Awakening to Wholeness is a series of prompts, reflections, and teachings about how holding the tension of opposites can help us to heal division and experience wholeness. If you feel moved to share your own reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites.”
Sometimes, when I feel stuck or realize that I am not perfect and do not know everything, I remind myself, somewhat jokingly, “Oh yes! I am not God!” As a human, I am still limited. The lens of partiality and wholeness is one way of understanding the relationship between humanity and divinity, anthropology and theology. This pair of opposites—partial and whole—can also help us to understand transformation, the hard work of healing and wholeness. If I can get over the first hurdle of recognizing that I am not God, I can then get on to more honestly doing the work of being human.
To be human is to experience contradiction. Some theologians suggest that is no contrariness, no coincidence of opposition in God. That ideal conclusion often prompts us to dislike or avoid any contrariness in our humanness. For example, I prefer to be light, not shadow. I prefer to be good, not bad. I wish I were whole, not partial. But despite the dislike, both the light and the shadow point to the whole. It is the same with good and bad, partial and whole.
For example, the underlying wholeness in me, the spark of divinity within in, the image and likeness of God toward which I seek to imitate, is always and already “there.” Since it is always and already there, it lures me away from partiality toward fullness. Even though it is not completely visible, I get glimpses of it in gorgeous sunsets, in deep conversations, in amazing accomplishments. Hidden wholeness prompts me toward fully manifested wholeness.
Amazingly, partiality also points toward wholeness. When the sting of making a bad decision makes me want to try again, the taste of the partial transforms me toward the whole. As I commit to working hard on something and the taste of progress makes me want to stick with it, the partial has prompted me toward the whole. When the loving kindness of another person makes me realize that I swim in a sea of sacred Love, the partial points to the whole.
In our wisdom work of transformation, moving through healing toward wholeness, let us not dismiss the power of the bad toward good, the shadow toward light, and the partial toward the whole.
Contemplative Questions
We offer the following questions as prompts to help you reflect on the presence of opposites in your spiritual practice and your life.
- Think of a time recently when you’ve felt stuck or imperfect, especially in your spiritual life. What was it like? How did you respond to the feeling of limitation?
- Do you tend to dislike or avoid any contrariness in your humanness? If yes, what does that feel like? If no, how did you learn to accept—or even embrace—your human partiality?
- Can you think of a time when the partial prompted you toward the whole, the bad toward the good, the shadow toward the light? What was that experience like? How did it transform you?
Join the conversation! If you feel moved to share your reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites.”
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Christine Luna Munger
Christine Luna Munger, PhD currently serves as the director of the Episcopal House of Prayer. She previously served as Coordinator of the Spiritual Direction Certificate and Professor of Theology at St. Catherine University. She regularly writes, teaches, and leads group prayer sits at EHoP.
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