From “Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life” by Richard Rohr
If you have, in fact, deepened and grown “in wisdom, age, and grace” (Luke 2:52), you are able to be patient, inclusive, and understanding of all the previous stages. That is what I mean by my frequent use of the phrase “transcend and include.” That is the infallible sign that you are enlightened, psychologically mature, or a truly adult believer. The “adepts” in all religions are always forgiving, compassionate, and radically inclusive. They do not create enemies, and they move beyond the boundaries of their own “starter group” while still honoring them and making use of them. Jesus the Jew criticizes his own religion the most, yet never leaves it! Mature people are not either-or thinkers, but they bathe in the ocean of both-and. (Think Gandhi, Anne Frank, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, and the like.) These enlightened people tend to grease the wheels of religious evolution. As Albert Einstein said, “No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that caused it in the first place.” God moves humanity and religion forward by the regular appearance of such whole and holy people.