Our story is one of epic passion, convergence, wisdom, empowerment and transformation.
The epic story of Paradise lost and regained shapes our charism.
The qualities of passion, convergence, wisdom, empowerment and transformation, the dynamics of our charism, express the ongoing life and ministry of Jesus in and through us.
These five dynamics shape the story and personality of Basileia and of all Basileians. We celebrate this story in worship, in how we journey through the calendar year and in our way of life.
These five elements of our charism create the atmosphere and framework of a kingdomcultural way of life in which we participate in the epic story of Paradise lost and regained.
Passion
We imagine our bountiful but broken world restored
We dare to imagine that the world, which was created good and bountiful, but is now broken, shall be restored.
The story of Paradise lost and regained reawakens our imagination and rekindles hope that the world, which was originally created bounteous and beautiful, though now broken, shall be restored. In the beginning the realms of heaven and earth were made one and kissed. The first colony of heaven on earth, Eden, was a thin place on the Mountain of God, a high place between the realms where God walked with mankind. However, when an awful evil slithered into the world, Adam and Eve, the first stewards of Paradise, failed in obedience to crush it. By leaving the Garden’s gateways unguarded they allowed evil to remain and corrupt the image of God in them and their descendants, which in turn ruined all of creation. Grand plans failed. Beauty faded. Death came to all. Yet, in the darkness hope was not extinguished. A prophecy came forth of a Chivalric Hero who would crush evil and restore all things ruined by evil. Nevertheless, on that very day when the stewards of Eden disobediently failed, they were expelled and the gateway to Paradise was locked shut. A thick veil formed between the realms.
Convergence
We are unlikely heroes chosen and gathered
We gather with other unlikely heroes to be trained in the arts and sciences of making the world new again.
But in the fullness of time, in a far country the dark veil was pierced. In a newly created thin place between the realms a ray of light came down upon a Virgin who gave birth to Word made flesh and laid Him in a manger. Shepherds heard angels sing. But few understood then, or even now, how in that moment the world was renewed for all in all times and in all places. Then the Hero assembled a remnant of fellow unlikely heroes and called them His friends. He called them to be with Him and to become like Him and to eventually manifest power like Him. He prepared them in secret places to reclaim the world.
Wisdom
We take dangerous paths into the heart of darkness
We are called, in the wisdom of God, to take dangerous paths into the heart of darkness in order to exhaust evil and restore all things ruined by evil.
But then, in an unexpected twist, after counting the cost of reopening Paradise, for the joy set before Him, the Hero suddenly took dangerous paths into the heart of darkness where there be dragons. Though this was the plan from the beginning, even His closest friends, afraid and not understanding, fell away one by one. One even betrayed Him on that night of nights when, at the Last Supper with His closest friends, He celebrated with bread and wine the beginning again of the world. Only later would they understand and fear no more.
Empowerment
We reopen thin places and awaken immortal genius
In being united with Christ in his death and resurrection we are empowered to live in the thin place connecting heaven and earth where the unique immortal genius given to each of us by grace is awakened.
Then, during the Great Three Days of Pascha, evil, in doing its worst, was undone. By His death the Hero put death to death. He exhausted evil, crushing it on the very path to Paradise upon which it first slithered into the world ages ago. Where Adam and Eve disobediently failed, He obediently succeeded. He smashed Hades’ gates, breaking its locks and chains in order to set the prisoners free. Corruption gave way to incorruption and mortality to immortality. As the sun rose in the east the thick veil between the realms was torn in two from top to bottom. Though at His birth only a single ray pierced the darkness, illuminating but a few, God again now speaks, “Let there be light,” and lights up the whole world anew. The gateway back to Paradise is reopened for all. The Hero ascended and took up His throne in heaven. Heaven and earth now kiss again and are made new. From the north, south, east and west He now draws back to Himself all who had been scattered, anointing them with resurrection power from on high to rule and reign with Him as kings and priests on the earth.
Transformation
We know that chivalric love triumphs
The aesthetic, intellectual and juridical triumph of chivalric love over evil is even now remaking the world into a place dripping with immortal, sophisticated, spell-bindingly beautiful adult glory.
Now begins a new epoch in which glory and grandeur unlike anything ever seen is being unleashed in the world. As heroic, chivalric children of the resurrection we shine like the sun in the Kingdom of our Father. Now begin new adventures in the Epic Story of heavenizing earth.
This is the Epic Story that shapes Basileia. It is the wine that fills our wineskin. It is the feel of our Charism.
Also See: Epic Story: Part 2
