This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. (John 14.17)
“ON THAT DAY (when you receive the One Breath in you) you will know that I am in my Father/Mother, and you in me, and I in you.”
Separation is something human beings have made up, imagined. Quantum Physicists have been teaching for some years now the interconnectedness of everything in the universe. If there is one thing this COVID-19 event is teaching us it is that we are all inter-reliant and inextricably related. Well something like this is at the centre of Christ’s teaching. More than that, God lives in us and we live in God. Separation is an illusion.
The Book of Genesis is a metaphor for how the illusion manifests in us. We want to know our destiny and take control of it – we want to know the mind of God. Throughout the rest of the Bible and through all our lives, God calls us back to know and experience the truth that we are not orphaned; God is always with us. This truth, we call Christ. Jesus is the Christ because he knows the One Breath that is in him and in all being. Christ breathes the One Breath in us so that we can know it too. When early Christians were baptised, they came up out of the water to hear their name in Christ: “This is Phillip, a Christ; this is Joanna, a Christ” and so on. Christ calls us back to the Source, back to the Garden.
We are all in a situation now and we don’t know when it will end. But we can be certain that it will end. Forest fires burn out, wild winds become calm and however extreme a situation may be, it will change. Wise people are patient, whatever the circumstance, because they know this. If everything were always in perfect balance, nothing would move, all would merely hang in suspended animation. Life could not be. Humanity has been complacent. This moment is necessary. Peace will come.
Thomas Keating’s teachings about spirituality, particularly in relation to centring prayer, have been a recuring theme during the recordings I have made for you so far in Advent. Today, here is a recording of Thomas himself, in which he responds to the popular notion of this time that, while religion is not seen anymore as being helpful, there is a growing spiritual hunger. Many recordings, books and videos of and by Fr Keating are available through Contemplative Outreach website 
Tonnau Duw ('God's waves') Fr Tim Ardouin 