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3. The third group has an inner Vision of Truth, of God living in their hearts. They have “seen,” that is, personally experienced the Reality of Sacredness. This has led them to have no need or wish to be motivated by the hope of either avoiding some hell or getting some Heaven. When someone claims the hope of Heaven is essential for motivating persons to faithfulness, this does not refer to the contemplative, or mystic, for this person is immersed in the Love of God and, thus, this denuding of interest in all else but Love dissolves attention to motives pertaining to damnation or reward. This Vision has, indeed, baptized one in a death from the very self that in many seeks for itself avoidance of damnation and enjoyment of Paradise.
A contemplative mystic has no need to be motivated by fear of a hell or aspiration for a Heaven. She is in Love. She is part of the universal Body of Christ, the Word, Who is the Perfect Incarnation of Love. She is in Love with the world of creatures. She is deeply loved in Christ by brothers and sisters in the Word, and she deeply loves them—I refer to those who are among what the New Testament calls pneumatikoi, or spiritual ones. She is in Love with many whom the “official” Christians damn; but, she sees the Christ in them whom other persons damn and that many are more Christian than those who damn them. Nature manifests the Glory of Grace to her. Her daily walk flows from a holistic Vision of Life.
Each day she breathes the Presence of the Beloved and enjoys the Mystery of the Godhead. No human can take this Vibrant Vision from her, for no person gave it to her. Her enemies only strengthen it by their opposition and defamation, and they cannot understand the joy and courage that flows from this daily living in Grace: they can only mock her in their ignorance of this Beatitude that they find no way to receive. To focus on either a fear of some hell or an aspiration of some Paradise would be a distraction from the Kingdom of God, the Party of Christ, for the contemplative mystic, for the Party is all around and within her.
Indeed, in Love, she already is enjoying Heaven, and she shares Heaven with persons ready to receive. In this contemplative mystic, being in Love, she needs neither motive to escape a hell or get a Heaven, for she is one with God, now. This removes the self-centering that desires either avoidance of future judgment or future reward. All fear and aspiration pertaining to the beyond-death state, revolving around a separate sense of self, apart from the Divine, are swallowed in this Love.
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The way to Joy is the path of forgetting the selfishness that needs to work for eternal gain or to avoid eternal loss. The way to Peace is to live from the motive of Love Itself.
Certainly, not all persons need to abdicate the motive of avoidance or aspiration. Yet, I contend it is the will of Love to lead us to grow into the selflessness in which Love is the only motive for our devotion and service. All lesser loves, then, are taken captive, and blessedly so, by the Flame of Sacred Brilliance and within the heart and mind of the mystic, who takes such freedom into the world and in the name of the Christ, Who is Grace.
Reflections
What encouraged you in the writing today? Explain.
Did you disagree with something in the writing today? If so, explain.
Spiritual Exercise
Meditate and pray with one of the passages in the writing today.
Make sure you have a sacred space in your home for time alone in prayer and spiritual reading.
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
Brian’s book An Ache For Union can be purchased at major book dealers.
To contact Brian, write briankwilcox@comcast.net .
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