76: Questions on the Union with God

When shall we start to pay attention to “bearing fruits”?

1- Question: During the first lesson of the First level Course, you said that the fruits come after the Union with Jesus. "Union with" Jesus is like when a tree reaches maturity, so after that stage the tree is supposed to start to bear fruits. Or, union with Jesus is like marriage and after marriage one has children. My question is: while we are in the state of purification (in order to reach “Union with Jesus”) could she start paying attention to “bearing fruits”? The fear is that the fruit will not be really fruit, because the self who is giving that fruit is not pure yet... So shall we refrain from giving fruits, thinking that we are still in the purification phase?

1- Answer: It depends what you call “fruits”. If you mean by “fruits” the time “after union the union with Jesus” (Spiritual Marriage), then you are right: there is a difference between one act made after Union and all the acts made before. Saint John of the Cross says about that: “an act of pure love [i.e. made after purification] is more precious in the eyes of God and the soul, and more profitable to the Church, than all other good works together [made before], though it may seem as if nothing were done” (Spiritual Canticle B, Stanza 29, Introduction) because the act after union is “informed” (the form is given by) the Holy Spirit. Of course, saint John of the Cross’ statement is quite strong, and it should push us to do all what we can in order to grow. This is exactly what saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus did when she read that passage.

But, under another angle, “purification” is a sacred work and should be considered as a goal in itself (through it, we reach the union); it is of course an intermediate goal. The phase of purification can perfectly be considered as a “fruit”. Each step in the phase of purification is a “fruit”.

From day one, through Listening to the Daily Word of God, we are listening and putting into practise the Daily word received. The real fact of putting into practise this Word is in itself a Fruit, a fundamental fruit, a real change, a real step ahead, and this happens right from day one. And if we do not do it, there is no need to dream of any spiritual future. This is the condition sine quae non in order to reach the further different phases of purification and the later steps.

So maybe, it would be better to have one more understanding of the concept of  “fruit”. “Loving our neighbour” for instance doesn’t wait until we reach the union with Jesus – oh no!! But, certainly, the quality of our love after union is way different/better. But, mind you, if we don’t start from day one to love our neighbour, we will never reach union. So there is an effort made in order to grow (ascending curve) and there is a more direct effort made in order to bear direct fruits. Each, in its own timing is vital, essential and non-negotiable.

What about sins and weaknesses?

Salvation

2- Question: Even after Salvation (Jesus work on the Cross), what about the sins and weaknesses in us that are forming obstacles to return to that real human being (the original likeness of God)? i.e. how can we understand the relationship between Salvation and actual sins?

2- Answer: The deep analysis of the spiritual journey shows us that there are real changes in the human being. Bad habits stop from existing, sins stop,… (I mean serious sins). When the Power of the Resurrection of Jesus enters in us, real change starts to happen. Otherwise, there is no growth, there is not transformation, there is no purification. The very definition of purification is brought to us from the understanding of a real change: an old “form” in us is taken away by the Holy Spirit, and a holier “form” is brought instead, replacing it. A real change happens, therefore sins and weaknesses (that are sins) do tend to disappear, starting from the lower ones (more materialistic).

Mind you, many Christians don’t believe in real change, they don’t believe that a real change can occur in them. We don’t change our nature, or our character and temperament, but sins do disappear. If the human being on earth doesn’t change, this wouldn’t be real Christianity; this wouldn’t be the message of the Gospel. Some Christians do believe that once Jesus covers us with His Blood that’s enough and this compensates for anything we do later; i.e. we remain as we are, roughly. This is a wrong understanding of the application of Salvation to us. All the Christian Masters of Spiritual Life do state clearly that the human being changes, and they describe the steps of this deep inner (and external) change.

Mind you: the inclination/tendency to sin is not a sin. Let me explain that: if I see a lovely chocolate pudding, yummy, I’ll feel a certain natural inclination/attraction toward it. This is not yet a sin! Baptism doesn’t remove that inclination to sin, it is left in us for the spiritual warfare that will generate real growth and change.

