THE DIVINE EQUATION: HOW AN END-USER USES THE FORMULA FOR FOREVER TO GROW FROM SELF TO GOD

I must take this opportunity to remind you once again that these ideas are just the reflections of a broken-down, old temple of the Holy Spirit trying to make sense out of the physical universe, the mental universe, and also the spiritual universe. The Divine Equation is the end result of a lifetime of searching for the truth, a way that leads to fulfillment as a human being and the purpose of life. These blogs on The Divine Equation set forth my attempts to use what I think God has revealed through Jesus Christ, the Messiah, to help all of us make the transition from our seventy or eighty years on this earth to forever. I believe there is a formula for forever that Christ came to give us from God or the Divine Nature. It makes sense to me that God would have to reveal this equation to humans, despite our inability to fully comprehend why this is happening.

A further refinement of this revelation that human reasoning and free will could not formulate is the two notions of resonance and dissonance. The application of the Divine Equation to all reality is cosmic resonance and the natural order of acting according to the norms of its nature. It sounds theoretical, but it is actually meant to be used to help each individual move from rationality to the profound spirituality afforded to those who use it–cosmic resonance.

God is pure energy, which has dimensions of pure knowledge, pure love, and pure service as the divine equivalent to nuclear fusion that sustains itself forever. Pure energy is only a human way to think about reality so far beyond us that what is true in the Kingdom of Heaven is the opposite of what is here on earth. There is an added dimension to God, that of not existing in space nor time nor matter, nor a universe that has a beginning nor an end. All of this is quite unbelievable, yet the Christ Principle and the Divine Equation all point to it as the sign of contradiction, one where what does not make sense with human reasoning alone, yet is possible using the assumptions and applications Christ taught us using Faith informed with reason.

AN END USER TRIES TO APPROACH THE DIVINE EQUATION

I have given up on trying to define God using any human analogies nor languages. Even when Christ revealed the Divine Equation, people did not know what he was talking about, so He had to show them how to use it. Scriptures are those stories, similes, parables, gospels, and letters that other people wrote about what Jesus said and did so that we might “come to believe” that Jesus is Messiah and that believing might have eternal life. (John 20:30-31) No matter what their intelligence or background, each person must solve the Divine Equation to move to the next level of human evolution. In my Lectio Divina reflections, the Holy Spirit gave me six questions I must answer before I die to be fully human. Each human gets the opportunity to solve the mystery. Still, not everyone knows or even cares about a Divine Equation, much less moving forward in human evolution from rationality to spirituality. There is no free ride or conveyor belt that we get on at birth and get off when we die. Humans have reason for a reason and choose what they reason that be good for them.

The Divine Equation means that, to find fulfillment as a human being, to move to the next level of our natural progression, there is a process to follow. It is only by an act of the will, each person having the choice to move forward or not, that individuals can enter the spiritual universe. The Divine Equation is what God told all humans, providing them with both the questions to ask and the correct answers that allow us to unlock the mystery of faith enough to begin the process of moving from our false self to our true self.

What follows are the results of my Lectio Divina encounters with the Holy Spirit. The Divine Equation has a formula that I use to place myself in the presence of the Trinity. God became human to show us how to use the Divine Equation to our advantage. At the same time, it can be as simple as just sitting in the back of the Church and praying the Lectio Divina meditations, without any concerns about the complexity of the Divine Equation. At the same time, it can be so complex that I reflect on each of the six steps that the Holy Spirit revealed needed to be in the presence. This is where the Christ Principle comes into play. With Christ, simplicity and complexity are all contained in one reality, and it is the disposition and intention of the individual to approach the Sacred that makes us different. I may be different from one week to the next, or I may be the same. It doesn’t matter when I have the Christ Principle as my key to opening the Divine Equation each day. With, and In Christ Jesus each day, I seek God as I am and where I am.

The Six Questions I Must attempt to ask and answer correctly each day: How I use the Divine Equation formula to move from self to God. Remember, there are only two ways I can look at reality, both of which assume that I am the center of the universe (my seventy or eighty years on earth).

I. I am my own principle to interpret reality with the sum total of all that I am as a filter for what is good for me. I choose myself as god.

II. I am the center of my universe, but I choose to make Christ the principle with the sum total of all that He is as the basis for what is good for me. I choose a power outside of me as God. This is the North on my compass of life, the center of all reality, the purpose of my humanity, my destiny as an adopted son (daughter) of the Father. It is the resonance to the dissonance of Original Sin, the divine energy to sustain me now and in the life to come.

1. What is the purpose of life? Based on this second choice above, I seek the purpose of life outside of myself. God gives me the purpose of all life (not my life, number two below), and there are consequences if I do not use them correctly. Like getting a speeding ticket, ignorance of the law is no excuse for not knowing the law. If I don’t know God’s purpose in life, there are consequences for my actions. I will ultimately answer to God for all my choices. They are contained in both the Old and New Testaments as the very center of who God is.

