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A Sagely Word
I am He whom I love, and He whom I love is I; we are two spirits dwelling in one body. If you see me, you see Him; and if you see Him, you see us both.
*Al Hallaj (858-922), spent most of his life in Baghdad. He was an Arab and a Sufi Mystic. It is said that when Al Hallaj was being led to execution for being accused of heresy by the Muslim rulers, he spoke, while being led down the streets, “Slay me, O my trustworthy friends! For in being slain is my life.” And, when approaching his executioners, he remarked: “It is now time for the lover to make the One single.” He was an oddity among his mystic colleagues, who felt that sharing mysticism with the masses was inappropriate. Al Hallaj disagreed, and it cost him his temporal life, after over ten years of imprisonment. The mystical teaching of Al Hallaj is similar to the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John, who spoke the authoritative I AM of identity with the Father, the Transcendent God.
Commentary
Recently, at a Conference, I sat with Joyce. Joyce is imbued with Love of God. As she spoke, her faced glowed with Joy. Janet asked me about my view of God. I spoke that God, to me, is the Reality of Love and nothing but Love. And, now, three days later, I can reflect and say what I was saying that day to her, essentially: I have only a theology of Love. In fact, I cannot choose to introduce anything into my thinking about God that is not, as best I understand, Love. For when one re-becomes One with this Love, only Love admits Love into Love in an ongoing dance with Love.
That is one sign of Union with Love: You can no longer introduce other than Love into your perspective of Truth. Otherwise, a person is yet to re-become One with Love, though she might have had varied encounters with this Love. And in this Union with Love, you have passed beyond the choice to Love, for Love does not choose to Love or feel a need to choose to Love, for Love has no inherent need to choose to be Itself.
Joyce spoke of a dear friend who had received a Word from Spirit. This friend was told to speak only of the Love of God, nothing else, when addressing others in religious speech.
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Earlier in the week, I had been Eucharist celebrant and had given the homily. I invited all to come to the Table of Christ, for “Christ is Love” and, therefore, the Communion is our sharing in that Love. That, to me, is adequate: Christ is Love, for God is Love, and Christ is the ongoing Creative Potency and Wisdom of God.
Student: Teacher, what is your Christology?
Teacher: What do you mean?
Student: I mean, on what side of the theological divide do you choose to reside?
Teacher: What do you mean by theological divide?
Student: I mean, some say Christ was God and some say only a man. In seminary I learned that the first group has a high Christology and the other group a low Christology.
Teacher: So what?
Student: Well, I just want to know on what side of the divide are you? Do you teach a high Christology or a low Christology?
Teacher: I neither teach a high nor a low Christology. I simply teach about Christ. I do not come down on the side of any divide, for Christ is Love and Love cannot be divided. Persons may be divided on theology, but God is not the divider. Men of simple minds must divide and stand on sides, for they think they must stand guard over their version of Truth, as though Truth relies on a version of Truth. He who stands with Truth has no need to defend, for Truth is its own defense. Truth only needs to be lived and shared with others. And I choose to be a man of Love and, thus, take no sides: Only to Love. Let others fight about such matters; he in Love cannot fight. Anyway, when you hold the hand of a deeply hurting person, does that person need Love or your Christology?
Student: I guess Love.
Teacher: Then, do not ask me any more silly questions.
While I teach an apophatic theology (theology by negation), that does not mean the kataphatic (theology by affirmation) is not applicable and needed for us. Even to speak of God being Love is kataphatic, for God to be the Other and Mystery, our concept “love” can only be an approximation, at best, of Love. However, that approximation is, nevertheless, true. Therefore, even among those who have taught that the apophatic is the height of theology, they have been persons who spoke of the centrality of Love.
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