YeKengalé

Blindspots. The human eye and therefore consciousness has them built in by design. And even with two, there is a trajectory of vision that we simply will never access once we commit to one focal direction. And even with a neck with 60% rotation, we admit the design for human consciousness requires relationship for wholeness and clarity. Individual integrity is impossible.

Another word for individual integrity – self-righteousness. It means that the self alone has done the best it can do. It’s always inadequate. Man is a social being. What I do affects you and vice versa. True integrity can only be worked out in community – i.e. in relationships with others. Or as the Bible puts it: every man’s way is right in their own eyes, not that it matters, because it is what we don’t see (our blindspots) that damn us. We all try the best we can.

John 17, in fact, equated unity to maturity – our ability to recognize the Presence of the Father (and the presence of each other) within our own being, rather than perceiving other as outside of self, integrating other into the self. This is not the death of self at all (well, of course, it is the death of a self – the limited version of who we are, it is the expansion of self, the growth of self, to include the entities and objects of the self’s perception. This is integrity. This is unity, This new self is an unlimited version of who is the Great I AM.

The stumbling blocks to this perception are ironically presented as the stepping stones to its elusive apprehension – The Law. Guardian of right relationship. But who is perfect in its application? With all I see and know, I am disqualified by what I cant see. My blind spots. The Pharisees and Teachers of the Law were at one and the same time, men of highest integrity of lifestyle and habit, and largely responsible for the decadence they publicly condemned, but unable to perceive this clearly due to their blindspots….(even when pointed out by Jesus they would rather kill the messenger than adjust)

The Law can only be truly fulfilled when the motivations to do so (the be – attitudes) are strong and compelling, and that passion (LOVE) can only be generated in relationships. Withdrawal from relationships seldom accomplishes anything but the preservation of a sense of self-righteousness. A pristine but profane, sterile, and eventually obnoxious holiness. But it is the ugly holiness of the harlot – the eating, drinking, engaging-all-types ho-liness [pun] that can be most productive in generating and stimulating a vision of integrity. We are connected….in ways we often don’t fathom.

The Law excavates our expressions – our acts – our habits. Profane or casual sex, pornography addictions, excess masturbation, excessive smoking, drinking, and dietary abuses of the body etc. Self-control, virtuous as it is, cannot by itself fulfill the mandate of LOVE which invites us to carry each other within our hearts rather than separate our hearts pharisaically from each other.

Our greatest confession before God and each other must be the fault of wrongful judgment and condemnation. We recognize the fault in each other (as a beam) without either perceiving its correlated fault in ourselves (for us, a tiny mote) that allows us to identify it. To the pure, all things are pure. This is true holiness.

Father, you have forgiven us our greatest sin of pride and its attendant habit of judgment and envy. Now help us to humbly serve you in all the ways you come at us, through imperfect people – the creation you identify with perfectly.  Amen.