Same for the case of weaknesses that are not sins, or character/temperament. One must read the great saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus who revolutionised Spiritual Life and Spiritual Theology. (Even if we read correctly saint John of the Cross we will find the same teaching.) She introduced the possibility of having errors, faults (fautes) that are not sin, and that don’t sadden God. Making this difference is subtle but important.

More than that: spiritual growth (purification) doesn’t generate in us greater strength, but greater weakness. Jesus says in the Gospel: “blessed who is poor in spirit” and to saint Paul who was asking him to remove a “thorn” from his flesh, thinking that that would be “perfection”: I rejoice and work in your weakness – this means: you’ll remain weak, and therefore my Grace will work better in you, so you don’t lean on your new strength but on my Grace. This is a different take on Perfection. We should renew our understanding of “perfection”, “holiness”, the real goal we are seeking.

We are heading toward a spiritual growing discovery of our weakness, and a growing spiritual experience of the Mercy of God.

As you see: Many understandings, many elements of spiritual life, will be put upside-down, during our spiritual growth.

Are there sins after Union?

3- Question: After the Union with Jesus, is there still a sin in the phases after?

3- Answer: God is Freedom. Jesus is God. When a person reaches Union with Jesus, one doesn’t have less freedom, but more freedom. Certainly the person is transformed in God, in Jesus, but this doesn’t deprive the person from his/her freedom. Remember Adam: he was close to God, in the beginning, and he still sinned.

King Solomon's idolatry

When saint Theresa of Avila speaks about the union with Jesus she mentions the example of Salomon (who started well his spiritual life, but ended very badly, worshiping the gods of his foreign wives) just to show us that nobody is exempt from the possibility of sinning (God forbid of course).

During this lifetime we have a body, we have freedom, we can perform acts: therefore we can sin. This is why Jesus said that we need to persevere “till the end”, and that nothing is guaranteed. Of course nobody wants to sin, neither Jesus nor us. This is why as well we need the final perseverance and we need to remain in the Grace of God till the end and we ask it in the Hail Mary: “pray for us, …, in the hour of our death. Amen”

What is perfection?

4- Question: Can we picture the Union with God?

4- Answer: Jesus explains to us some aspects of the Union with God when He says: ””You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Mt 5:48)

What is perfection? According to Jesus words, perfection is to love both your friends and your enemies. Love is coming from an inner abundance, springing from our heart. The one who believes in Jesus opens himself to the Abundance of Spirit flowing out of God. Accepting Jesus’ Gift (the Holy Spirit) transforms our heart. The Holy Spirit puts Jesus in the centre of our heart. So we can say: “its not me who lives, but Jesus lives in me” (st Paul) and acts through me and with me.

Jesus has His Heart opened all the time, and springing of Holy Spirit, unconditionally, to everybody. For this reason one of the most common images used to translate this openness, unconditional abundance is the Sun. Jesus is our real Sun, giving his rays all the time.

The perfection of God is a perfection of Love. “Love is to give oneself.” This Perfection of God’s nature bears in it “abundance” and “unconditional” love. The very nature of God is to give, unconditionally. God loves because He is Love. He finds the reason to love in Himself (not in us). The power of love, this capacity to love, this springing unconditional abundance is what characterises the very nature of God, his holiness and his perfection.

We often tend to imagine perfection in an esthetical way, like a Greek statue, with no errors in its forms, proportions, beauty, expression, and numbers. While we are called to change our vision of God’s perfection and holiness.

This is essential, in order to be able to “imagine” or “picture” the perfection and holiness we are called to reach. “Union with God” is union with the One who is abundant, who loves unconditionally, and who finds in Himself an endless source of Love. He is the one who encompasses every being in the bosom of his Mercy. He is the “most low” (and not the “most high”), since His Being (Love), brings Him to the lowest parts of humanity (like the water of the rain that trickles down the high mountain).

Perfection won’t then be striving toward the strongest, the most powerful, the highest, etc. perfection according to the true God is: “going down”, humility, Love, Compassion, Mercy.

