THE DIVINE EQUATION

My Lectio Divina meditations usually group up into a unified theme, eventually. Right now, what comes to my mind is about cosmic influences of the Christ Principle, certainly a macro approach to reality. Let me share what I mean by that. I have been thinking of how the Triune God has an equation that each human must unlock in order to move to the next level of their progression, the spiritual universe. I say that because, although Christ came to save all humanity and gave them the key to opening the door to the next level of their evolution, it is one which each person must willingly open (Baptism). Christ is the key to the door, the Gate through which all must pass.

The Good Shepherd.1^* “Amen, amen, I say to you,^a whoever does not enter a sheepfold^* through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.2But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.3The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.4^* When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,^b because they recognize his voice.5But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”6Although Jesus used this figure of speech,^* they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.7^* So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep.8^* All who came [before me] are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.9I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.10A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.11I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.^c12A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them.^d13This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.14I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me,15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.^e16I have other sheep^* that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.^f17This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.^g18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.^* This command I have received from my Father.”^h19Again there was a division among the Jews because of these words.ⁱ20Many of them said, “He is possessed and out of his mind; why listen to him?”^j21Others said, “These are not the words of one possessed; surely a demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he?”^k

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/10

The Christ Principle is a term that I use to make sense out of what Christ left us to help us turn that key and open the Gate. Everything that is, the atoms, the energy, even time itself, must pass through Christ, the Gate in its inexorable rush to the end, the Omega.

I think of the word energy in terms of The Rule of Threes. Those who have read my blogs know that I keep raising this paradigm up over and over. It is my hypothesis about how I can look at reality and see the Christ Principle at work. To refresh your thinking, there are three distinct and separate universes that comprise one reality (physical universe — all matter, all time, all energy, all life, including humans; the mental universe– only humans live in this universe. We have reason for a reason and the ability to choose meaning; the spiritual universe, one entered only by free act of the will and sustained by the Christ Principle).

THE ENERGY OF GOD

First of all, I don’t pretend to know the energy of God and even describe it except through what Jesus taught us about the Father and the Holy Spirit. Who knows the mind of God or who has been his counselor, says the Psalmist? What I can begin to describe in the world in which I live, one that has energy as a constant in all three distinct universes (physical, mental, and spiritual).

When I think of energy, limited as my understanding is, I think of power.

Power in the Physical Universe

What is the greatest physical power in the known universe? I looked it up and it is a hypernova. https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulmsutter/2020/02/05/whats-more-powerful-than-a-supernova-a-hypernova/?sh=2566ce866b6e

This is important for us in that we humans could not withstand the energy of the physical universe. This is the physical power of the universe. We just happen to be on a spot where we can develop and move forward (even if it is only seventy or years for each individual). Why is that? Although the energy of matter is more powerful than any human, why is it that we know that there is a powerful energy source called the hypernova, but it does not know about us?

Power in the Mental Universe

We find ourselves on a gaseous rock moving through space and time and can ask why so why is that? We can probe what makes up all around us by using mathematics, chemistry, physics, and other languages that explain what is happening to us. Only humans can do this, and not all humans have the capacity or the capability to do so. Why is that? This mental universe is what we call the world and is the result of human reasoning and regulations that seek to allow us to exist without killing each other. Is that all there is? This is the power of the human mind, both individually and collectively, compounded through the centuries. Again, why is it that I can know about other animals, but they can’t know about me? What is more powerful than physical reality? Mental Reality. Think about it. Is that all there is to life? I hope not.

Power in the Spiritual Universe

The missing part of the Divine Equation is the spiritual universe, that which is the product of energy outside of the scope of human consciousness overshadowing all of reality to open up the destiny of humanity, to live with God forever outside the physical and mental universes. That is so unbelievable to those who don’t have the assumption that God had to become human nature to tell us and show us how to live in this spiritual universe, one at odds with the world, one that is the opposite of what the world teaches is the fulfillment of being human, that it takes help from God in the form of Faith to even help humans to get an inkling of what that means. God gave us six questions (my hypothesis only) to solve the Divine Equation as well as the answers that will unlock that Gate in our minds and allow us to fulfill our destiny as human being.

• What is the purpose of Life?
• What is the purpose of my life within the purpose of Life?
• What does reality look like?
• How does it all fit together?
• How to love fiercely?
• You know you are going to die, now what?

The questions come from our openness to what Christ reveals to us through Scripture and the teachings of the Church through the ages. The answers come from our openness to what Christ came to tell us and show us how to solve this equation which fulfills the physical and mental universe and produces the energy of love to sustain us in the Kingdom of Heaven. What is more powerful than the physical and mental universes? In the divine equation, the answer to the purpose of life is the Christ Principle, the next dimension of our evolution. Why is that? Both the Alpha and Omega reveal to us how the spiritual universe. This is not our normal world, although we live in it until we die and pass over to the next dimension in our evolution (Baptism).

