Week of February 7, 2016
The Scripture ~ Moses face shone with the reflected glory of God after he received the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai. The sight caused the Israelites to be afraid, so Moses wore a veil to mask the radiance of God’s glory, taking it off when he spoke directly to God. Exodus 34: 29-35
The Spiritual focus ~ “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
The Devotion ~ In the early 1990’s, a yogi named Baron Baptiste, born of American yogi parents, began to explore the power of yoga to transform people’s lives. In 2002 he published a book titled, “Journey into Power,” a book that shared his own transformational experience as well as the transformational experiences of his students. One of the tenants of his teaching was that we all wear masks that become obstacles to us being transformed into who we truly are, spiritually beings. We all hide behind masks at times when we are in self protect mode but when hiding behind masks become the norm we move from self protection to self denial.
Moses in our scripture today was in the presence of God and the experience of God’s spirit was so glorious that the glory of God was seen as reflected light on Moses face. In the OT the glory of God was considered to be so radiant that human beings could not look upon it safely, so Moses donned a veil or a mask.
This Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday in most Protestant churches. It is a story of Jesus being transfigured by the glory, presence and blessing of God. It is a story that speaks of God fully presence to the earthly Jesus. Heaven and EARTH are now full of God’s glory. The mask has been forever removed and we are invited into the story of being spiritual beings having a human experience in Jesus.
Dropping our mask is hard to do but is something we practice in Yogadevotion. In the silence of our hearts we are open to trust God with all that we are as human beings, physically, emotionally and spiritually. God’s radiant spirit then replace our fear and we are transformed. The radiant spirit is not just for our spiritual enlightenment but for the sake of the world God entered into, for the sake of the other.
A final quote from Thomas Merton illuminates this point, ” I have the immense joy of being a man, a member of the human race in which God Himself became incarnate…And only if everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all waking around shining like the sun.” ( Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, 1965).
Breath prayer
Inhale ~ I radiate
Exhale ~ God’s glory
