One (The Heart of Worship)

“And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:” John 17:22

My recent gallbladder surgery allowed me a moment of stillness that I haven’t had in a very long time. For the first time in months I was afforded time that wasn’t crowded with things from my endless “To Do” list. Due to the trauma my body had experienced I couldn’t do much physically. However I did get a chance to do something that I hadn’t had time for in a long time. I was able to spend hours meditating and praying, communing with the divine.

Don’t get me wrong. I pray daily. When I rise in the morning, when I lay my head to rest at night, I always take a few moments to acknowledge my gratitude for the experience of life. But it has been a long time since I was able to spend hours in uninterrupted bliss with the Most Beloved. I so enjoyed it and am convinced it helped to facilitate my recovery.

As I returned to work this week I found I was in wonderful spirit and in a place of introspective contemplation. It is from that place that I mentally and experientially explore the concept of worship. Most spiritual traditions the world over have some form of veneration that is performed. Most believe these acts to be to appease some deity or garner some favorable allowance form that deity. On the surface that may be the case. But when one looks underneath the veil with Spirit’s eyes we see a deeper meaning.

As a seeker on the path I have explored many expressions of spirituality. As with all organizations in this physical realm there are some who participate for the sheer glory of recognition and the feeling of belonging. I’ve found however that the majority of those who participate in any spiritual practice are there on a true quest. Some seek knowledge, others faith, but I believe at the heart of all who seek is one deep seated motive. That which is divine in us all seeks to reunite with the divine source of all.

This is the force that drives both the Christian and the Muslim to their knees. Every chant the Buddhist and Hindi utter is to this end. With every shake of the shamans rattle and every song the Sufi sings is this desire. As I contemplated worship from both an external and internal place I came to this conclusion: Worship is when the divine within perceives and awe-fully acknowledges the divine source of all that is without. It is the intimacy of oneness. Every act of worship regardless the religion is an attempt to reach this place.

This brings to mind one of my favorite Christian scriptures and shines a new light of understanding on it. In John chapter 17 we are given a prayer that Jesus prays for his disciples and all of humanity really. He repeatedly asks for God to make them (us) one as they (he & God) are one. In verse 22 he says that the glory he had on earth all came from this “oneness” and he bequeaths it to us as he prepares to leave the planet. It seems to me now from this new place of understanding that Jesus was saying: I was able to be all I was and do all I did because I was able to reunite my personal divinity with the Divine source of all, and you can do it too. What a wonderful idea. Is it any wonder that so much of humanity spends so much time in houses of worship all over this planet?

Something in us understands that we have divine origins and we are all striving to embody that in this physical realm. The Most Beloved knows this and has given us such wonderful & diverse ways to access it. But it all begins with the desire. I believe this desire is at the heart of every human on the planet and therefore at the base of every religious expression no matter how diverse. I guess in this way we are all one.