1This then is the commandment, the statutes and the ordinances, a which the LORD, your God, has commanded that you be taught to observe in the land you are about to cross into to possess,2so that you, that is, you, your child, and your grandchild, may fear the LORD, your God, by keeping, as long as you live, all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you, and thus have long life.3Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them, that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly; for the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.^c

The Great Commandment.^*4^d Hear, O Israel!^* The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!5Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.^e6^f Take to heart these words which I command you today.^g7Keep repeating them to your children. Recite them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up.^h8Bind them on your arm as a sign^* and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.ⁱ9Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.^j

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/deuteronomy/6

The Greatest Commandment.^*28 One of the scribes,ⁱ when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”29 Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!30 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’^j31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”^k32 The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than he.’ 33 And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”^l34 And when Jesus saw that [he] answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.^m

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/22

Remember, the purpose of life contains the physical universe, the mental universe, and the spiritual universe. The two citations from Scripture above are almost identical. The core of who we are as a collective species is built around a purpose outside of ourselves, the Divine Equation. God is number one, and everything and everyone else is number two. Christ told us that our priority should be to seek the kingdom of heaven, and all else will be given to us. What does this say about God? God shared what is at the center of who He is. This sharing is the product of pure love, which is pure service. With this purpose, this first of the six elements of the Divine Equation, we have a purpose in life, one that exists in three universes simultaneously, the physical universe, the mental one, and the last part of our human evolution, the spiritual universe. Read this scripture, not just for knowledge, but listen with “the ear of your heart” to what God speaks through these words of wisdom.

Dependence on God.^*25ⁿ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?26Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?^o27 Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?^*28 Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wildflowers grow. They do not work or spin.29 But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.30^* If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?31 So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/6

LEARNING POINTS

Because God is one, and that is all there is, so to is the purpose of life. God created life from the fulness of his nothingness which left all matter and time with the mark of his DNA, an indelible mark moving forward with the progression of all that is.

The purpose is life is one.

Humans have developed reason and the ability to choose outside their animality those values they think are good for them. These choices all have consequences. All humans are accountable to God for all of these choices.

Humans get to choose the purpose of life and then use their choices to define who they are. The problem comes because some choices are not good for us, even though we think they are.

Humans only live seventy or eighty years if they are strong and have that amount of time to discover their purpose.

This purpose comes from a power outside of themselves and comes to those Baptized in water and the spirit. This purpose is love, shared by God to all humans.

This purpose means God wants me to be an adopted son (or daughter) of the Father and inherit the kingdom just for me. Jesus Christ, Son of God, is my personal savior for this reason. I must respond to this purpose by doing for others what Christ did for me, to love God with all my heart, with all my mind, and with all my strength, and to love others as myself. (Matthew 22:32)

This purpose is why I am a Lay Cistercian, a special way to allow me to be present to Christ through Cistercian practices and charisms.

When I take this purpose seriously as an end-user of the Divine Equation, everything I think (knowledge), everything I hope for (love), and everything I do because of that love is aimed at becoming less of my false self and to have in me the mind of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5).

This purpose is God’s gift of energy and presence to me, but only inso far as I can receive it.

This first step in the Divine Equation leads to another step.

II. What is the purpose of my life? Based on the correct choice of the purpose of life, I can now answer the second part of the formula, or what my purpose in life will look like within God’s purpose? Once more, I seek the purpose of my life outside of myself. In this second element, I get to use my human reasoning and my ability to choose what is good for me to define what my personal life is all about. My human reason encounters its second problem: anything human cannot lift up my nature to the next level of its evolution. God comes to the rescue once more, lifting up my animality from the dirt to sentient life. My humanity was tainted by the wrong choice of Adam and Eve to want to be God, the same choice made by Lucifer, the fallen Archangel. Some call that The Fall, but it more like a wall, a barrier that prevents us from reaching our intended destiny to be with God. The Genesis Principle caused everything in the universe of the mind to change. This Original Sin of Adam and Eve had consequences that endure today. Jesus is the second Adam and the only one with the power to lift up all of humanity from the darkness of Original Sin to the next level of their evolution. But there is a caveat, I must deny myself of being the center of the universe and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. I still keep my reasoning and my ability to choose, but when I choose Jesus as the one center in my life, I have made the correct choice that will move me from just having meaning and purpose as the world defines it to that of accepting the Word Made Flesh as my personal purpose. I measure myself against this purpose, Philippians 2:5, each morning and seek to be less while Christ becomes more in me.

If I choose an unauthentic answer to this first question, everything else follows the wrong assumption and will not be in sync or in resonance. When the answers to any of the six elements of the formula are not authentic, nothing makes sense of life. This is what Saint Augustine meant when he made the statement: “our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” God gives us the questions to ask and provides a divine answer with which we can achieve resonance with the physical, mental and spiritual universes.

