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Focusing - a way of living the Paschal Mystery
(Pat Duffy CP)

There is something innate in all of nature about dying and rising. It has a
universal quality to it. We see it highlighted in the seasons: autumn, winter,
spring and summer. The dying of autumn and winter gives way to the new
life of spring and summer. Plants and animals all share in this dying and
rising and so do we human beings.

In the early 1970s a number of researchers promoted the idea that the
normal development of an organism might depend on the routine death and
elimination of large numbers of cells. A process they called "apoptosis"
(Greek word: "apopipto", "to fall off" or "fall away"). The scientist, H. Robert
Horvitz was intrigued by the idea and decided to test the hypothesis on a
tiny worm and he proved that "apoptosis" was actually programmed into the
worm's genes. This meant that the death of individual cells was a
fundamental part of the worm's development. Not too long afterwards it
become clear that there were nearly identical genes for "apoptosis" in all
complex forms of life, including the human. (Time magazine, 20th August
2001, U. S.A. edition).

This "apoptosis" is not just physical, it can also be experienced on the
emotional and psychic levels too. The following quote puts it well:
"You begin to see that there are seasons in your life in the same way as
there are seasons in nature. There are times to cultivate and create, when
you nurture your world and give birth to new ideas and ventures. There are
times of flourishing and abundance, when life feels in full bloom, energised
and expanding. And there are times of fruition, when things come to an end.
~ They have reached their climax and must be harvested before they begin
to fade. And finally, of course, there are times that are cold and cutting and
empty, times when the spring of new beginnings seems like a distant dream.
Those rhythms in life are natural events. They weave into one another as
day follows night, bringing, not messages of hope and fear, but messages of
how things are." (Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior by Chogyam
Trungpa).

To be human is to carry in our genes the death-rebirth archetype and
experience it emotionally in life's transitions and physically in death. Taking
it a step further to the psychotheological level, natural truth and divine truth
are not in opposition, as Aquinas said, "The whole universe together
participates in the divine goodness and represents it better than any single
being whatever" (Aquinas, ST, Q.47, Art.l). The natural world of creation is a
locus of God's revelation. The archetypical symbol of death-rebirth as a
transformative process both physically and psychologically is taken up by
Jesus to point to a truth about spiritual growth as well, "Unless a grain of
wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it
dies, it bears much fruit." (John 12: 24). Theologically His own Death and
Resurrection, the Paschal Mystery, becomes a divine symbol of the
transformative grace of God working in the "apoptosis" of life in the human
person. The Paschal Mystery is not something outside ourselves, something
that Jesus goes through and we are observers, Paul tells in Rom. 6:3-4, `Do
you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were
baptised into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by
baptism into his death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the
glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life". So to be a
Christian is somehow to be plunged into the Paschal Mystery. To live the
Paschal Mystery is not to glorify human suffering nor is it to avoid it but to be
in relationship with it in a way that is open to being graced.

As John Dalrymple says, "The genuine Christian attitude is the optimistic
one of aiming at human growth with the clear sighted recognition that that
will mean the acceptance of much suffering on the way. The cross is the
necessary means to Christian maturity, but certainly not its end. The grain of
wheat dies only in order to increase and multiply." (The Cross a Pasture p.92).

Focusing is a way of being present to all of our inner experience as it is
carried in the body, the body in a holistic sense, being more than a physical
machine, "The human body cannot be considered as a mere complex of
tissues, organs and functions, rather it is a constitutive part of the person" (
Pope John Paul II August 2000). Being present in a compassionate way to
what in our inner experience is particularly difficult, painful, threatening or
frightening (and indeed creative), enables change to take place in the way
our issues are carried in our bodies, something that was stuck, cramped,
hemmed in, loosens, softens, eases in a way that can bring fresh insight,
forward movement and connection to the spiritual dimension of life. To be
with, to befriend what is painful without trying to change or manipulate it in
anyway is to stand at the doorway of grace, of "newness of life". Paul
experienced this in his own life, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is
made perfect in weakness...... for whenever I am weak, then I am strong" (2
Cor. 12: 9-10). Jesus experiences it in Gethsemane, as He allows Himself to
be open to His agony His prayer changes He is strengthened becoming more
resolute in the face of the confrontation that awaits Him. There is a real
trusting in Providence here, a surrender as we stand at this doorway of
grace. We cannot foresee or determine what the outcome will be, that is in
God's hands. Focusing predisposes us to be receptive to grace, to allow
God's Spirit to be creatively and uniquely operative in our lives. When we
are in touch with our suffering and we take care of it, it is in some way like
Jesus as He suffers. With focusing we manifest the same attitude as He did,
we don't try to escape from it and we remain present to it, we surrender to
what is there without knowing what will come, we trust in Providence.

Ed McMahon (Beyond the Myth of Dominance, p.242) puts it this way,
speaking of the spiritual as involving, "surrendering into the truth of oneself
as this is experienced in a bodily way, allowing some power greater than
myself to bless me with another step toward wholeness (holiness)
personally, communally and globally". Together with Pete Campbell he
speaks about Focusing as a conversion process, "What makes Focusing
unusual is that it creates an inner climate around our painful and frightening
issues that is different from the climate we generally fall into with problems
and difficulties. Normally, we feel bad about things we don't like in
ourselves. We sometimes feel ashamed, guilty, annoyed or impatient. We
hold at arms length and try to control what we cannot accept. Focusing
invites us to relate in a different way to what we perceive as unlovable in
ourselves............ The New Testament speaks of metanoia - conversion. A
step beyond control. It is often frightening, but it's challenging as well.
Conversion leads gradually toward possessing more and more of your self! It
involves letting go of controls that hold you to a narrow and often confining
experience. There is the challenge of a hidden surprise. A gift. A grace
waiting in the uncertainty of that overpowering darkness from which we
generally shield ourselves." (Bio-Spirituality, Focusing as a way to grow).

In the Incarnation, the human and the divine meet in a way that holds the
integrity of both together without distorting either in any way, they have but
one source, both have their origin in God. To live in Christ is not then to try
and escape the complexity of our humanity nor to fear or despise it but to
journey deeper within and with it to the wellsprings of the divine to be found
there.

To journey inward as physical, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual
persons, is to journey to the threshold of the divine. Human nature in its
totality reaches the frontiers of grace. Already gift the journey is graced, the
whole person is graced, the human and the divine intermingle and the
journey moves forward, a moment of conversion, of "apoptosis" takes place,
"grace builds on nature". Grace is experienced in a whole person bodily
way. "I have come that you may have life and have it to the full" (John
10:10).

Focusing is a natural process that allows, facilitates, nurtures, that encounter
and connection between grace and nature in the uniqueness of the human
person. It offers an experiential way to live the Paschal Mystery as we live
the "apoptosis" of life.