unique lives and cultures of those around them. Joy and hope is radical not escapist in times like ours, for it contains the courage to be.

A radical art of authentic Joy is needed now! Not an innocent but an experienced Joy. A Joy actually grounded in vision. This type of vision was missing after the wars, and much art defended into hedonism, nostalgia or celebrity. A radical art now would contain reconciliation joy, a radical sharing of oneself and gifts, a path towards healing, a true gospel of suffering and hope sitting at the same cafe; we need to become the poppies which popped back up in Belgium after the war—red signs of Hope growing from bloodied fields!

So take away from this weeks art history study after the two great wars: few really modeled the right response to that much suffering. Those who did claim the courage to be, to dignify others, to radically share with one another-rather than becoming hedonistic or protectionist (which you can see is happening now also), to make an art and live a life which also dignifies in view of suffering, to sing that gospel song in clear view; to plant an art which gave informed hope those who did made great art and a lasting contribution to the drama, were unfortunately and perhaps, unnecessarily, rare.

It is not escapist to make even joyous art now. It is not escapist to be our real selves in the face of suffering. Not sentimental to hope we are still here, and other’s true names, still matter. To claim the creative courage to be! To be authentic, let’s the Author write and paint, or even graffiti our names awake again; Joy, recalls us to ourselves. It actually dignifies, gives room for others to be safe enough to be themselves again, and not live in fear! This needed art and living is not sentimental, but joy which knows suffering! An earned and informed type of Hope is transformational!

Joy which sees the millions of displaced people globally, joy which sees the generational hurts between races and ethnicities, a creative Joy which says yes to life because God says yes, and is reconciling all things. A joy which has moved from innocence into experience, and still says yes to the wonder of being here and becoming!

That’s the needed art response to now, just as it was after the wars. So few made that sort of hued by life;s Hope Beauty which offers a way forwards! Let’s! A joyous art which is neither sentimental or depressive, or narcissistic, but one which channels what St Peter called “living Hope”! (I Peter) It’s not flower power, it’s root and flower, and rain and storm, and the suffering sky’s power. It’s incarnate hope. Embodied beauty. It’s a redemptive redaction, in the energy of reconciliation of all things towards wholeness!

Since art incarnates where it is created from, we are drawn into the Reality of what is being symbolized. If we are creating from the space of Hope, we will channel that for others through our art, regardless of medium. Art is a ladder into…art can tell us there is a still a Home we are working our way into and towards. There is still tangible hope, which elicits true Joy!

And art of true joy is radical, as it contains the suffering and takes it forward towards wholeness! Joy which sees our silly walls, but sees through them to Peace. Joy which has that complexity of awareness, that innocence which has moved on to experience—that type of authentic Joy and freedom of being is what is needed in the world now. Let’s make that art friends! Once we have moved from innocence into experience, through suffering, we have a unique opportunity to offer incarnate hope to one another, and profound dignification of one another. Art is meant to do this in times like ours. Let’s make that art friends!

Why be joyous and authentic in times of suffering: came across these quotes today…(from a christian monk, but applicable to all, i think..)

“Just being in authentic joy, being truly ourselves, gives permission and dignity to those who are struggling in our times to feel safe enough to be themselves. Joy of being, and the courage to be, are contagious.” ( Jesuit Monk who lived through war, and still found kindness and courage to be in his heart!)

“Informed Joy is not escapist or denial of suffering, it is courage to be in clear view!”

Best deep quote from today, which felt relevant to now (from a modern christian monk, but applicable to anyone following that way, i think) I promise I’ll stop getting deep soon, something about being a monastic part of the world, stirs deeper heart parts in me. Sometimes it’s good to come to places who have already been through enough suffering to learn to know what how to integrate it into your spirituality! “Don’t waste your trials”!

“Some people think you are being selfish to enjoy life, to be yourself, when so many are suffering; i think to alleviate suffering we must continue to say yes to life in full view of its endless suffering; we must continue to radically be our true selves, so that others feel safe enough to show up and be their’s! That’s incarnate Hope. To refuse to be anything other than who God says I am, regardless of the amount of fear or terror around us.

That is what St Paul was trying to teach about spiritual contentment–whether in prison or palaces, whether I abound or am bound… And we are followers of an Incarnating Immanent God, who choses to suffer with us, and was as oppressed as any of us.

So, we don’t try to escape suffering, rather we meet God in and through it! We seek out the Cross in everything, which is why we have true Joy! As christians specifically, we are in Emanuel, God with us, the One intimately acquainted with all our griefs, who was born on the run, a refugee from the start, hunted before birth; so we have no excuse but to live authentic lives of hope, and sacrifice, even as we suffer. Joy is our calling!”