LEARNING POINTS

• Adam and Eve knew that they were naked.
• They had to learn the hard way and not with infused knowledge from God.
• The pain came into the world.
• Sin (acting not according to your intended nature) came into the world.
• Humans were still good but wounded. This wound was a thorn in their flesh, ones they had to endure during their short lifetimes.
• Our choices were expanded to include all the emotions and desires that harm us.
• We had to work to keep our spirituality against the daily temptations of Satan and the secular world.
• Freedom to choose what we want supplanted freedom to choose what is right (God’s law of the universe).
• God had to become human to take on the world’s sin and tear down the wall between divinity and humanity. With all the sophistication of their human nature, humans did not have the power to lift all of us out of Original Sin, the one that kept that wall between God and us. Luckily, we had an advocate to help us.
• Consistent with this first element of the equation, God loved us so much and wanted us to share Who He Is that He sent His Only Begotten Son to become one us, Jesus the Christ. (Philippians 2:5-12)
• Christ tore down the wall that humans had built, but the effects of Original Sin would persist, and we would have to struggle each day to keep ourselves centered.
• This second part of the equation is about my choice to join with the choice of Jesus Christ to do those things that help me love others as He has loved us.
• To do that, each of us, and me in particular, must choose a center of my life that, if I took it away, my whole foundation for meaning would disintegrate.
• My center is taken from Philippians 2:5, those eight words that go: “have in you the mind of Christ Jesus.”
• Once I am Baptized, my struggle against the world begins. I am a pilgrim in a foreign land, with a foreign language and customs I don’t like. I must survive using the spiritual universe.
• I must struggle my whole life to protect my baptismal commitment from rusting away in the air of the secular world.
• Jesus lifted me up from Original Sin’s dirt to shake off Adam’s dirt (Adama) and wash me with the water love and the Holy Spirit. I am not rotten in my nature but merely dusty and need the daily energy of Christ to keep me centered. The Sacraments are ways to keep clean (make all things new), feed me, and prepare to pack for the trip forever.
• I must seek the help of others (the Church Universal) to join with me and do what Christ told us to do (good works for others).
• St. Benedict, Chapter 4 of his Rule, gives tools for good works that we must do to prepare our minds and hearts to be present to the heart of Christ.
• Nothing depends on me. Everything depends on me making a choice to sit in the presence of Christ and keep my mouth shut and listen.
• My center is Philippians 2:5. You might have a different center. I call my center The Christ Principle because as the One Lord of Salvation, everything flows into and out of Him to the glory of the Father with the power of the Holy Spirit, One yet Three Persons (not three separate Gods). As a puny human, all I do is tag along, except that I am an adopted son (daughter) of the Father with a profound dependence on God to keep me safe and secure.

III. What does reality look like? This might not be the topic of discussion when thinking about Aaron Rodgers trying to discern where his future in the NFL might be. Still, there are consequences for not asking this question and receiving authentic answers consistent with the first two questions. So far, I have asked two questions about purpose, God’s purpose for me and my response to that purpose. The next step is to try to figure out how I can view reality in such a way that I live our purpose. My problem is that I live in the context of Original Sin, which is another way of saying I must work to keep my Baptismal promise from atrophying and dying. The World does not have the power to do that for me. I must move to the next phase of my evolution: an adopted son (daughter) of the Father, where the kingdom, the power, and the glory are from God. I can access it through my two Advocates, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, but only if I have the eyes to see what cannot be seen using only the World’s spectacles.

Now that I know the purpose for my life from God and have accepted my personal purpose for my life by my choice, I come to the third question confronting all humans, what does reality look like. There are only two ways that I know how to look at reality.

DEEPER READING

The first way is with our base of the physical universe as my platform for existing plus the additional mental universe where I have reason to learn about the purpose of life, and then choose what I think is good for me. Some people call this The World, or Secular Reality.

The second option is for me to view all reality using three universes, the same two as above but an additional one that completes my purpose and helps me to fulfill the evolution of all humanity, the spiritual universe, sometimes called the Kingdom of Heaven. This universe is one where we can only enter with an act of our free will at the invitation of God. The Kingdom of Heaven begins when we are Baptized and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. We humans, to be fully developed, must have a purpose that is at odds with the first two universes.

I use this concept of three universes to help me reflect on what is real that I can see and verify but also what I cannot see and approached by Faith informed by reason. One reality with three distinct universes is the paradigm to approach The Divine Equation. The more I think about how to “see” reality in three universes, the more I appreciate Cistercian spirituality that seeks God each day by “listening with the ear of the heart,” as St. Benedict challenges his followers to do in the Prologue to the Rule of Benedict. The Cistercian Way helps those who use it to seek answers to what is real inside of us by being present to the suggestions and overshadowing from the Holy Spirit.

Do you remember the passage in Scriptures where Christ is trying to do miracles but is unable to do so because of their lack of Faith?

The Rejection at Nazareth. 1^a He departed from there and came to his native place,^* accompanied by his disciples. 2^* When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands? 3^b Is he not the carpenter,^* the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.4^*c Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.”5 So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,^* apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/6

When someone only believes there are two universes (physical and mental), their assumptions will be that reality is only what you can see, what you can prove, what is historically justified, and what makes sense to their understanding of human reasoning, and they would be correct. They will not be able to “see” spirituality because they do not believe in a dimension of reality containing the fulfillment of human evolution. Because they do not look for a spiritual universe as part of reality, scientists and secular humanists can find no truth here. This is the place the late Stephen Hawking could not look. He could not look there because of his lack of faith. His brilliance and contribution to science are not in question here. He was only observing and concluding from what he saw in two universes (physical and mental) but not three universes (physical, mental, and spiritual). Seeing, he could not see, and hearing he could not hear. He was limited because what Christ came to show us doesn’t make sense with mere human reasoning and free will. It is not a question of knowing that there is a third universe out there which fulfills the other two, but rather feeling it. Using the Divine Equation, what is real is what you can see, hear, taste, feel, and smell. What is essential to the heart is “invisible to the eye,” says the Fox to the Little Prince.

The Divine Equation is that what is real is revealed in the physical and mental universes through our human languages (science, literature, logic, patterns of comparative thinking, and national languages such as French, English, Spanish, etc…The Divine Equation is the fulfillment of first two universes with the addition of a spiritual universe with God telling us and showing us what the purpose of life is and how we fit into that.