The greater in Mercy, is the one who is more united to God. The greater in patience, is the more united to God.

The greater in humility and understanding, and excusing his brothers and sisters is closer to God.

The one who receives in his heart everybody, unconditionally, is the one who has been transformed into God.

Perfection is not a competition to win the highest mountain climb. It is not either the most aesthetic movement in our acts. It is to have our heart full with the Love of God and love not with our own strength, but God’s.

Perfection is letting God transform our heart into His Heart, so we can be and act like Him.

The one who believes will have streams of Living Water (Holy Spirit) coming out of his bosom (John). Streams of Mercy, of Love, of Compassion to his brothers and sisters.

69: The deep meaning of Creation 1/..

By « deep meaning » I frankly think of the “mystical”, “spiritual” meaning. 

You might be surprised, but Philosophy doesn’t address the act of creation itself. Why? Because it supposes a "Creator" and a knowledge about this Creator. And this requires the grace of “faith”, i.e. a superior Light.

So if we really want to understand "Creation", "Nature", all what is created, including ourselves as creatures, we need to accept to make a leap of faith.

Paradoxically, we can touch with our hands all the created things, but we can’t touch with the same hands the Creator. The Creator is certainly bigger and much more beautiful than his Creation, therefore, we need something bigger than our hands to grasp Him. By definition, He transcends his creation, He is of a different nature.

In this post I am not dealing with « proving » that a Creator exists… It is about trying to discover the meaning of Creation.

For that, we have two classical questions :

1- « why are we created ? » and 2- « what is the goal of the Creation of this world ? »

And we have two classical answers that go like that:

1- We are created by God, out His of love for us, we are created in order to know Him and Love Him (and be known and loved by Him).

2- The rest of Creation is there to help us fulfil that Goal (know Him and love Him).

The human being is created "by God" and "for God". You might object: "this is too selfish from God’s part". Well the human being is created “at the Image and at the resemblance of God”, capable of entering in a personal relationship with God. He is created free, as God is free. Free even to say “yes” or “no” to God Himself. In fact, you can only love if you are free. You can’t be forced to love. It has to come from you, not from outside of you.

How the human being is created?

Before Creation (don’t ask me right now “when did it happen?”) we were – as a thought, as a project, as a dream – in God's Mind, in His Thought. We were imagined as sharing His Life, His Love, breathing from the same very “Life” of God.

He Created us according to His Thought, according to what he foresaw and dreamt about us.

Many people think wrongly that the story of “Creation” as it is told in the Book of Genesis (Gn 1-3) is a bit out-dated. I do not share that opinion. For people who want to gather scientific information about planet earth, the Milky-way galaxy, etc., they did open the wrong book. But, for people who are trying to understand "who is God" and "who is the Human being", and "what is the purpose of life", the stories you find in the Bible, especially in first chapters of Genesis, are simply a Golden Mine.

Creation of Eve

For instance, the « days » of Creation are not “days” (we can’t have “days” before having the “sun”), but they still describe the formation of the Human being, who is the highest point on earth, the meeting point between earth and heaven. Man is at the meeting point of two triangles, one from below pointing upwards and one from above pointing downward.

Man is the achievement of the visible Creation, the point where it is aiming, he summarises in himself all Creation, he has in himself all aspects of the visible Creation: water (mineral), vegetation (vegetal), and animal. But he goes further and transcends them.

The Jewish mystical tradition always considered the first chapters of Genesis as being very deep and kept their explanation for people after 40 years old, since they enclose a deep mystical meaning. “mystical” in the sense that it discloses many aspects of the meaning of who is the human being, and who is he in relation to God, and to the intimate relationship with God.

(to be continued)

52: P Pio, the Stigmata and Jesus' Passion

Two days ago I was watching a film on P Pio. P Pio is the first Priest to receive the Lord's Stigmata (His 5 physical wounds: 2 hands, 2 feet, and the side) . For 50 years, he lived what in fact was lived by the Lord during few hours: His Holy Passion.