Enjoying researching those who learned to live during intense suffering all around them. Who said yes to joy and life, in full naked view of pain.

To true gospel is not escapist or in denial, but says yes, nonetheless—for the Joy set before Him He endured the cross.

Nice studying monks who went that route. Seems needed again nowadays!

Great art includes suffering, but has hope for redemption. That complexity gives it a weight of being, the weight of a true gospel song, which is true to how things actually are!

The poppies do return! Even with blood in the soil. As another chaplain put it after the wars!

Couldn’t sleep last night, so got to see the moon through all it’s cycles, nearly full straight over us in northern europe morning, as the Sun filled the skies. I liked their collaboration together, sharing the same sky (that moment, when Sky was named, has always intrigued me!), playing their parts.

I watched out our enormous window as the endless drama played out again, over our heads while most were sleeping. Thought of all those great Psalms by the wild priest, the sons of Korah about badgers, lions, moon, stars and sky itself receiving it’s glory tremor in their unique tenors…(Psalm 104, good example of their ecstatic priestly songs! The priest can’t stay away from the threshold of His Presence! There are those who find the temple of His Presence in everything! Who just can’t live anywhere else! Those who make everywhere they step springs of life because of where they living from!)

The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
they sing among the branches.
13 He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
14 He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to cultivate—
bringing forth food from the earth:
15 wine that gladdens human hearts,
oil to make their faces shine,
and bread that sustains their hearts.
16 The trees of the Lord are well watered,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 There the birds make their nests;
the stork has its home in the junipers.
18 The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.
19 He made the moon to mark the seasons,
and the sun knows when to go down.
20 You bring darkness, it becomes night,
and all the beasts of the forest prowl.
21 The lions roar for their prey
and seek their food from God.
22 The sun rises, and they steal away;
they return and lie down in their dens.
23 Then people go out to their work,
to their labor until evening.

Everyday, the sky is better than tv, internet or all movies conjoined-if we can enter its required rhythms to see. At dawn today, the moon is still playing with the Sun, and they talk clearly in clouds of pastel silent light exchanges. They know one another, like Christ knows the church, without resistance. They know one another like endless lovers co-ruling Sky in Love. And they kiss in azure charcoal pastels while we are waking up, way above us each day! Only occasionally we catch them playing above our heads, and are again, in wonder at this daily display of operatic splendor.

Just about now, the sea gulls will start singing, their longing song, church bells will chime in time, and people will start dressing for work, things will become more apparent in the overt light of day, the drama more obvious. Still, in the wake of what’s been happening above us each night into dawn, the Sky still somehow knows its name.

Reading meditations on the great Psalms today! I liked this monk priest take on one of my favorite songs by those passionate crazy sons of Korah, who made the places they were like springs! (84)
Blessed are those “whose hearts are the highways to Zion! Passing through the valley of Baca (dryness, death) they make it a spring. The early rain also covers it (and them) with blessings. They go from strength to strength. Everyone of them (already) appears before God in Zion! So, they confess constantly and praise without ceasing. So they bless others as guides as they go towards that place of His Presence.” Bless the priest who are going further into His Forest, so we can see a clear path into that Holy Place in God, and walk already there with our feet now, here on the muddy earth. “Better to even be on the threshold of Your Presence, than anywhere else!” Psalm 84 (The sons of Korah seemed like wild priest to me; they are always so intensely passionate about being near and in the actual living Presence of God; like they would do anything just to be near the threshold of the Temple! I like these guys! They refused anything less, like Jacob wrestling for the blessing; at least that’s the tone of their songs which rings true to me! Their hearts were highways into Zion!)

Living in and as art:
Our building here in Antwerp is a piece of art in which we live. I’ve always liked that basic metaphor. Seeing life as a grand walk in studio! Plus all nations and generations and creatures like having here. I learn the most when the metaphors are all under one roof. Generations, cultures and types of people, when together find the common song. Our building has that collaborative spirit, there are people with young kids, artists who must work all night, and people who love parrots. It’s beyond animal friendly, animals like to gather here. I alway trust that.
In europe in general the metaphors have to sit at the same table, there is more shared space. I appreciate that. But in our building someone is always cutting fabric in the silence of scissors, walking a dog, feeding a parrot or composing music simultaneously. The writer is scribbling notes, the piano player is practicing, the mother is cooking warm stew…many metaphors under one roof, make me happy considering the simultaneous dramas going on in life!
But i always find myself with creatives, ironic participants, wherever i roam. It’s a niche or magnetic spiritual thing. I always live with Opera in the building, and hear it, even when it’s not playing!
Our landlords are both great artists, so i suppose their building is an extension of their vision and haven. My wife and I think the same way, that our home should become a haven for the parts beyond which we carry, the practical haven itself should also be art!
Hunderwasser got this in his philosophy as well! Anyways, i like being living art. And it makes it easier when your building is an arts gallery! I feel right at home!
Always makes me want to cook as well—last night very garlicky pasta, as I’m fighting off a euro cold! Managed to get the clothes cleaned though! Art brings life even when a bit under the weather! Let’s keep being art friends!

