THOUGHTS FROM THE EDGE OF TIME

Sometimes I get thoughts from so far out of the blue that they must be from the edge of time…or beyond. This is just another way of saying that the Holy Spirit is not limited to my personal agenda of what I would like to think about (meditation) but allows me once in a while to push toward His agenda (contemplation).

I don’t speak for the Holy Spirit, I just take dictation.

Here are some thoughts in my recent Lectio Divina (Philippians 2:5). Like all my Lectio sessions, they seem to build on one another and are all liked together at a high enough level.

ONE: Everything has a beginning and an ending in the physical and mental universes. Remember, I use the Rule of Threes (one reality with three separate universes) hypothesis. It helps me dissect reality into manageable concepts, so my poor brain can approach the Mystery of Faith (notice, I said approach, not comprehend). I asked the Holy Spirit why that was important, and He told me that using only the physical and mental universes (the World) is not enough to propel individuals to Heaven.

TWO: Everything was going as planned and then Adam and Eve stepped in and threw off the resonance of that plan. Dissonance entered the world a.k.a. Original Sin, the archetypal explanation of why humans do such crazy things with their powers of human reasoning and freedom to choose that which is against their nature (apologizes to B.F. Skinner). From that point in our collective evolution or maturation to today, we are born into the world in a state of alienation from God, even though Christ died for all of us. As individuals, we must claim our adoption as sons and daughters of the Father and live out our lives with Christ as our Principle of the way, the truth, and the life. This is important because it is this Christ principle that enables those marked with the sign of the cross to enter into the next level of human evolution, the spiritual universe. It is so unlike the first two universes, even though this is where we live and learn and love and die, that it is more like the opposite.

THREE: The spiritual universe is not just the anthesis of the physical and mental universes, it is the synthesis. Christ makes all things new each day. Some see this and some don’t have a clue. Christ is the solution to the Divina Equation, admittedly one that most people don’t or can’t solve because they don’t hold the correct assumptions about Christ.

FOUR: Christ did not leave us a guidebook to follow, but empowered those around him to write down their ideas about what it means for each of us to prepare to live now on earth so that we might fulfill our destiny in the next level of evolution, one that begins with Baptism on earth for each of us and ends in the Love of Christ forever.

FIVE: From the moment of Baptism, we are strangers in a foreign land (earth). We prepare for the trip to the Kingdom of Heaven where we can enjoy our Lord’s joy along with all the others who die in the sign of Peace.

SIX: YouTube has accounts of Elton Musk having SpaceX ships that take us to Mars and beyond. There is talk of travel at light speed to escape the earth and its limitations. When we enter the spiritual universe through the energy of God, we begin astronaut training to use a crude analogy. We begin training in how to live in a condition beyond human reasoning and does not correspond to anything we experience on earth. We are asked to love others as Christ loved us as our only task while we live. I don’t know if there is a containment field in Heaven where we live out those authentic experiences of God’s love and mercy toward us, but I am not worried. Reflect on this passage from St. John, Chapter 14. Read it slowly three times. (I don’t usually use quotes to prove anything as much as for you to read the whole passage and allow you to listen to the Holy Spirit with the “ear of your heart.”)

Last Supper Discourses.1^* “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith^* in God; have faith also in me.2In my Father’s house, there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?3* And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.a4Where [I] am going, you know the way.”*5Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”6Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth* and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.b7If you know me, then you will also know my Father.* From now on you do know him and have seen him.”c8Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father,*, and that will be enough for us.”d9Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?e10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.f11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.g12Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.h13And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.i14If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.

The Advocate.15“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.j16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate* to be with you always,k17the Spirit of truth,* which the world cannot accept because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.l18I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.*19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me because I live and you will live.m20On that day, you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.n21Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”o22Judas, not the Iscariot,* said to him, “Master, [then] what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”p23Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.q24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.25“I have told you this while I am with you.26The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you.r27Peace* I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.s28* You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away, and I will come back to you.’t If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.29And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.^u30I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world^* is coming. He has no power over me,31but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me. Get up, let us go.^v

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/14

SEVEN: Christ did not leave the Apostles a book to describe what to do going forward, He left a second advocate to show us and be with us as we journey to tomorrow. Contemplative practice is just allowing those prayers and good works to place us in the proper focus to be present to Christ and the Holy Spirit. Lay Cistercian practices are not ends in themselves but lead us to have in us the mind of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5) each day. It is the Christ Principal that is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory…forever. We humans tag along with Christ in humility and hopefully, obedience to God’s will, in the Hope that we will be in Heaven what we aspire to on earth.

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