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, 20^th 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.1).

 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 ll, 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.