While reading Psalm 23 in multiple translations today had a revelation about the nature of art. It carries you to the part of the spiritual realm it was written from! The symbol participates and opens us to the Reality to which is points!

Try to catch the repeated metaphors in each writer or artist: David, shepherding, battle, kingship, priestly—especially since He is the portent of Messiah, look at his metaphors. Psalm 23 is his shepherd one. You can sense, because David was so close to God, there is a transparency into the Kingdom realm in his writing! When someone has united with God deeply, like Merton, Rich Mullins and all the NT writers, you sense Christ through their voice. They are porous, like a filter through which to encounter Him. Even though they still have their own voices and concerns, what you sense is His Presence. It’s like the writings leave traces of their doorways.

When we write from our relationship with God, we create ladders for other’s into His Presence! People don’t have to agree with the words, but they can sense His Presence through them. That is the wonder of spiritual writings.

Art itself leaves us doors into spiritual rooms. It matters which room the artist is in, because that is the room you’ll be lead into. If they are in a room of intellectual curiosity, of healing, of worship, of teaching, of reflecting on their own wounds etc; be assured, if you are reading to encounter, you will encounter wherever their heart actually is or was on their journey. This is essential especially when reading overtly spiritual writers like Kempis or Merton. Merton was frank about how odd it is to write about spiritual things. He chose to have his spirituality overheard. That is not everyone calling, but it was his. He let us into his personal intimacy and explorations with God. In his youth (Seven Storey Mountain) we overhear him exploring his way towards—early stages of spirituality. Later we overhear him learning to rest or abide in God; then still later to explore how God meets other in different cultures. But throughout we are overhearing and entering the spiritual Reality he was encountering then.

This is good to remember for many reasons! For certain seasons, we need certain seeds. Where a writer guides us, may may not be what we need that particular season. It’s good to know what type of food our spirit needs each season.

But regardless, a true spiritual writer will guide us into the part of God they are exploring at their stage of development. This is the wonder—how words become ladders directly into what they are symbolizing! As Paul Tillich taught, “symbols participate in the Reality to which they are pointing!” That hasn’t changed.

Merton compared writing “about” spirituality, to an artist writing “about” art. Sort of redundant, and yet, some have that teacherly calling to do so. It’s like swimming, and at the same time writing about water! That’s a unique calling. But some did it well. Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, CS Lewis, and others take us into the part of God they are writing about! Their words participate in that to which they point us.

Art itself portals us into what the artist is exploring, whether just ideas, or essences, or the nature of Nature as some of Van Gogh’s did. We are thrust or invited to enter that area of Reality through the art. The vehicle matters, but it is not the “thing itself”. It is a means to encounter what it is touching! That’s what words or any symbolic form of communication is! This is very practical actually, as once we see and know the nature of language or symbolic communication, we know we are being guided or led somewhere, and we can choose if that is where The Spirit is leading us now in our current season.

Merton tells us, his is a spiritual memoir taken actively from an ongoing journey deeper into God. So we know, and can chose to join him or not. That type of overt honest is rarer than you would think. Some writers sort of trick us into following them. And you aren’t really sure where you are going until you find yourself in the wrong place! Henri Miller and Bukowski come to mind. Both great writers, but where they take us is dark, and mostly about their own wounds projected out onto Reality. Broken lenses, and broken guides I’d say. And where do they lead us, into a pornographic version and view of life. Bad fruit. So be careful which guides you pick, they may have great talent, but are not home yet, to themselves or God.

Be wise which guides you follow, for you will end up in the room they are writing from.

The ladder is not the Reality, but words provide a stairwell in the dark towards something. God Presence incarnates in their words if they are in Him! Then there are part of God which are opened into through a particular writer’s words, depending on where they are in their own journey. Nouwen for instance, “Clowning around in Rome” is exploring freedom from religion and creativity; so you will be led into that part of the Mystery. In other books, he is exploring belonging (Voice of Love etc), so you feel that pastoral care aspect of God. Particular seeds come in particular packages. Notice which seeds you need when, and take those! God does not leave us without shepherd, but good shepherd always lead us into the Great Shepherd!

