JKK - Credo
and Commitment
(First of all,)
I believe in Life!
I believe in Love!
[I believe that “God” (or
any kind of theism) should never be the ultimate requirement for humans. Life
and love are primary; God/Yahweh … Jesus … etc. should be a “secondary object,”
to be treasured in humble trust (aka, faith - with a big accent on the
“humble”)]
(Still,
having said that,)
I
trust that Reality is ultimately both mysterious and gracious
In other words, I TRUST
(This is what I intend to say by the word "believe" or "faith." It's a trusting in something I cannot perfectly prove or see)
that there is a God
who is:
Source
Sustainer
Redeemer-Healer and
Perfector
of all life and love
of all the other beautiful things that come together
with life and love
Baruk attah
adonai melek ha-olam
Blessed are you, Lord,
matrix-womb of everything, forever and ever
Arigato,
Salamat
We give you thanks for life,
for love, and for all the manifold blessings contained in them!
Thank you, in particular,
for ...
I believe in incarnations of
the Gracious Mystery who is Womb-Matrix of all
In particular, I believe in
Jesus as the Christ (the chosen - not in the exclusionary sense though) of
God,
born of Mary,
He lived and worked in
Nazareth where he experienced the joys and challenges of ordinary, peasant
life,
He responded to a special
call to proclaim the reign of God through his person,
in deed and in word,
and spent a short yet
intense period of his earthly sojourn doing so.
This Jesus -deeply united
with you, courageously prophetic, a teacher of wisdom, performer of deeds that
realize your REIGN, founder of communities which reflect your REIGN-
this Jesus, I acknowledge
as: my model, the messiah, the Lord, the one who realizes your REIGN in me, in
us and in the whole world (Savior).
In the end, his prophetic
life-style and teaching clashed with those who had a different vision of what
they thought the reign of God consisted of.
Jesus' vision of the reign
of God was marked by compassion, forgiveness, inclusiveness, graciousness and
justice.
The vision of those who
opposed him seemed to focus on fulfilling conditions to be deemed worthy of
God's favour.
This clash led the
powers-that-be to condemn Jesus to death on a cross.
But the matter did not end
there.
God raised Jesus from the
dead and showed that he is alive and active forever.
Thus, God put a seal of
approval on all what Jesus stood for, especially the option for God's reign as
coming not through violent means but through loving-compassionate means.
I choose and commit myself
to the vision of Jesus
I furthermore entrust and
commit myself and all my dear ones to this Jesus
who, through the divine
Spirit, is continually present within and among us,
who, for me and communities
I belong to, is the incarnation par
excellence of God.
Christian tradition has
positioned Jesus as close as possible to the one God that Israel believed in,
calling Jesus by titles such
as "God," the 2nd person of the Trinity, the divine
Incarnation.
As a Christian, I treasure
and use this language
I keep in mind however that
it is deeply symbolic and limited
and that words can never
exhaust the gracious mystery called God.
(Orthopraxis)
Believing in God's
sustaining grace; I renew my resolve to do my utmost to advance the further
realization of the reign of life, love, justice, peace and all that is
contained in the dream of the God of Jesus
for me, for my direct and
extended families, for all our communities, for the world and the whole
universe.
Lord, fill me and all my
dear ones with your SHALOM (十善 ju-zen [or in the Hebrew sense]
the totality of all good things)
Make us peaceful, joyful,
determined and courageous INSTRUMENTS-CHANNELS-ENABLERS of this SHALOM.
I also believe, however,
that, because you, O God, incarnate your gracious Presence so profoundly and
inextricably with humanity and with all creation in each particular
circumstance (haeceitas),
there cannot be just one
perfect divine “incarnation” for everyone and everything.
Your gracious Presence
incarnates itself in so many varied ways in this our gloriously diverse
world
in order to reach everyone
and everything.
Wherever there is someone or
something that fosters and furthers life and love and all the other beautiful
things associated with them,
there also is an incarnation
of your gracious Presence. Thank you!
(the Buddha)
For me, the Buddha and all
that he stands for is also a special incarnation of your presence.
I also commit myself then in
a special way, to the Buddha (the concrete and personal embodiment of the
divine), the Dharma (teaching), and the Sangha (community).
I commit myself to further
the Buddha's cause: enlightenment, the lessening of suffering, and profound
peace for all sentient beings.
Thank you for everything:
for your gracious Presence
which furthers life and love in me and in all beings.
May your grace continually
bring us forth into a fuller life,
heal
and save us from sin, evil, woundedness, unhelpful suffering and everything
else alienating us from life and love
Forgive us for our
shortcomings, failures, weaknesses and sins
May we attain one day the
fullness of life and love with you and everyone else in a "world" in
which your REIGN is realized in a perfect way.
AMEN.
