My African experience – Spirituality
I am sitting under a coconut palm tree in the hot African sun on the Kenyan coast, south of Mombasa and near the Tanzanian border.
Children are playing, much laughter. What a wonderful scene. A child runs up to me and points out to me some monkeys also playing. The joy in the child’s eyes is wonderful. I look up into the distance and see the Indian Ocean shimmering with the heat under a perfect azure sky, a blazing sun overhead. I lie back close my eyes and thank God and feel his presence – my soul is connected to God – I get that wonderful tingling feeling and now I sense God guiding me to write.
Our planet and the scene around me is amazing – God has made us a great place to live.
I think about life. God made planet earth about 4.5 billion years ago and first life about a billion years later. The first humans are scientifically dated to about 200,000 years ago. The church accepts science. I have been pondering Genesis and evolution. They are totally compatible – I see no problem. Time is a human concept and means nothing in the spiritual world. Humans evolved from the biological Homo genus over a very long time. Before humans the Homo genus was an animal.
I look around at the monkeys playing in the trees, such a peaceful scene. I think back a few weeks when I was in the bush watching lions hunting. The lions stalk their prey with no emotion – they are simply acting on instinct. Lions have no conscience. I look back at the children – a girl of about 12 years old steals a toy from a seven year old, the younger child cries, the twelve year old runs away and hides behind a tree, the crying continues. After 20 minutes I witness the older child returning the toy and saying sorry. A human act – very basic. The older child has felt guilt and remorse. Her conscience has said to her – NO – what you have done is wrong. That is the difference between animals and humans – animals have no conscience – they act on instinct only.
So what is our conscience – it is our Soul – our spirit. That is what differentiates us from animals. So yes we humans evolved from the biological species homo but how did we acquire a soul? The conclusion I have come to is that about 200,000 years ago God breathed on Earth and gave all the Homo animal species a Soul. From that moment humans existed. Humans have a soul, a conscience, a spirit. Our spirit / soul came from God. We know naturally what is right and what is wrong. As our soul came from God, it is God. Our Soul is God – we are all made in the likeness of God. Our Soul / spirit never dies – when our human body dies our soul / spirit lives on for ever. If our soul is connected to God or partially connected to God then it will return to God when we die.
Is the above compatible with Genesis and Evolution. Yes absolutely. I see no problem. Genesis was written before we knew of evolution and is a story written about what happened on a small part of our planet. Genesis refers to right and wrong and choice. So I also add Free-will to the powers of our Soul – God has given us free will – do we pick a forbidden fruit? What about evolution – again no problem.
So I conclude God breathed on planet earth about 200,000 years ago and gave all Homo animal species a Soul at which point Humans originated.
Our Soul is God. We are made in the likeness of God. Our Soul is our Conscience. Our Soul is our Spirit. Our Soul gives us free-will. Our soul lets us know what is right and what is wrong. Our Soul lives on forever.
So how do we get our soul to return to God when our body dies. We need to keep our soul / spirit connected to God. How? Keep it clean. All sin blocks the connection between our soul and God. We all know of the big NO Nos – eg murder, but the 10 commandments are limited. I want to add. Be Kind, Be Honest, Be Forgiving, Love your neighbour, have Faith. Try and connect your Soul to God. It will only connect if there are no blockages. A blockage is a sin. So confess the sin and ask for forgiveness. Once all the blockages are cleared your soul will connect to God and you will feel Peace and Serenity and when your body dies your spirit / soul will return to God.
Philip Mills, Parishioner of St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Diani/Ukunda, Kenya and member of St Maxmilian Kolbe small Christian community, Patron of the Good Shepherd Brothers – Ukunda / Majengo, Kenya and in the UK an Associate Oblate of Prinknash Abbey.