Put simple, art is symbolic communication which works by the laws of symbols. Symbols participate in the reality which they are talking “about”. That’s why symbols are a higher part of communication. So watch where the symbol guides you. In Dekooning paintings for instance, the symbol leads you into an abused version of womanhood, as many artist did. Gaugiun also takes you into a sort of hedonistic view of females, you feel his own lust more than the woman he is painting. Understanding the nature of symbols is essential for interpretation. Symbols are a strata of how God made things, and how He expresses Himself. God is symbolic. He symbolizes Himself in Nature, in the Bible and in and through people. We also symbolize. It’s part of our humanness.

The nature of art language is unique, it takes us into direct contact with what the art is participating in. Art participates in that to which it points, for this reason, it’s important to know which direction it’s pointing! You will find yourself swimming in that particular water, if the art is real.

This is mystical, but you know how words are windows. So when I am reading MacDonald, or Nouwen, or Merton, i feel God’s Presence, and I feel them. When reading Nouwen for instance, i feel his joyful personality, his humour, his depth insight into the heart, his vulnerability, but what I really feel is God’s Presence, filtering through His words. I don’t always agree with the words themselves, but I feel God in them. Or through them! That’s the true magic of writing. We set up little portals which remain after we are gone, little ladders made of words, which those living can climb and meet God, or at least the part of God we met. Isn’t that what spiritual writing is? Making ladders from our words and lives, so others can climb more easily into His Presence.

Finding other’s ladders helps us, as we grow in union ourselves, we start making ladders with our words or lives for others! We become co-heirs, or more living words.

I still love encountering Merton through reading his words. It’s because they are in God some how, and God I know, so I recoginize those in Him, and if their words are also in Him, then that is a doorway for me. And they served us by leaving their spiritual words with us! By now, they have written more books and moved on to other topics, but even these they left on earth, are still seeds, or doors, or portals into God’s Presence. That is powerful. The NT being the highest example of this.

Studying art just after the two great wars…a few insights:

After the two world wars, many artists had no upper story of hope, and either got hedonistic or egotistic, or nostalgic, or protectionist of their own reputations. Why would that be? And how similar to art’s, and at times, the church’s response now!

What a great time, instead, to be a source of hope for others. Joy, authentic courage to be, dignifying others by creating informed beauty. Not an escapist art, or one in denial of the current and recent sufferings. But an art more like gospel—hey this is happened and we must heal, but I am still actively moving towards wholeness. There is hope.

You didn’t see lots of that after the wars. You saw lots of fragmentation or nostalgia. Interesting. We saw people like Picasso and others becoming more solipsistic, nostalgic, and others more hedonistic or insular. What a missed opportunity. One not unlike ours now!

The biggest global need now is for people to have the courage to continue living joyously authentically as themselves, not in denial of the millions of displaced, but willing to dignify them, and dignifying the unique lives and cultures of those around them. Joy is radical not escapist in times like ours, for it contains the courage to be.

We are in a time of displacement, and dislocation, and confusion of identity. What is needed most is radical sharing of our real heart to heart lives; radical reconciliation between people; and really recognizing the uniqueness of others, rather than imposing our own ways, celebrating uniqueness, dignifies people. And when someone feels dignity, they have a harder time moving in the hatred necessary to randomly kill strangers. Art can model this type of radically informed Hope and reconciliation!

A radical art of authentic Joy is needed now! Not an innocent but an experienced Joy. A Joy actually grounded in vision. This type of vision was missing after the wars, and much art defended into hedonism, nostalgia or celebrity. A radical art now would contain reconciliation joy, a radical sharing of oneself and gifts, a path towards healing, a true gospel of suffering and hope sitting at the same cafe; we need to become the poppies which popped back up in Belgium after the war—red signs of Hope growing from bloodied fields!

So take away from this weeks art history study after the two great wars: few really modeled the right response to that much suffering. Those who did claim the courage to be, to dignify others, to radically share with one another-rather than becoming hedonistic or protectionist, or lost in celebrity or their own reputations (which you can see is happening now also), to make an art and live a life which also dignifies others in view of suffering, to sing that gospel song in clear view; to plant an art which gave informed hope those who did made great art and a lasting contribution to the drama, were unfortunately and perhaps, unnecessarily, rare.

It is not escapist to make even joyous art now. It is not escapist to be our real selves in the sheering face of suffering. Not sentimental to hope we are still here, and other’s true names, still matter. To be authentic, let’s the Author write and paint, or even graffiti our names awake again; Joy, recalls us to ourselves. It actually dignifies, gives room for others to be safe enough to be themselves again, and not live in fear! This needed art and living is not sentimental, but joy which knows suffering! An earned and informed type of Hope is transformational!