What a mystery! Jesus comes amongst us, in us, through us, and lives again and again His Unique and unrepeatable Passion.

The amazing thing with P Pio is that what was very common during the first 3 Centuries of Christianity, but lived for only few hours or maybe few days, he lived it for 50 years! I mean by that what the Martyrs went through: participating into the Passion of the Lord, or better said, as the accounts of the Martyrs point it out: Jesus comes in the Martyr and suffers again and again, in His "Mystical Body", His Passion (please do delve in the early accounts of the Christian Martyrs). Martyrs are the Passion of Jesus extended in time.

Some might think that these things are a bit “too much”, or a “catholic deviation”. Well, not really. Remember that saint Luke, in his second work, the Act of the Apostles, when he mentions the first Martyr (Stephen), he takes great care of showing him following the steps of Jesus, almost dying like Jesus (Acts chapter 7): being persecuted, martyred to death, and forgiving his murderers. Saint Luke shows us that if Jesus is seated that the Right Hand of the Father, He is in His "Mystical Body" as well, on earth, continuing his suffering, His Passion and His work of salvation. Salvation has been done once and for ever on the Cross. But this unique Passion has to reach people and in order to do so, Jesus wants us to help Him, to give Him space and time (give Him our existence), so He can come in us, and continue to live His Mystery and His Salvation. There are no two (or more) salvations, there is only one. But this only one needs to reach all humans; and this relies on us. This is why Jesus says (see John 15): be in Me and Me in you, so you can “do” something. The only “action” of the Lord is “to save”. So, in order to let Him save through us, we need to dwell in Him and Him in us.

P Pio is just an example of what should be normal for us. I don't mean that we all have to receive the visible stigmata, but there is plenty to delve in as for "sufferings" in order to help Jesus. Some might still doubt that and would like to allow it only for few exceptions. This is wrong. You may go back to the series of 11 diagrams describing the total length of our Spiritual Journey of growth (please click here). You'll notice that, in the end of our journey, in the descending curve, all of us are invited to “participate to the Passion of the Lord". Note that there is another moment, much before this one, where we meet and benefit from the Passion of the Lord, in order to be purified: this would be in the ascending curve (see the Diagram).

Remember saint Paul, and please consider carefully what he says, because he went through the same journey: “I do not live, but Jesus lives in me”, “I complete in my flesh what lacks in the Passion of Jesus, for the Church His body”, and as well: “I carry in my body the stigmata of Jesus” (Ga 6:17).

I am sure you noticed that powerful expression: “the stigmata of Jesus” (in Greek saint Paul says: “Stigmata”). For people who still doubt that, let us read this long passage of saint Paul. Please do read it, having in mind P Pio, all his life, the 50 years baring the Stigmata of Jesus:

“But we have this Treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing Power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

We always carry around in our body the Death of Jesus, so that the Life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that His life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but Life is at work in you.

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.” (2 Co 7,7-15)

This passage in itself deserves a long commentary. Don't you think?

43: The unavoidable mystical dimension of Christianity 2

(Continuation of "Spirituality 16a")

In John chapter 6, when Jesus starts to say that He is “the Bread” and that that Bread is his own flesh (not “body” but “flesh”) and his own blood, people were shocked.

And the good thing is that John, the Apostle, is underlining the fact that people were shocked. John is not avoiding the difficulty inherent to the “mystical dimension” that Jesus is offering: eating his flesh and drinking his blood.

“- Too close!” “- Too intimate!” The least you can say.

John gives us the spontaneous reaction of some people: "How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?"

Did Jesus drop it? John doesn’t seem to say that, on the contrary.

Did Jesus say to himself: “ok, this is too difficult for them, I will then stop speaking about this difficult topic, let change the subject”, or “let us dilute it a bit and make it milder”? No, He didn’t. Seriously, we should be surprised by the fact that Jesus kept going on.

He just simply continued on His track. He even emphasised the difficulty, and, to a degree, He made it more difficult. He tried to explain, develop, expand:

"Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” (John 6)

Later, in that same text of John 6, John will say that, at this junction, some stopped following Jesus.