The creation of the spiritual universe with the Christ Principle. This is the final evolution of humanity, the end-game for our race. Humans with our reasoning and the ability to choose would not be able to choose correctly just based on the Old Testament prophets and laws. In the Old Testament, God spoke through natural calamities and nature, guiding the people through time. God chose a covenant relationship with his chosen people and gave them laws to follow. Keeping God’s law was what cemented the covenant together and created a bond with an entire people. By itself, this would not be enough to establish the next level of our human evolution, that of having the possibility of being sons or daughters of the Father and inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven.

Philippians 2:5-12 is my favorite description of why God had to become one of us. We had to have someone point out the way, tell us the truth that the world could not do, and so give us life on earth so that we could prepare to inherit the Kingdom of the Father. Christ came to tell us, “don’t be afraid, just do what I do and seek first the Kingdom of Heaven (not the World) and you will be fine. And know, that I am with you until the end of time.”

THE RULE OF OPPOSITES

If I try to solve a mathematical formula, I must use the elements of that formula to fill in the blanks with real data. The reason Christ became one of us was to first, make it possible for us to be able to choose to enter the Spiritual Universe through Baptism, and then sustain ourselves as we appear in time (our brief eighty we appear on this earth) and have a chance to do what is right for our salvation rather what is easy. Jesus came to show us that, to solve the Divine Equation and fulfill the destiny of all humanity, we had to live in the physical universe with its rule of nature, then move to the mental universe of rationality with our ability to reason what is true and then make a choice for ourselves. What The Christ Principle showed us is that the third part of the Divine Equation, the Spiritual Universe, does not use the language of the physical or mental universes, despite our dependence on it for our survival. To solve this formula, I must enter the spiritual universe that has a measuring stick that is the opposite of the World.

Once I am baptized, everything in the world turns upside down. The Christ Principle is the only way to understand the Spiritual Universe, and admittedly, this does not make sense to the World. In my book on The Three Rules of the Spiritual Universe, one of those rules is called The Rule of Opposites. Remember, all I am writing about are the reflections of a Lay Cistercian as he looks at reality. Is this real? I don’t know. It is a way that I can make sense of all the theology and spiritual thinking that have swamped my life.

Using my idea about The Rule of Opposites, let me share an example of how an end-user would put all this together to make sense. I will use the one concept that is contained in all three universes (physical, mental, and spiritual), energy, and apply it to each universe.

Physical energy: We know about energy in the physical universe because we use the languages of the mental universe to view what is and make deductions and/or conclusions about what we discover. Human languages exist only in the mental universe, but the physical one is the subject of our science, logic, and the basis for us being able to know that we know. Physical energy is the result of a Word (John 1:1), one that said “Yes” to all that is, all the atoms, all the properties of matter, the mystery of physical time, and all life that we know about. This energy, in my, began with intelligence. I wasn’t there to see any of this happen, but I inherit the results of those gases, gravity, and the natural order of things that are because they are. This energy has a beginning and an ending. Everything in this paradigm corrupts or deteriorates. Humans are part of this universe is their evolution from the natural order of the progression of that first “Yes”. My own conclusion about the Divine Equation is that we were made from the nothingness of God, a concept we don’t even have a language to explain. This Divine Nature or Being left its imprint on all matter, time, space, and all living things in the form of DNA, causing all reality to move from simplicity to complexity.

Mental energy: We call this complexity the natural order of progression or evolution (correctly understood). Human bodies live in the Physical Universe, but with a difference. Only humans live in the mental universe, only mental thought and the accumulated experiences of humanity to be our living library. Why? Humans are the only species to have both human reasoning and also the ability to choose what they reason to live according to their nature, human nature. Animals have animal nature and are not capable of living in this universe. Individually, I have eighty years ( I am eighty years old) to figure out why I am here and how to sustain my life and fulfill it. My reason helps me find out what makes sense and what is real and what is not. In my particular lifetime, I use languages to help me, such as science, chemistry, physics, logic, religion, history, medicine, belonging to this or that organization, English, the Internet, YouTube, and so on. Language translates the physical universe into what is real and how it can be of benefit to me in my life. My choices in life all have consequences and I am largely defined by those things I choose that I consider good for me.

When I apply just these two universes of physical and mental, I term that what the World teaches. My question raised in my Lectio Divina meditation is, is that all there is to life? Humans do not always do what is best for us. To fulfill our destiny as humans, there must be more to life. Is this all there is to human evolution from nothingness to animality to rationality? It seems something is missing.

Mental energy is my ability to learn tapping into the the collective computer of human consciousness to ask questions about the make up of matter and the observable universe. The mind also has the ability to look at what is invisible and make conclusions, such as human love, the emotions, choices that are good for us but hurt others (murder, rape, pedophilia, stealing, lying, failure to have a center of your life that sustains you beyond your eighty years or so.) All of these behaviors come as a result of us choosing what we want, but what we want does not lead to being what propells us forward to our next step in our evolution, the spiritual universe).

Spiritual energy: Let’s summarize so far. Energy in the physical universe just is what it is according to the laws of nature and how the elements interact with each other. If you add the mental universe to the mix, energy is the power to know how the physical universe works. This universe has a choice for humans to study to find out the meaning of why something is or how it is composed: you can look at the physical universe, which is composed of matter, time, physical energy, all living creatures, or, you can look at the physical universe of the past using the full potential of science and logic, the mental universe which is the energy of the human mind, and with the addition of the spiritual universe, which looks to the future and to the fulfillment of human evolution.

