|
Wisdom Story
Three-year-old Barry Briggs adamantly refused to leave his pennies at Sunday School, despite his mother's instructions. The fourth Sunday that he trotted home with them, his mother again informed him, "That money is for Jesus. Don't you want to give it to Him?" "He never comes," explained Barry.
Comments
It is natural for children to interpret concretely matters of religious faith. And, indeed, much of faith is to be seen as literal. Yet, as we grow, we have opportunity to evolve to see ~ and "seeing" spiritually means "to experience" ~ deeper, more spiritual meanings of contents of faith; as in, Scriptures, ritual, morality, sacred space, theology, ... These unfold inner meanings we had not seen before. These meanings keep evidencing over time. We see, we experience, as we are prepared to see, to experience.
This spiritual insight, or seeing into, elements of faith, immensely enriches our walk with God. And this is a decisive difference between consensual faith, or the faith held by most persons of a faith group, and spiritual faith, wherein persons move beyond only surface meaning to inner, subtle, and highly symbolic meanings.
The early Desert Fathers gave us the teaching of spiritual senses. Thomas Keating gives examples of the dynamic progression of our relationship with God, a development that awakens capacity to experience God at ever-deepening levels of attentiveness. I will choose one example: taste.
A still more profound communication of God is the spiritual sense of taste. The psalmist urges us to be open to this grace: "Taste and see that the Lord is sweet." It is one thing to be so close as to touch someone, another to penetrate the spirit of the other. Only God who dwells within can be experienced at such an intimate and profound level.
When we taste something, we usually consume it and transform it into ourselves; it becomes a part of us. In divine union the presence of God arises not only as an irresistible attraction or embrace, but as a unifying presence in our inmost being. It is there that the grace of Pentecost takes place; Christ living our life, or more exactly, living us. When our whole being is rooted in God, we see him in everything and everything in him. This is not the fruit of one experience, at least not as a rule, but the full development of the spiritual senses. Once we have accessed the experience of spiritual taste, we can move back and forth among the spiritual senses like the angels on Jacob's ladder, a symbol of relating to God at each level of our being.
*www.contemplativeoutreach.org
Likewise, from the Church comes the teaching of differing and deeper levels of Scripture. Following is a brief look at this from "The Catechism of the Catholic Church":
According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church.
The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation [other interpretations always are based on this sense, as St. Thomas Aquinas teaches].
The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs.
The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ's victory and also of Christian Baptism.
The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written "for our instruction".
The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, "leading"). We can view realities es and events in terms of their eternal significance, us toward our true homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem.
*www.vatican.va . For sources referred to in the catechism, see the original document.
There is a leap between a literal sense of Scripture and any more spiritual sense, or subtle sense. The contemplative does not force Scripture to unfold spiritual meanings. Rather, as the mind is spiritualized, or individual consciousness is formed into the Mind of Christ, by the Inner Spirit, the contemplative will begin discerning spiritual significations held within the Scripture. This is to say:
Contemplative practice leads one to spirtualization of the mind, whereby, through the Living Word, Christ, of the written Word, the Scripture, the lover of Christ Jesus receives the arising of signs within Scripture as they point to meaning held within the Christ, the One Word. The signs and their meanings are words of the Word. Therefore, a contemplative reception of Scripture is a participating in the Mind of Christ, an entering into the seeing of Christ, a receiving of Christ Himself.
So, above are two examples of how contemplation transforms the seeing, or experiencing, of the lover of Christ Jesus. The spiritualization in Christ, through passive consent to God, awakens innate gifts in us, and these manifests in spiritual senses and the spiritual sense of the Scripture.
I recommend you read more on these two results of contemplation explored in this writing. However, recall that the Christian contemplative is having awakened deeper seeing, for this is really a more whole encounter with and reception of Christ Himself.
O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that united
The Lover with His beloved,
Transforming the beloved in her Lover.
*St. John of the Cross, "The Dark Night." In K. Kavanaugh and O. Rodriguez. The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross.
Reflection
How do you see sensitivity to spiritual meaning growing through your relationship with the Living Christ? What challenges does this present for you? How does it enrich your relationship to varied aspects of faith; such as, Christian fellowship, use of Scripture, liturgy, prayer, private devotion, ...?
Brian will respond to requests pertaining to seeking a Spiritual Mentor. He offers retreats, workshops, and classes in such subjects as Contemplative Prayer (he trains in Visualized Praying, Centering Prayer, Christian Meditation, The Jesus Prayer, ...), Contemplative Living, A Spiritual Understanding of the Lord's Prayer, and Spiritual Use of the Scripture. See any major on-line bookseller for his book An Ache for Union.
For submission of replies and biographical information, see next page:
Continued... |