Facing the "Mystical Dimension" of our own faith

Each Christian has one day to face the “mystical dimension” of his/her faith, responsibly, as an adult, and decide which side he/she wants to take. To enter deeply in this mystical dimension, or just trop his Christian faith.

Jesus won’t change his plan just because “we don’t like it”, or “we have some difficulty to grasp it”. He is ready to help though, if we are opened, if we ask for His help. But he won’t avoid the “mystical dimension”.

- What is mystical? - “Mystical” can be surprisingly confusing. But it is real, and it is deeply the core of becoming a Christian. When Jesus invites us to “eat his Flesh” (John 6), to “dwell in Him” (John 15), when saint Paul says: “it is not me who lives but Jesus who lives in me”, we are simply in the “mystical” dimension.

We have the three-dimensional world space: 3D. We can add “time” as a fourth dimension. I don’t want to go into a mathematical marathon to add more dimensions, I am just pointing out to the "normal" human being that we already can easily grasp the existence of 4 dimensions. The 2D is simply a photo you are watching. A 3D, is a body, in 3D. If the body moves, we have 3D + time (motion).

The “mystical dimension” is one more dimension that is totally necessary for Christian life.

In order to understand the “mystical dimension”, let me use an analogy, just to open the way to this “new dimension”:

Did you ever watch any episode of “Drop Dead Diva”? It is the story of a 24 years old girl, Deb, who is an aspiring model (you can imagine the body), who has a car accident, reaches heaven, and then comes back to earth but in the body of a 32 years old big girl, Jane, who is a lawyer, and who just died.

The soul (and spirit) of a person, Deb, falls into the body (and the brain) of another person: Jane.

Note: Of course I am not at all going to address the issue of "is this possible or not". For Christianity it is simply not acceptable, for one body is for one soul, numerically this body is for this soul, in a unique and definitive way. I am just taking this TV series case as an analogy. Many people accept that "mystical" game, even if it is not possible to have it in real life, so I just hope it may helps us to get closer to the daily Christian "mystical dimension".

"Transformed", "not "lost"

When Paul says: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Ga 2:20), of course it is not at all identical to Jane’s case in “Drop Dead Diva”, but it has a sort of a remote similarity that opens the way to the real things.

When Jesus grows in us, and becomes more alive (remember the "Spiritual Marriage" or "union with Jesus-God" we saw previously), we still have all our being (our soul is not lost or replaced by Jesus' one like in Jane's case). We still have our body, our soul, and our spirit. We don't loose any part of our being. They are renewed, purified, elevated. We are just "inserted", "rooted" in Jesus' humanity and transformed in it but not lost. "Improved", but not lost.
Our body is in Jesus’ body, our soul, is in Jesus’ soul, our spirit is in Jesus’ spirit. All our human nature (body, soul and spirit) is in His human nature. All our human nature - dwelling in His human nature - is united to his divinity as well. Remember that His human Nature is united to the Divine Nature of the Second Divine Person of the Trinity.
The following diagram helps us "visualise" the "new life" "in Jesus":

The "human being" on the right (each one of us) is invited to enter in the humanity of Jesus (on the left). Saint Augustine says about Communion: we think we eat Him, but in fact He eats us. The three arrows show us that our body enters (is rooted) in Jesus' body; the same for our soul and for our spirit.
"entering" in fact is a very weak word. We should say that we are transformed in Him. Transformation, again, doesn't mean we loose our humanity, our body, our soul, our spirit. They are enriched, Christ grows in them, and starts to take more and more a greater "space" in us, and moves us, acts through us. We don't loose our will, but our will is transformed in His.
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus says that when she does good things to her sisters, in fact Jesus in her is acting and doing them. She didn't mean that her personality is lost, but she means that Jesus is alive in her, and has a greater influence, and moves her in a higher and new way. Again: she doesn't loose her will, her freedom.
As you can notice on the diagram, Jesus' humanity (the square that includes His body, soul and spirit) is placed in the Divine Person of the Logos (the large rectangle), the Second Person of the Trinity, and is united to it.