Spiritual energy is not like nuclear fusion, or a hypernova explosion or a gamma ray burst, it is the energy of a Divine Nature whose power is the pure energy of being 100% of whatever that nature is. To say that it is off the scale energy would be incorrect, since we have no measuring stick to measure it much less explain what it is in human terms we can grasp. It is quite logical that God had to help our human nature to at least have some idea about the purpose for all humans is. The best way to do that was to send someone to tell us about it. All of the spirituality I hold as true has this at its core as stated in Philippians 2:5-15. This Scripture happens to be my personal center of all reality, the Christ Principle.

“If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by agreeing, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing.aDo nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, ^beach looking out not for his own interests, but [also] everyone for those of others.^cHave among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus,^*Who,^* though he was in the form of God,^d

did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.^*

7Rather, he emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

coming in human likeness;^*

and found human in appearance,^e

8he humbled himself,^f

becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.^*

9Because of this, God greatly exalted him

and bestowed on him the name^*

that is above every name,^g

10that at the name of Jesus

11and every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord,^*

to the glory of God the Father.ⁱ“

Humans have a choice to enter the spiritual universe with the Baptismal moment. This begins a whole new journey towards their destiny as a human being, one of accepting God’s purpose in life as the North on our compass, one which has Jesus the Christ as not only our guide but as the “Word made flesh and dwelling among us.”

For me, as an individual who is living right now, at this moment, my choice is to ratify my promises that Jesus is The Christ Principle. Each day, with the help of my Lay Cistercian brothers and sisters, I renew my promise to center myself on Christ Jesus in whatever comes my way. I perform Cistercian practices (Eucharist, Eucharistic adoration, Lectio Divina, Rosary, Scriptural Reading, Reading from the Church Fathers and Mothers, and Penance. I do this, not as an individual, although I may be private in some of my devotions, but rather by being overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and Giver of Truth. The energy of the Spiritual Universe, the limitless love of the Father for the Son, which is so beyond description that it is a separate person, the Holy Spirit, yet only One God, propels me forward. Although I stumble and have faint resolve now and then, like St. Paul, I yearn for the finish line of the race of my life and obtaining the prize for winning my race.

The Spiritual Universe is love, but not theroetical love of the mind, sometimes called courtyly love in the Middle Ages, but rather the love where you sit on a park bench in the dead of Winter, freezing your tootsies off, waiting for Christ to come your way and to sit down and chat. It is that waiting that purifies your soul, the burning coal touched to the mouth to purify those that speak the Good News, the humility you have when you realize God has been there all along but it is you who have not shown up. With the contemplative approach to being in the presence of God, you must decrease while He increases, as St. John the Baptist proclaims.

There is one other important aspect to the Divine Equation as it pertains to The Rule of Opposites. When you enter the Kingdom of Heaven on earth at Baptism, everything turns upside down or is a sign of contradiction with the World you just left. The words you use now are with God’s assumptions for what they mean, not what you or the World says is true. Christ tells us, My peace I give you. Those who assume that reality is only composed of the physical and mental universes come from their inability to decipher the Divine Equation correctly.

Part One: What is contained in the physical universe is what it is according to its nature. What is contained in the mental universe is the ability to reason and choose as good what you have reasoned is true. What is contained in the spiritual universe is at odds intellectually with the physical and mental universes but may be experienced with the heart (love). Without help from God, human intelligence cannot lift itself up to the spiritual universe and fulfill its destiny as adopted sons and daughters of the Father.

Part Two: God became one of us (Jesus the Messiah) to tell us what that equation is and show us how to use it. To use the Divine Equation, you must use God’s rules and protocols, not human ones. The Divine Equation is about how to love others while on this earth to prepare ourselves to live what we loved in Heaven forever. Some ways of thinking have parts of this equation down, while others miss the mark completely. Humans have reasoning and the freedom to choose what they think is good for them (even if it is not) because God wants us totally free to discover His way, the truth, and live His life to help us reach our destiny as humans. Jesus left the Holy Spirit, who, remember, is the third person of the Blessed Trinity, to guide not only each age as they swerve down the pathway of existing but also each of us individually. We have reason for a reason, to be able to choose what is right versus what is just easy and convenient. Through the Church Universal, each individual is nurtured in what is right versus what might harm us (sin). We have the energy of Jesus to make all things new for us when we keep failing to love others as Christ loved us.

If you want a challenging yet awesome reading on all of this, read Gaudium et Spes, the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/natural-family-planning/catholic-teaching/upload/Gaudium-et-Spes-NFP-Notes-on-Marriage.pdf

Using the sign of contradiction once more, if you think that all this is overly complex and too difficult to learn, think about Mrs. Murphy, the avatar of the late Father Aidan Kavanaugh, O.S.B. who told us in Sacramental Theology class that this lady who sat in the back bench of Church, head lowered, daring not to raise her eyes to the heavens, knew more than all the theologians who talk about The Divine Equation. She just wanted to sit next to Jesus on a park bench in the dead of winter and have a nice chat in her heart. God is as complex as we want Him to be but He is also simplicity itself.

• LEARNING POINTS:
• God allowed us to see what reality actually is through Jesus taking on our sinful nature, and not only that but by fulfilling the offering of Abraham’s son to God. The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the World and gives us the way, what is true versus with is just nice and convenient, and how to walk the way that leads to fulfilling our destiny as sons and daughters of the Father.
• It makes a difference if you do not accept the spiritual universe to fulfill our human evolution.
• The Divine Equation comes from God to humans to allow us to move to the next step in our development, heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Some people will get it, while it is a stumbling block and sheer folly for others.
• There are three distinct universes (physical, mental, and spiritual) that makeup one reality.
• The spiritual universe is a sign of contradiction between the physical and mental ones. It is the opposite of what the World teaches us as being the way, what is true, and the life we should pursue happiness.
• Jesus became human nature to show us and tell us how to decipher this Divine Equation. (Philippians 2:5)

IV. HOW DOES IT ALL FIT TOGETHER?

This fourth question comes from Jesus, who not only tells us what to ask but shows us the answer in how we should behave (not as the world behaves). Galatians 5 is a good example of authentic love. Our behavior is to live according to the Spirit of Truth. In keeping with the Divine Equation, the answer comes from God but so does this part. It is pure energy, something that we know nothing about with current technologies or human reasoning. The Christ Principle is the one factor that makes sense of all reality if you plug it into this equation. Notice that we can’t capture it or contain this reality, but we can approach it using Christ as a mediator, translator, transistor, and someone who has both divine and human nature.

The True Wisdom.^*6Yet we do speak a wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.7Rather, we speak God’s wisdom,^* mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory,8and which none of the rulers of this age^* knew; for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.9But as it is written:

“What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,

and what has not entered the human heart,

what God has prepared for those who love him,”^e10^f this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.11Among human beings, who knows what pertains to a person except the spirit of the person that is within? Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God.12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God.13And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.^*14Now the natural person^* does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually.15The spiritual person, however, can judge everything but is not subject to judgment^* by anyone.16For “who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?” But we have the mind of Christ.^g

Trying to construct one unified theory of reality has been a hobby of my mental exercise for some time. I assumed that most scientists and secular humanists use only two universes that make up what is real. The problem was and still is that it doesn’t fit together. Spirituality had to fit into that paradigm.

When I applied the Divine Equation, postulated on there being three distinct universes, each existing simultaneously, each having different laws, each having different purposes, each describing different parts of reality, using what I know of the Christ Principle as the key to drawing all reality to Himself, it all fit together.

To use the Divine Equation, I had to die to self as St. Paul wonderfully describes the Letter to the Colossians, 3. In fact, the only way I can even put together the Divine Equation is for everything in the spiritual universe to be the opposite of what I live in as the physical and mental universes alone. Assuming that reality only exists in the physical universe, the spiritual universe does not make sense. It is “folly for the Gentiles and a stumbling block for the Jews.”

Renunciation of Vice.^*5Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:^c immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry.^*6Because of these the wrath of God^* is coming [upon the disobedient].^d7By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in that way.8But now you must put them all away:^* anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language out of your mouths.^e9Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices^f10^* and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator.^g11Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian,^* slave, free; but Christ is all and in all.^h12Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,ⁱ13bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.^j14And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection.^k15And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful.^l https://bible.usccb.org/bible/colossians/3

The Divine Equation shows us how to love authentically, not as the World says, even with all the insights of Erich Fromm in his book, The Art of Loving. I am the only one that can cause resonance to the continued dissonance of the World. Each day, as I join my mind and my heart with the love of Christ for the Father, that love being the person of the Holy Spirit, I am fulfilling my destiny on earth now and preparing for the trip to forever. The Mystery of Faith is the Divine Equation, the way, the truth, and the life we must live now to fulfill our evolution as spiritual apes.

LEARNING POINTS

When I experience the accumulative effect of The Divine Equation, I find I am more appreciative of the role of science, logic, literature, music, and photography in how I discover who I am in the light of the Christ Principle. Rather than being at odds with my approach to spirituality, science is even more of an opportunity to discover what is true, how it works, and how it fits into my worldview.

As an end-user for The Divine Equation, I have a greater awareness of one reality for humans. Still, three different dimensions or universes to use our human reasoning and free choice authentically as intended. Science and logic are not in opposition to religious thinking about what is real; rather, each universe must use its properties and characteristics to be what it is.

V. HOW TO LOVE FIERCELY.

The Divine Equation produces energy, divine energy, fierce energy. In my Lectio Divina sessions, whenever I place myself in the presence of Christ and the Holy Spirit, I sometimes think of the process as like a Tesla electric car going to one of the special outlets where it can recharge itself (although it takes time). This recharge of my spiritual batteries takes an act of will or choice on my part. I take myself in silence and solitude to a place where I can recharge myself and move from my false self to my true self. I do this each day, with no exceptions. If I fail to recharge my batteries, I can move anywhere in the spiritual universe by my own power.

To summarize, once I was baptized, God gave me a purpose for why I am here (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:36). Love is the center of the Divine Equation, and it is shared with me and others who believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

I had to make it my own purpose, so I chose Philippians 2:5 as my personal center. “Have in you the mind of Christ Jesus.” The Christ Principle informs all my being, the Word made flesh and dwelling among us.

Once I had God’s purpose for me and my response, next is how I live that out in the seventy or eighty years I have on this earth, barring any illness or sudden death. I use the template of one reality with three distinct and separate universes to look at anything in the physical and mental universes. I am not trying to tell you how to think or convert you to anything, other than reading my thoughts for what they are, the ramblings of a broken-down, old Lay Cistercian trying to prepare for the parousia.

