Richard Rohr on Sexuality and Spirituality/Meditation, Nov. 10th

"...While we’re witnessing a gradual sexual revolution, I believe there’s another revolution moving us beyond either/or to both/and thinking. We are being drawn through and beyond mere equality into union with the divine, with ourselves, and with every other being. This is a relational wholeness, a synergy, and a life energy greater than the separate or combined parts.

For many years, I studied and led men’s rites of passage, which invited men on journeys of powerlessness.While men often need to experience powerlessness, it is rather clear in the New Testament that Jesus invariably assures women of their power. I do think there’s great value in men getting in touch with their feminine side (and for women to access their masculine side), but what really matters is that we’re all headed in the same direction, regardless of the path we take: union with God.

Gender is a combination of biology, psychology, and personal history; these are all good and necessary entrance points to the temple, but spirituality is learning how to live in the temple itself (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). [2] What makes spirituality “spiritual” is precisely that it has the power to connect us with our Core and the Center, and not just the circumference. Authentic spirituality brings us toward the essence and not just the accidents. Unfortunately, much of our sexuality remains on the surface, the externals, which is actually a form of materialism.

Masculine and feminine journeys may use different symbols, stories, images, rituals, and metaphors that get us to enter the temple. We must honor the need for action, movement, building, repairing, rescuing, and heroic hardship that men often enjoy. We must honor the community, relationships, empathy, intimacy, healing, and caring that many women usually value. In the end, however, the object and goal of all spirituality is finally the same for all genders: union, divine love, inner aliveness, soul abundance, and generous service to the neighbor and the world.: