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Posted by pbegeman on September 11, 2023 at 8:41 pm #137654

This is a Visio Divina reflection from Tom Agness.  He has trouble posting, so he shared it with me to share with all of you:

Blood and Wine

The picture of Reconciliation, using the Visio Divina practice, brings many images, thoughts, signs and symbols to my mind.

The red color at the bottom of the picture depicts the bloody sacrifice of God, unspoken, but present in the consecration at Mass. “This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant, given for you, so that all sin is forgiven.”

The blue, or indigo color just above it signifies Advent, Incarnation and Epiphany and the theological gift of divine light, which is present in the picture as white.

Above that is the color purple, signifying Lent, the Passion, Death & Resurrection of the Christ, Easter, along with the feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost.

Above that is again, the color red, symbolizing the New Wine, or the Joy in the New Life offered and given to all. And the theological gift of  Divine or Eternal Life present, as depicted in the Eucharistic celebration of the Mass, a forerunner to the Heavenly Banquet.

Off to one side is the color green, the green of Ordinary Time, where Divine Love grows like flowers in a garden.

The picture looks like it’s stained glass, apropos to a worship space. I spent many hours in spaces like those, gazing at stained glass windows that told stories, or were pictures of various saints. I also see a cross in there, when I let go of the analytical side of my brain and just let the picture speak to me.

Where, how does Reconciliation come into play? Because the whole Eucharistic celebration, in fact, the whole of life, is the re-enactment of God’s simple, single act of self-giving that I witness, and take part in simply by being alive, and being awake.

Some of the Eastern religions and philosophies are what I call, ‘meta-historical’. The smile of the Buddha seems to imply he is enjoying a little inside joke – that while Western Christianity needed  to have God, or the Son of God actually come to earth, die and be resurrected,  what I call the historical principle, for us to get it, – the Eastern religions seemed to already intuitively know God’s unconditional love for us.

Nevertheless, we both wind up in the same place. Enlightenment, Unity consciousness, heaven, nirvana. Different words but the same meaning.

Where it all comes together for me is this description of Eucharist:

Eucharist is

invitation

offering

receiving

sharing

the

Divine

Light

Life

and

Love

of God

now

and

forever.

I believe.

And I am reconciled, not by anything I have done, but by what, as Thomas Keating has said; “God signing on the dotted line.” to show how much God loves us.

It was, is, and will always be God reconciling us to God self.

Thank God!