In the Divine Equation, once more, God has to tell us and show us that love is the energy that fuels a reality that is pure energy, pure knowledge, pure love, and pure service. That just doesn’t make sense to those who hold that reality only exists in two universes and God has nothing to do with it. Our human freedom to choose means we can make a choice between the World and the Flesh (Galatians 5), between the reality of Adam and Eve and living according to the will of God, between what makes sense to our mind and senses in this secular existence and what does not makes sense or is the opposite of What the world says is our human destiny.

Only the contradiction of the spiritual universe and its assumptions can solve the Divine Equation of why we are here in this world for seventy or eighty years or why we observe everything around us decaying and moving towards nothingness with no apparent rationale. Love, fierce love, is that which God first had for us. Read Chapter 4 of I John in its entirety to get a feel for this fierce love God has for us that He shared through Christ becoming one of us (Philippians 2:5-12) and still sustained us in each of our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Contemplative spirituality is the approach that seeks to dwell inwardly to find ways to be present to Christ through the energy of the Holy Spirit.

EXERCISE ON THE LOVE OF GOD

Testing the Spirits.^*1Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.^a2This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God,^b3and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus^* does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world.^c4You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.5They belong to the world; accordingly, their teaching belongs to the world, and the world listens to them.^d6We belong to God, and anyone who knows God listens to us, while anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.^e

God’s Love and Christian Life.7^* Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.8Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.9In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.^f10In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.^g11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another.12No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.^h13^* This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit.14Moreover, we have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world.15Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God.16We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.

God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.17In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world.ⁱ18There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.19We love because he first loved us.20If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God^* whom he has not seen.^j21This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.^k

* [4:1–6] Deception is possible in spiritual phenomena and may be tested by its relation to Christian doctrine (cf. 1 Cor 12:3): those who fail to acknowledge Jesus Christ in the flesh are false prophets and belong to the antichrist. Even though these false prophets are well received in the world, the Christian who belongs to God has a greater power in the truth.

* [4:3] Does not acknowledge Jesus: some ancient manuscripts add “Christ” and/or “to have come in the flesh” (cf. 1 Jn 4:2), and others read “every spirit that annuls (or severs) Jesus.”

* [4:7–12] Love as we share in it testifies to the nature of God and to his presence in our lives. One who loves shows that one is a child of God and knows God, for God’s very being is love; one without love is without God. The revelation of the nature of God’s love is found in the free gift of his Son to us, so that we may share life with God and be delivered from our sins. The love we have for one another must be of the same sort: authentic, merciful; this unique Christian love is our proof that we know God and can “see” the invisible God.

* [4:13–21] The testimony of the Spirit and that of faith join the testimony of love to confirm our knowledge of God. Our love is grounded in the confession of Jesus as the Son of God and the example of God’s love for us. Christian life is founded on the knowledge of God as love and on his continuing presence that relieves us from fear of judgment (1 Jn 4:16–18). What Christ is gives us confidence, even as we live and love in this world. Yet Christian love is not abstract but lived in the concrete manner of love for one another.

* [4:20] Cannot love God: some ancient manuscripts read “how can he love…?”

a. [4:1] 2:18; Mt 24:24.

b. [4:2] 1 Cor 12:3; 1 Thes 5:21.

c. [4:3] 3:22.

d. [4:5] Jn 15:19.

e. [4:6] Jn 8:47; 10:16.

f. [4:9] Jn 3:16.

g. [4:10] Rom 5:8.

h. [4:12] Jn 1:18; 1 Tm 6:16.

i. [4:17] 2:28.

j. [4:20] 2:4.

k. [4:21] Jn 13:34; 14:15, 21; 15:17.

1. You have just read this passage from the Scriptures. Right now, close your eyes and just think about any ideas that jump out at you. Do so for four or five minutes. Do so now.
2. Open your eyes and write down what you think the fierce love of God for us is.
3. Read the passage above for a second time. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you some ideas. Again, close your eyes and think of what struck you most about fierce love, but your love for Jesus.
4. Open your eyes and write down what you heard when you listened with the “ear of the heart” (Prologue to St. Benedict’s Rule).
5. What does this love from Christ and your love for Jesus do for how you act?

LEARNING POINTS

In the secular sense, love is not so much bad as not sufficient by itself to lift up human love to the next level of our evolution, sons and daughters of the Father. Fierce love is passionate, seeking first the Kingdom of Heaven rather than anything on earth. All else falls into place with that choice of our center: love itself, the person of Jesus.

With fierce love, you yourn to be in the presence of the one you love more than anything.

When you center yourself on Christ and do so consistently and habitually, you will notice a slow movement from your false self to your new self. Your meditations will become more lively. You can’t wait to do another Cistercian practice so you can be in the presence of Christ.

There is a final realization that your whole day is a prayer of praise and asking for mercy to the Father for everything you encounter that day, each day being a lifetime. Just when you think you have arrived at some form of contemplation and stability, you fall on your face and realize that none of this depends upon you because you live in Original Sin’s effects. You must begin each day afresh and not dependent upon what when before.