It is like as if you uproot a plant, “our humanity” (body, soul and spirit), and root it in Jesus’ Person (the Logos Incarnate).
Rooted in Jesus, it is like we acquire a mystical person.

35: The Spiritual Journey 9/11

The complete shape of our Spiritual Journey

Recapitulation

We are continuing the discovery of the shape of our Spiritual Journey, of our spiritual growth, the new goal and the new stages. The last diagram (8/11) showed us a new part in our spiritual journey. It showed us that the goal of Christian life is not just to reach the “union with God-Jesus” (reaching the top of the mountain). It showed us that, after reaching the Union with Jesus-God, we still have a lot to do, like the Son of God himself when He took flesh. He didn't jut incarnate, he went much further, He realised a mystical union with each one of us, and the final step in this “mystical union” was our Redemption realised during his Passion, especially during the Crucifixion, bringing us from “darkness” to “Light”. We know how much this cost Him.

This is then for us a “turning point”. Our Journey doesn't aim only toward “candies” it aims as well (at the image of Christ's journey) toward Redemption, trial, real love. Instead of aiming to a higher point (God, the very Nature of God, a final Union with the immensity of God, the Beatitude, the Eternal Happiness), we change the angle, and start to look down, and start to “study” the descent... a descent toward a more intense, grounded, serious love to our brothers. We will learn it from Christ, and He will come in us to live it! Pursuing His mission through us.

There is no greater love than to lay our soul, our life, for our brothers and sisters, says Jesus. My new Commandment is to do as I did: to love as I did. You can't do it just by yourself, you can do it only if you are transformed in Me and Me in you. Otherwise you can't bare it, its too heavy! When the disciple will be totally formed, he'll be like his Master (and not “greater than Him”: just seeking Beatitude, not wanting to follow his footsteps). Saint Paul says it: “I am offered like a libation” (2 Tm 4:6), and “I complete in my flesh what lacks in Jesus' Passion “for his Body””. All the Apostles went through martyrdom (even John who didn't die from it, went through it). The perseverance in the imitation of Jesus should reach its full realisation, reaching its end goal.

So, when we reach the Union with Him, we are like brought to the point of His Incarnation (when the Son of God takes flesh). We are ready to start the journey of collaborating with Him in the work of Redemption, or more precisely: we are ready to take our share in the application of the Redemption He acquired for each one of us on the Cross, in its application to the rest of the human beings, our brothers and sisters.

The work of “acquiring” Redemption depends totally on Him (because He is the only being who is in the same time God and man, therefore the only Redeemer), but the work of “application” depends on His Mystical Body, us. This is His choice and His will, out the of the mystery of His love for us. He wants us to work with him, to take our share in the work of salvation of our brothers and sisters (its application).

It is already a great love for us, His love that makes us be united with Him (reaching the top of the mountain). But there is even a greater love : to make us share His work of Redemption, so we can work on applying it to our brothers and sisters, and be part of the their salvation.

The full shape of our Journey

The full shape of our Journey is to complete both parts of the Journey: ascending, and descending. With this diagram, we can start from now to see the full shape of the journey: we start our ascent from the bottom of the mountain, we climb the Mountain (Christ himself), being purified by the Holy Spirit, step by step, until we reach the Union with Jesus, and then after a while we start our descent, attracted by the weight of Charity, heading toward a greater love of our brothers and sisters.

Again, going up we are following Jesus' journey in the Gospel, receiving the purification from Him, and going down, we are following Jesus' journey in the Gospel, but this time, He is in us and us in Him, giving Him to our brothers and sisters, participating in their growth, purification, reception of the Redemption realised by Christ.

The full shape of our Journey

Both ways we meet Jesus, His Mission and His Passion; we follow the same journey of His. The first part by receiving Jesus, and the second by rather giving Jesus to our brothers.

We are all invited to reach this great love:  “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13)

(To be continued...)