PROCESS SPIRITUALITY

T. R. Haney

In Process thought, being and substance are not the fundamental factors of reality. Becoming is. Everyone is in the process of change. Evolutionary process is the fundamental fact of existence.
As the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, said, Everything changes.
Becoming precedes being; we emerge first, then we establish our identity. Emerging is becoming.

In Process spirituality, openness is essential. Why? Because God is forever offering us possibilities for our continuing process into our future.
We have to be open to receive and accept these possibilities.

God also offers us the opportunity to choose the best and highest of the possibilities he is presenting to us.
Because our process is future-oriented we must be open to newness and novelty using our creativity to do so.

We are not substances. Rather we are fundamentally changes and we change from what we have been into what we can become in a dynamic continuum, a continuous process.
God’s offering of possibilities comes in many ways: for example, personal prayer, the Sacraments especially the Eucharist, inspirational and theological reading, conversations, art, music, poetry.
But we must be consciously open to all these divine possibilities.

Now free will enters.
The greatest gift God gives us is freedom and God respects our freedom with infinite steadfastness.
God will never force or coerce us. God is Persuasion. God lures us to make the best choices from the possibilities he is offering us. But because we are free, we can choose a lesser possibility.
For example, God offers us the possibility of mystical prayer, but we choose to offer prayer by rote. A lesser choice but still a good choice
Or for example, through the Eucharist, God offers us the possibility of continuous transformation into Christ, but we choose to practice individual virtues. A lesser choice but still a good choice.
Or we can choose the least possibility, for example, choosing sin.
For example, instead of choosing self-discipline, we choose gluttony.
Therefore process is not always synonymous with progress.

God also offers us his persuasive power so that we may choose the best.
And he gives us the power to carry through with the choice we make.

God’s will is a direction not a final plan.
God’s will is not predestination; that would cancel our freedom.
God does not know what our future holds until after we have made our choice, so great is his respect for our freedom.
God respects our freedom even to the point of our abusing our freedom by choosing the least worthy possibility or sin.
God pours all the goodness and power he has acquired from his faithful creatures back into us; and to receive this goodness and power we must be consciously open.

The kinds and quality of our choices of the possibilities God is offering us determines how much we are becoming more of who we are, of becoming more of what God wants us to become.
If our choices of the possibilities God is offering us are the best and the highest, the thrust of our becoming is all that more powerful. Lesser choices make our becoming less powerful, less intense.