I notice how today is the feast of Gregory Nyssa. Brother to the bishop Basil and either brother of, or rather more likely husband of the deacon Theosebia. (Her story is worth following all by itself…) A Christian bishop, Gregory was a central figure in the evolution of the idea of God as a trinity, and so might be thought as an unlikely candidate for me to reflect on.
But, following Origin, he was also an early advocate of Apocatastasis. Apocatastasis is a Greek word meaning something along the lines of reconciliation or restoration. It is the primary form of early Christian universalism, the belief that in the last instance all things will reconcile to God.
I consider this impulse or intuition or insight, while expressed in a multitude of theological and poetic ways around the world depending upon the culture or religion of the person who has experienced it, the foundation of all authentic religion. It is the cosmic wink expressed in pretty much every religion. It is the divine come hither, the whisper that beckons all hearts.
And it is the great conundrum of the religious life where it appears one must go to specific traditions, such as Christianity, to find the universal song. Or, perhaps most accurately to find that universal song sung best, most clearly, most enticingly to our human ear. Hence, I suspect, the expression the universal is only ever known in the particular.
Personally I’ve found the best brief summation of how this works in the Buddhist Heart Sutra, which is why I chose it for my immediate past post and for many others, as well.
But, for me, a necessary evidence of the truth of such an intuition is that he does find expression across time and culture.
And within Christianity I find it a hoot that one of the putative founders of Christian orthodoxy would also be one of the premier explorers of this grand intimation, the foundation of the heart, the calling of our true inheritance.
So, thank you Greg!
And may you rest in our universal salvation, our true home…
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