VI. YOU KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO DIE, NOW WHAT?

Few things in our lives are as certain as death. It is part of the corruption or decay of matter. Another way of saying that is, everything that is has a beginning and an end. Along the way, each individual is born and has a period of time (usually not more than 100 years) to live on this earth and discover the newness of each day. Some people die prematurely because of accidents, wars, cancer, heart attacks, etc…

Humans all have the ability to reason (dogs and cats do not) and to use their ability to choose what is good for them to move forward. The problem comes when humans think they choose what is good for them, but it is not. God took on human nature to tell us what the option is that is good for us. This includes the spiritual universe. Some people don’t see but the physical and mental universes and thus don’t know what the purpose of our humanity is, yet they are free to choose. What makes all this confusion is that the choice of the spiritual universe is not automatic. It takes an act of free will (belief) that what we believe is logical. The problem is, Faith is not logical unless you know how to read the Divine Equation which God sent his Son to give us and show us how to interpret. If you won’t or can’t use the Divine Equation, life is only in terms of the physical universe and the mental world of your own creation. Like the Alcoholic Anonymous 12 steps, those in the spiritual universe acknowledge a power outside of themselves that is greater and provides the energy to sustain us. At the same time, we live out whatever life has in store for us.

This Divine Equation is the North on your compass of life, the roadmap that gives us which directions to take to fulfill our destiny as humans, to be adopted sons and daughters of the Father. God’s love is so great that He will allow you to sin without punishment, but you will have to suffer the consequences of sin. Jesus told us that he will not leave us, orphans, when we ascended back to the Father in atonement for the sins of humanity as seen in the archetype, Adam and Eve.

The Divine Equation has six questions in its formula that must be answered in sequence and correctly to move on to the next. They are the fundamentals of what God expected of Adam and Eve before the Fall in the Garden of Eden. To both give us these questions and show us how to solve this mystery, Jesus, the second Adam, had to experience the Garden of Gethsemani and the temptation that everything in his human nature was a failure. That the Son was also of divine nature and thus the source of pure energy that could transform human nature into something beyond immediate pain, suffering, depression, the lack of hope that there is anything in life worth the sacrifice, into the glorified body of our future existence. In the Christ Principle, Jesus makes sense out of a Divine Equation that is clearly beyond science, logic, human capability, and capacity to grasp. Only when each of us prefers nothing to the love of Christ, only when we die to self to rise with Christ to newness of life, only when we can accept the adoption that we are indeed loved by Love itself and accepted into that bosom for all eternity, will we be at true resonance with the totality of all that is. As in science and philosophy, the essence of spirituality is wonder.

WONDER IF…

Here are some things I wonder about.

As St. Paul says, WONDER IF only the love of Christ can fill our human heart and satisfy its longing for knowledge, love, and peace. Do I have the ability in the rest of my life to seek out this pearl of great price and give all to possess it? What is there in your life that you would give all you have to possess?

WONDER IF… Jesus is actually what he says he is, real flesh and real blood under the appearance of simple wine and bread? 70% of Catholics do not believe that Jesus, the same one that walked the earth in Jerusalem and died on the cross, is actually that same person today under the appearance of bread and wine. If you believe that this is Jesus, would you not want to spend time in the presence of the one you love and receive that same Christ as did the Apostles at the Last Supper and we do in Eucharist?

WONDER IF… outside the Church there is no salvation, and all there is, is the Church Universal in Heaven? Would you be a member? Would you complain if others whom God deemed worthy were there but not baptized or were terrible sinners?

WONDER IF… you took time to read Chapter 4 of the Rule of Benedict each day, without fail? What would happen to you? https://christdesert.org/prayer/rule-of-st-benedict/chapter-4-the-tools-for-good-works/

WONDER IF… there is no resurrection, no heaven, no hope, no source of power outside of yourself, no living forever, no commandments and beatitudes to keep humans from reverting back to their animality, no love, and no church to sustain you in times of trial and suffering. No kidding! Life would not be worth living.

WONDER IF… you followed the command of Christ and actually loved others as Christ loved you. What would that look like each day? Would you be able to sustain your ferver each day and maintain that love amid all the challenges placed in our path by Satan and Original Sin?

WONDER IF… you were diligent in doing Lectio Divina each day for a time or two? Would that make you different? Closer to Christ? Less of you and more of Christ?

WONDER IF… you were never satisfied with giving God glory and honor through, with, and in Jesus, the Messiah (Christ) and yearned to grow by having in your the mind of that same Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5)?

WONDER IF… you emptied or abandoned your will to that of Christ’s and tried to convert your life each day to love God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself? Each day! What would that feel like? How would your behavior change?

WONDER IF… you genuinely preferred nothing to the love of Christ? Would you act differently? What practices would you do each day to ensure that you were present to the one you loved so intimately?

WONDER IF… you took time out of your day to spend it in Eucharistic adoration and contemplation about Philippians 2:5-12? You would have no agenda, just sit there in the Chapel, as you would on a cold, winter day yearning for God to come to sit next to you and just be there. Then, you suddenly realize that God has always been there, but you have just arrived. When you talk, God can’t talk to you. St. Benedict says you must listen “with the ear of the heart. (Prologue to the Rule). Your heart in silence and solitude sits next to the heart of Christ and just smiles and waits.

WONDER IF… as I did, you have Leukemia (2014)and pacemaker surgery (2020) plus cardiac arrest (2007) and had to call upon the name of the Lord to help you, not necessarily to be healed but to prepare you to stand before the Throne of the Lamb in humility and truth and, with head lowered, seek mercy.

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.