Since this Lectio Divina is a long one, lasting over ten days, I will just give you my thoughts in spurts. This first spurt is on about who has the power in the universe. If God is so powerful, can He make you do anything you don’t choose to do? The answer is as old as the hills (Genesis 2-3) and has to do with choice. Using my Rule of Threes hypothesis, let look at energy in three dimensions or universes. I will do so using the following ideas:

THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE — Energy in this universe, in which we survive under very tight conditions, is the natural law, how things are with the interactions of gas, matter, time, gravity, and the periodic table. I eluded up above about the most powerful object in the universe being a hypernova. Power in this universe is doing what nature intended, be they galaxies, monkeys, butterflies, humans– all matter and time. Humans are not the most powerful object in this universe, in terms of physical energy. But is that all there is?

THE MENTAL UNIVERSE –Obviously, because you are reading this blog, there must be another dimension of power beyond physical energy, namely, mental energy. This is not physical energy but enables us to look at reality to discover why we are, who we are, and so what. Humans are the only ones in this universe. We use languages developed by humans over time to sort through what is true from what is false. This is the universe of free choice, but also one that has reason to determine the results of those choices. In this way, Adam and Eve had reason to know about the Garden of Eden and how to be happy. Something happened to all human nature (the archetype of living in time), and we chose poorly. It is a question of how we humans learn to deal with reason and the freedom to choose that which might be bad for us. None of us choose what will be bad for us. Rather, we make choices we think will make us happy. Is that all there is to life? If so, you can have it.

THE SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE — This last universe is one humanity could not attain by themselves. It is by invitation only. The good news is all humans are invited if they can solve the Divine Equation and answer these six questions correctly. In the mental universe, there are competing elements that say, “I am the way,” “do this and you will be saved.” Because humans live in the physical and mental universes (called the World), we get our answers from all the interests that compete for our attending (including Satan). We enter this Kingdom of Heaven on earth to prepare to live in the Kingdom of Heaven with Christ, but we must choose to do so. This is where God has a problem with humans, beginning with Adam and Eve, down through Cain and Abel, through the tribes of Israel worshipping the Golden Calf, to our day with secular humanism replacing God’s way, truth, and life.

You are born on earth and live for seventy or eighty years. If you are strong, then you die. Why is that? In all those powerful galaxies and the energy of billions of Suns, you are more powerful than all that. In all those that life, of all the animals, of all other humans who have ever lived, you are the most powerful of all of them. This energy is the power to choose what is right over what is easy. Not even God, whose power is beyond any descriptions humans might ever conceive, can’t make you say Yes. You have the power of saying No. No is a blocking word, and you alone can choose what is right, or as Adam and Eve found out, the results of eating the fruit of the tree of good and evil.

God gave each of us the power to be adopted sons and daughters of the Father. This means that the only thing God does not posses is our free will to say “through Him, with Him, and in Him, all honor and glory be to the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit, forever and even.” –doxology at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer

Think about it, I mean really think about it. You are so important to God and loved so much that you have human reasoning for a reason and the freedom to choose God’s will or think all this Jesus stuff is so much poppycock.

In my journey as a Lay Cistercian, I am just beginning to realize how important to Jesus I am (remember, I am born, seeking meaning each day, love others, to realize how important to me are others who open up the Holy Spirit, and then to die, with with a caveat of the Resurrection.) Christ says he has chosen me from before the creation of the world. Why would He do that? I want that kind of love in my heart, the type that fulfills my destiny as a human while preparing me to take the next step in evolution.

I am the only one who ever was or who ever will be that can offer my obedience to the Father and say “…for Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, forever and ever. Amen.” I am the center of the physical, mental and spiritual universes. Still, I am fulfilled only with Christ as my mentor and guide, one who says, “Follow me in obedience to the Father’s will using the power of humility.” My choice, based on Faith informed by reason, is that I am not the center of reality, but it is Christ who is the authentic center and the answer to those six questions about life. This is my offering through Christ in the Eucharist, as I do Lectio Divina daily, as I pray the Scriptures to become what I read, as I try to have in me the mind of Christ Jesus using Lay Cistercian practices and charisma. I am far from reaching the end of the race, but I try to seek God each day where I am and as I am. This is the intense joy that enables me to call God Abba, that is, Father.

It is that love of the Christ Principle that I share with others as I am capable. I try to die to self so that I might rise with Christ to become what I have always intended to be– one who asks each day for God mercy on me a sinner and to share what it is my heart what I received in meditation and contemplation from sitting on a park bench in the dead of winter and being present to Jesus, both God and human.

Praise be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever. The God who is, who was, and who is to come at the end of the ages. Amen and Amen –Cistercian doxology