Joy which sees the millions of displaced people globally, joy which sees the generational hurts between races and ethnicities, Joy which says yes to life because God says yes, and is reconciling all things. A joy which has moved from innocence into experience, and still says yes to the wonder of being here and becoming! That’s the needed art response to now, just as it was after the wars. So few made that sort of hued by life Beauty which offers a way forwards! Let’s!

And art of true joy is radical, as it contains the suffering and takes it forward towards wholeness! Joy which sees our silly walls, but sees through them to Peace. Joy which has that complexity of awareness, that innocence which has moved on to experience—that type of authentic Joy and freedom of being is what is needed in the world now. Let’s make that art friends! Once we have moved from innocence into experience, through suffering, we have a unique opportunity to offer incarnate hope to one another, and profound dignification of one another. Art is meant to do this in times like ours. Let’s make that art friends!

What the true church could do for Europe now:

Johannes Gunter Gerhartz, the great Jesuit German scholar pointed out three things that the true church or real Christianity has to offer Europe now: The gift of insight into the uniqueness and intrinsic dignity of every person, which leads to a radical respect for differences of the inviolable dignity of each person; the gift of reconciliation, which he saw as europe’s greatest need; and the gift of radical sharing, what he called the strength to give of oneself! And I would add, the courage to be yourself gives freedom for others to do so! Not bad advice I came across in an Antwerp Jesuit archive library today. Earned wisdom, as he went through both wars, he had and came out with hope and kindness, he had something to say!

Especially in a time of radical displacement and identity confusion, these three gifts the church could bring: recognizing the dignity of each people’s identity, the gift and skills of reconciliation between peoples, and a type of radical generosity of sharing, ring true! We give from what we have been given, so all three of these would need to be growing in us as well.

I might add, from my art studies, the courage to be again after the wars, was rare even among many artists! Many instead got lost in hedonism, reputation or a form of protectionism-we see this same pattern now, even as millions are displaced. Art needs to have an informed joy now, as we have moved from innocence to experience, but a joy and authenticity which models and even offers hope! Not a flimsy hope, but living hope.

An art which sees through walls, as i call it, which still has the courage to be oneself and honor, even celebrate others. That’s bold and needed art now. One which contains that gift of reconciliation, dignity, and honoring other’s uniqueness as Gerhartz would call it! Great art contain a joy and hope in full view of tremendous suffering. In this sense, it is meant to be a reconciling agent! Bringing two poles together…I agree with this writer, that it should also be part of the gift of radical generosity or sharing! This restores dignity to others.

This insightful priest, was writing after the wars, and still had a radical but not blind or in denial or escapist type of hope for humanity. He, like John Paul II saw the potential for an “exchange of gifts” in europe! And the true church could offer from these three areas of what she was given!

Nice meditation in study from older manuscripts here in Antwerp. Hopeful about what the real church could do for this special corner of the world, and community of peoples. Again, seeing the dignity of each people, offering the gift of reconciliation, since God is reconciling all things to Himself, and radical sharing especially with those unlike us.

Not bad advice, earned wisdom, i would call it! He was in the wars before becoming a Jesuit priest and scholar! These are the ones i like to listen to, those who have been formed by fire, in-formed by suffering, but came out in that tone of kindness and love, and a desire to help reconcile others to themselves and one another-dignify others. He added, as a challenge to the church, that she herself needed to be reconciled as well. Wise man!

Been thinking about this anniversary of the re-formation, or deeper formation which began from multiple sources back then, but didn’t seem to be finished.

I had a dream once, of what was happening to the actual Body during the reformation, and it kept going up through the revivals and waves of the Spirit up through the 20th C…any place The Spirit was allowed to enter into the hearts of His actual People. It came through music, poetry, art, and fresh revealed theology.

What started as dream and whisper amplified to a global change of sight. It was a stream with many tributaries, and all of culture and society were affected by it—both its lights and shadows. It appears we are in a new type of reformation spiritually now.

Fun thinking about historical hinges or axial moments, especially when they come from true religious reforms, in all their broken cadences. A tree is always known by its long term fruit.

When I went to Jan Hus’ chapel where he preached in Praha, i started to sense the spiritual vision which was trying to download and incarnate through those in that season on earth. It was actually radical in terms of personal transformation and societal!

Perhaps outside our human structures, He was offering a deeper formation of his Life in us. And this historical marker was just the first step towards us becoming more fully human in Him!