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I found myself unable to love another person to the extent I sensed the Spirit wants me to love the person. That is okay—maybe, for your own sake, you need to hear that once more, “That is okay,” … For when we come to the extent of present capacity to extend compassion, we confess and invite extension of capacity to care. We do not have to see limitation in empathy as failure. Such is simply the evolution of finite care to the Infinite Capacity to Care.
The evolution of Caring pertains to spondic energy. Beatrice Bruteau, in The Grand Option, observes that “spondic” is from a Greek word meaning “libation.” And this spondic energy is “radiant energy of self-being.” Bruteau writes:
It is an outpouring that is an act of reverence, of worship. We experience it as a projection of personal, spiritual, self-existent energy towards and into other persons, and even towards the infrapersonal universe. We will to pour our life, our own existence, into others that they may be and may be abundantly.
Therefore, life becomes libation, libation-ing. Intimacy with Spirit, One with True Self, from which flows this spondicity, flows into intimacy with the other. To have this intimacy, we do not have to like the person, as defined by “personality,” we do not even have to share a physical space with her. Indeed, at times the physical distance from her is essential to her well being and provides room to love her the way she most needs loving.
Accordingly, this libational kindness is nonlocal. This Loving can reach into the past, into the present, or into the future. Like the One, Love is boundless; so, one can intentionally remain at a physical distance from another, without overt expressions of loving, and through prayer and meditation, love the other. This is True Self to True Self. Indeed, when in the contemplative Center, one can speak to and, thus, through her Center, affirming love and blessing to her.
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Here, we have moved beyond subject-object dualism. We no longer, actually, address True Self to True Self. Rather, there is only one True Self, at one with the Holy Spirit in each other. Her blessing is your blessing; her suffering is your suffering. To pray for her is to pray for yourself. In praying for her, you are praying with her—even though she is not aware consciously—, you are worshipping and, thereby, in this libational rite freeing yourself from attachments to her that block the flow of the One in yourself. To set her free through libation means to set yourself free.
Questions
Is there someone whom you find frustrating to love? How might you love her or him at a distance? … through prayer?
Spiritual Exercise
Go into meditation: first, pray to the Spirit for the person you care deeply about; then, speak to her in Silence, blessing her and affirming your faith in her movement from fear to faith. Let the person know you are available when she is ready for your spiritual companionship.
OneLife Ministries is a pastoral outreach and nurture ministry of the First United Methodist Church, Fort Meade, FL. For Spiritual Direction, Pastoral Counseling, spiritual formation workshops, Christian meditation retreats, or more information about OneLife, write Rev. Dr. Brian K. Wilcox at briankwilcox@comcast.net.
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