Invitation to Love

Firstly, there are those of you who seem to have perceived the previous blog on abortion and birth control as unreasonable and hard church line. I invite you to read it again. It is about love and growth in spirit. Those who found it judgmental may benefit from this reflection motivated by Fr. Thomas Keatings' book INVITATION TO LOVE.
Fr. Keating mirrors Dr. Freud in much of his work. That is, Dr. Freud as seen through Christian spiritual eyes. This comes in handy in this time of polarised thinking, i.e. conservative vs. liberal. Fr Tom sees all of us starting out with what he calls a reptilian concept of life. The need for nurturing and personal survival is the only motivation at this level. He moves on to describe later stages as egoist and superegoist. You can read the book to get a nice presentation on these stages of being.
For now I will compare conservatism with the reptilian stage. This can be seen as a very basic survival mode. Almost all things are black and white and if these things do not provide me personally with better nurture and safety, they are worthless.
For now I will compare liberalism with the superegoist. All is for the common good. Anything that is perceived as parochial or self-serving to the extent of excluding minorities is worthless.
The problem here is that both sides write off the other as worthless.
That's where the egoist comes in. The egoist is your true self. The egoist is not concerned with categorizing life as good or bad but with living it. Our task then is to educate the true self, the egoist, to its true purpose. The true purpose lies in the depths of our sub conscious. The place where you and I  encounter our creator. Our creator's purpose is to educate us in the greatness of infinite love. In order for you and I experience this education, we must be willing to put time aside for contemplation. If we don't listen we will not hear. If we do not hear we may assume that there is no one trying to communicate with us. If we think that we have no spiritual centering from which to draw we will make one up.
The reptilian and the superegoist in us are only too willing to take over. It is mostly a matter of our cultural upbringing which wins out. Being a conservative or a liberal is a convenient hiding place for those who do not want to put aside the false self. Many of these are afraid of their real selves because they may not interpret very well in the society/culture that we have made our home.
Bottom line is, God is our home. If our society/culture is willing to accept us as God's child then it is worthwhile. Otherwise please look elsewhere. Your spiritual life depends on it.
Fr. Rod