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Prayer: Poem by Brian K. Wilcox
There is peace under the willow
Where beauty of the Sun summons my soul
To its Home, the echoes of I feel, since a child,
But others taught is not real, and I believed, I forgot,
And now my heart awakens from the pain of forsakenness
To find lost Love again, now then,
Here in this place, under the willow,
I rest in peace, in the Sun’s Embrace.
Quote: Irenaeus (Church Father, b. c. 135)
It was for this end that the divine Logos [Preexistent Christ] was made man [Jesus Christ], and he who was the Son of God became the Son of Man, that man, having been taken into the Logos, and receiving the adoption, might become the son of God. For by no other means could we have attained to incorruptibility and immortality, unless we had been united to incorruptibility and immortality. But how could we be joined to incorruptibility and immortality unless, first, incorruptibility and immortality had become that which we also are, so that the corruptible might be swallowed up by incorruptibility, and the mortal by immortality, that we might receive the adoption of sons?
(Irenaeus, "Contra Haereses”; see Kenneth Paul Wesche, “Eastern Orthodox Spirituality: Union with God in Theosis,” in Theology Today, April 1999.)
Story
Once upon a time a monk asked his abbot, while they were walking beside the Sea, “Father, why do you not teach me, as many teach, to imitate Christ?” “Because it is futile to teach you to imitate Christ,” replied the abbot. “Why is that so?” inquired the monk. The abbot said, “My son, stand here and try to imitate the Sea?” The monk spoke, “Father, that is impossible.” “Likewise,” said the abbot, “as futile it is for you to try to imitate Christ.” Inquired the monk, “Then, how shall I grow in Christlikeness?” “To imitate the Sea, you must enter the Sea, you must live in the Sea. Then, you no longer strive to be like the Sea. Likewise, with Christ, to live in Christ is to grow in Christlikeness, my son, while to try to imitate Christ apart from living in Christ only leads to a distortion of what it truly means to be like Christ.”
Comments
Every person of Love is in Christ, by virtue of being a part of the Body of Christ. Love alone places one in the Body of Christ, which is the Body of the Beloved, Love Itself. This is the gift of Divine Grace, the birthright of being in the spiritual, or mystical, Church: for not all in the earthy church or churches are in this Church. However, to be Christlike is to become Christ in spirit and action. As spoken by St. Maximus, in “De ambiguis,”“Love, the divine gift, perfects human nature until it makes it appear in unity and identity by grace with the divine nature.” (see Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, 214).
While we are in Christ and together as the mystical Body of Christ, the personal appropriation of that is essential for Christlikeness. By grace we are Christs; by grace we grow to be like the Christ.
Ultimately, we have to repent of all notions of God, in order to experience the depths of this Union consistently, a union filling all the self with divine grace mediated by the Word to the Holy Spirit, and as coming from the Source. Otherwise, we at best get momentary glimpses of union, but remain apart from the “in Christ” life. And, we are called to live in Christ consistently, and that is the blessing offered every person of every faith who seeks the Christ and aims to live the Christ, fulfilling the teachings of Jesus Christ on love of God and all others, through Divine and Plentiful Grace that regards the heart above the outer confession and obedience above the outer tradition: for no one, in love, can deny being in Christ to anyone who truly seeks the Way of Love, for Christ is the mediator of that very Love, the Love Who is the Way Itself....
Spiritual Exercise
Reflect on the following statement by Meister Eckhart. What does it say to you about living the “in Christ” life? How might notions of God bar us from enjoying the Presence of Christ? What does it mean to say the Holy Spirit is “energy,” or Energy? In what sense can God be everywhere and, at the same time, not “with us”?
We have to rid ourselves of all notions of God in order for God to be there. The Holy Spirit, the energy of God in us, is the true door. We know the Holy Spirit as energy and not as notions and words.
How have "Christians" worshipping the notion of Christ sought to deny persons outside "earthy Christianity" from being in Christ, spiritually and by Love, when many of the ones denied are more Christlike than those who deny their access to Christ?
Consider, if you are not already, sponsoring a child through Compassion International. You can find out more about Compassion International by going to www.compassion.net to read about sponsoring, in the name of Jesus, children living in poverty. Thanks! Brian K. Wilcox
To contact Brian, write briankwilcox@comcast.net .
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