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This Union in time is fruition of the Union in Eternity. The soul which grows into Love, grows from being already in Love. Love shaped the body of the soul, and soul reaches back to Her Beloved through the body. Formless becomes form, and seeks Oneness through form.
If God is to us primarily a King, Father, Judge, Creator, ..., we may not long to be alone with God. If God is to us, first, Lover, or Beloved, we will hasten to the solitude to enjoy time alone with Him, with Her.
For us who are single, as this writer, God may be the One who satisfies our longing for intimacy. Our relationship with the Divine can be erotic, in the sense of inwardly sensual. Christ may become a Beloved. The Holy Spirit may be our Love. Christ is masculine, and Holy Spirit is feminine. For many, Mary, the mother of Jesus, has taken on the role of Lover.
Yet, this sacrally erotic devotion is not only for single persons. This can be known by persons in romantic unions.
Regardless of how we connect with Divine Love, fortunate are we if, like Rabia, knowing Love is foremost in our lives. If we find Loving in the solitude of the heart - what a wonderful gift!
Let us turn to a Christian mystic who wrote of such Love in the Beloved, Love. A poem rendering his saying is:
“What is grace” I asked God.
And He said,
“All that happens.”
Then He added, when I looked perplexed,
“Could not lovers
say that every moment in their Beloved’s arms
was grace?
Existence is my arms,
though I well understand how one can turn
away from
me
until the heart has
wisdom.”
*Daniel Ladinsky. Love Poems from God.
See, the Lover longs to make her aspirations and realizations lyrical. Far from cold logic is the passionate verse or prose of a St. John of the Cross or Rabia.
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