I picked up Sharon Grussendorff’s book – Contemplative Living – this morning and it opened on the last chapter: Hope Beyond the Death of Hope which began with this quote:
Though at times it may seem as though the world has gone mad – as the dreams of separation play out within the collective, things are not always as they seem. You are the vessel through which love can come alive here. Without you it will not be possible. Matt Licata
At the time of writing this my home country of South Africa is facing the death of hope, and for many this is potentially life threatening, as the country faces the possibility of economic ruin which will impact most heavily on those who are already living in poverty.
Sharon Grussendorff
Sharon’s words written in 2017 or before were prophetic. She goes on to talk of global collective despair on a mass scale about selfish, greedy and unethical leadership. She says we are collectively facing the death of hope.
Then, Sharon asks questions….
So what does this hope of resurrection mean?
What does hope beyond the death of hope mean?
Sharon quotes Philippians 2:5-8 where we are invited to have the same mind-set as Jesus:
Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross.
Sharon says this mindset is a radical invitation to inner transformation – that involves death to our separate sense of self, with all the self interest and self protection that goes with this. It involves a complete dissolution of the self, so that we can participate from a more expansive and truly loving and free identity. She says this is what Paul means when he talks about the mystical body of Christ.
Sharon says many writers and thinkers are describing the next step into a new creation with new possibilities, which involves the death-resurrection pattern.
Sharon goes on later in the chapter:
This brings us to the question of how participation in each of our own individual awakening processes can help humanity and the planet in the impasse that we are in as a species.
Sharon tells us that through our contemplative practice and letting go over and over we surrender to the mystery and action of God in us and become channels for God’s love to flow through us.
She warns us that it is a process out of our control or understanding.
As we together participate in this morphogenic field of self-dissolution and awakening,
Sharon Grussendorff
we are participating in the emergence of what Paul described as “the new creation”,
the new way of being that involves selfless love, true compassion
and the ability to cooperate beyond our ego boundaries, for the good of the whole of humanity and the planet.
