The Christian Community in North America

Easter

One of the most revealing and confrontational discoveries of the past century is that of the unconscious and the obscure forces that slumber in it. It seems as if this discovery has brought it about that the forces of darkness have been unchained more than ever. Be that as it may, in this regard we are not only contemporaries but also fellow sufferers. We are not simple, straightforward human beings. Every person of this time is a vessel full of contradictions. With part of consciousness we shine light on the inner and outer world; another part remains hidden in the unconscious and leads a life of its own in the dark. Increasingly, we are confronted with this uncomfortable truth: in every person forces are slumbering that may be destructive. One need not be a criminal for this. The saint knows better than any other person that he too might do anything. And we will be wise, since we are no saints at all, to watch out for what we don’t know and don’t want to know about ourselves.

But in the depths of the soul there is not only a demon hiding that is waiting for the opportunity to do its destructive work. Hidden under this abyss there lives in every human being—even in the criminal—a deep longing for redemption. In the grave of the soul something is buried that is waiting for us to awaken it. And only if the grave of the soul becomes an altar of the soul, if we seek Christ with heart and soul, will He let Himself be found and will rise from the depths.

Rev. Bastiaan Baan, Easter 2024

April 1, 2024/0 Comments/by CCNA

Blog, Homilies, Uncategorized

Good Friday

When we hear the story of the Last Supper we know already what will happen and what comes next: the martyrdom, His death, and resurrection. Of course it was not that way for His disciples when He had the meal with them. He was speaking in riddles to them. He kept them guessing about the future. Every event that followed was another riddle: Gethsemane, the sleep that overcame them, the capture, the flight. None of them was able to stand by Him to the end. Of course not, none of us would be able to maintain our footing in such circumstances. How could a person at that time ever foresee that the last evening meal would not only be followed by the first morning meal of the Resurrected One, and that He from now on would give Himself, day in day out, in bread and wine, to every human being who hungers and thirsts for His presence?

At the end of His life on earth, Christ indicates with an unusual word that this end is the beginning of a completely new life. Of all the disciples only John was present as witness when this last word sounded on the cross: “It is fulfilled.” He is the only evangelist who wrote this word from the cross down. What is so special in these words?

Christ here used an expression that originated in the old mysteries: tetelestai. It means something like: the goal has been reached. (telete was the ancient word for initiation. The place where the initiation took place was called in Eleusis: telesterion.) The expression tetelestai is no finality, but an indication of a completely new life. From then on the initiate stood on the other side of the threshold and was at home with the Gods. From the other side he could order life on earth according to the hermetic principle: As above, so below. The holy order of heaven had to be reflected in life on earth.

Where was Christ after He had spoken His last words? He too crossed a threshold, but not to go to the Gods, but to the demons and the dead. In the three days after His death He was not in heaven, not on earth, but “in the heart of the earth.” (Mat. 12:40) There He brought light into the hopeless existence of death and the underworld. There the germ of a new heaven and a new earth was planted.

Since His death and resurrection every death experience can become the germ of a new life. For whoever dies in Christ walks with Christ through death into deathless life.

Rev. Bastiaan Baan, Good Friday 2024

April 1, 2024/1 Comment/by CCNA

Blog, Essays, Homilies

John 8 – The Adulterous Woman

For centuries the traditional Church has tried to ban St. John’s story of the adulterous woman from the Bible. In some Bibles it is missing even today. Why?

Without a trace of judgment Christ forgives what a person has done. He does not condemn. Isn’t that a license to commit adultery?

You could compare the people who want to ban this story from the Bible with the Scribes and Pharisees, who could not imagine guilt without penalty.

This is a deeply rooted tendency that is still there in each of us. We may not penalize the mistakes of others with stones, but we proclaim devastating judgments, which lead a life of their own in our media and make the perpetrators into culprits. We think and speak evil about people who, in our eyes, are wrong. We ridicule people who, in our eyes, are stupid. But also in our day the saying is true: “Whoever among you is free of sin let him throw the first stone…”

Adultery – every human being is guilty of it. Someone has given it name: “Cosmic adultery.” That is what philosopher Saint Martin calls our collective separation from the divine world. We are detached from God, and in consequence of this we are detached from everything and everyone around us. God has not abandoned us, but we, each one of us, have turned away from Him. By our cosmic adultery we have lost the spirit.

And only by becoming aware of the loss of the spirit grows our longing for the awakening of the spirit.

And only through Him who, like a lamb, bears the sins of the world, is the abyss bridged that separates us from God.

-Rev. Bastiaan Baan, March 17, 2024

March 19, 2024/1 Comment/by CCNA

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