Journeying to Heaven: Symbolism of The Way, The Truth, and The Life Coins

A REVIEW OF MY COIN COLLECTION FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT

If you think I have it all together, know that I am reviewing the coin parables mainly because I forget what they were, and it helps me refocus on The Christ Principle. I use these coins as examples of the help that Christ has given and still gives to me through the Catholic Church. I had these Lectio Divina sessions with my Magister Noster (Jesus and the Holy Spirit) to illuminate how these coins prepare me for what is to come and how I must build hope through Faith.

The first coin I use daily is the result of God claiming me as my Father. The second side of the coin is when I accept and ratify that covenant, a fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant with the chosen people and my realization that, each day, I must convert my false self to my true self (redeemed by the blood of the Lamb) through conversio morae. Christ must increase; I must decrease. The first coin I have on Earth that I can use in Heaven when I die is THE WAY. This is not my way but one with which I have been clothed at my Baptism and renewed each day in Confirmation. Sacraments are those communal gatherings when the whole Body of Christ joins in one Faith, one Lord, one Baptism once more to help me, the individual, become more and more aware of those three innate longings of my inner self a) How can I delve deeper into the mystery of what it means to be human and move forward with consciousness and complexity towards that next step in my evolution? b. I am realizing more and more as I grow in my true self and leave behind the old skins for new ones that the awareness of the Christ Principle and attainment of authentic love is the aloe vera that soothes my heart like no power, politics, religion, or money ever could or will. c) That the truth of what it means to be human at my highest capacity and capability happens only when I abandon my preconceived notions and assumptions of what I can see alone, to take up my cross daily and follow in the footsteps of the Magister Noster (Christ and Holy Spirit). It is only when I die to my false self every day that I can, with the power of the Holy Spirit, see with the eyes of an adopted son (daughter) and listen “…with the ear of the heart.” What I gather together as mined gold on Earth is my Heaven, given that I am not you, you are not me; God is not us, and we, most certainly, not God.

The second coin has two sides. (Have you ever heard of a coin having three sides?) Side one is the Eucharist, and side two is the Sacrament of Forgiveness of Sins. In my temple of the Holy Spirit, there is a holy of holies, which I call the inner sanctum of my inner self. No one goes there unless I let them in that upper room. When I go there, I lock the door so others may not know what I think and believe.

This room is where I think true thoughts (truth is saying with the mouth what is authentically in your heart). No duplicity. No prevarication. No playing hide and seek with God.

This is the room where I have reserved the real presence of Christ that I received in the Eucharist, the place where I get down on my knees before that presence and realize that all these years, although I thought I was doing good, it was for my kingdom, power, and glory, not for Christ. Only three (or was it four) years ago, as a Lay Cistercian, my life changed radically after a lifetime of trying to do what I thought Catholicism and Lay Cistercian was that all I had to do all along was sit in my upper room and wait for the presence of Christ with the Holy Spirit to overshadow me with energy that I need that day to fight the good fight and not give in to the false promises of the world, the kingdom of the Earth. Eucharist is a person, one just as alive as Jesus, body and blood, soul and divinity. While I live, this coin takes on more and more value as I am more and more humbled to be in the presence of Christ. (Capacitas Dei: Christ and Satan can’t live in the same room, and I am the one who must physically throw out the Devil and the false promises of the world to choose Christ and what seems like a contradiction to my human reasoning).

With the cross as key, I have the energy through the Sacraments of Eucharist and Forgiveness of Sin to make all things new over and over. The value of my coin is mine alone, and when I cash it in, my value (life experiences where I am one with Christ and forgive others as I submit to Christ that I need redemption each day to rise above my current level of humanity to be that new wine for the new skin that is Christ. Like the Blessed Mother, I store all these experiences in my heart and ponder them to learn how they all fit together.

If the first coin is The Way, the second is The Truth. This is not the truth that the world gives, but truth means the divine energy of what I need to become what my destiny and nature require. Truth is a person, not a concept. When I take that truth into my heart by abandoning my sinful self in favor of the real presence of Christ through the forgiveness of sins, I become more like Christ, but still within the limits of my human nature. I reach what my humanity should be as a result of evolution.

If the first coin is the assembly or gathering of all those I have had contact with in my lifetime, all together in a reception room, I can greet them and enjoy a reunion. But there is more. My second coin allows me to keep everything from my first coin but to add to it the next level of Heaven, my own personal upper room of my inner self. In this room, I sit down with Jesus and the Holy Spirit and can summon anyone to join us. I want to summon Carl Sagan, Einstein, Steven Hawking, Leibnitz and Erich Fromm.

THE THIRD COIN: The life now and to come.

“The third of four coins allows you to enter the level three of Heaven that Scriptures hint at in Is 64:3 and https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2corinthians/12,” said Christ. Look it up.

“When you go to Heaven from your time on Earth, you don’t stop growing. There is movement in Heaven but only within the complexity of consciousness of the NOW. Because this is so alien to your human experience while on Earth, I just gave you hints on how to grow in the kingdom of Heaven on Earth so that you would not be blindsided when you get to Heaven. Everything I left to you, the Eucharist, Forgiveness of Sins, The Mystery of the Church, and your Faith informed by reason, is for you to grow on Earth to prepare to live forever in a condition where your humanity thrives at its maximum. Your prototype for this is my mother, Mary.”

“The third coin is one of dynamism and the result of your being in our presence. It is THE LIFE, but not just as in having children, although that is part of it. There is growth and movement by the Church through marriage on one side of the coin and Holy Orders on the other side. Notice I did not say celibacy, which is important as a discipline, but Holy Orders, the nexus of Earth touching that which cannot be touched except by me through the Holy Spirit.”

“Will I be able to take in all these ideas with the limited experiences I have had in my lifetime, ” I asked Christ.

“I keep telling you and those who died in the peace of my heart in their heart, not to worry. I did this because even with all your human knowledge and experience in trying to fill the void in your heart of those three longings, you will only see the big picture as you are capable (conversion morae) and have the capacity (capacitas dei) to know, love and serve in Heaven, based on what you learned to pack for Heaven while you were in the kingdom of the Earth. What you will notice is that your Heaven is not the Heaven of another person, just like your Catholicism is not like the life experiences of another Catholic. Heaven is One, but each person is unique. This coin you give me in the second upper room of your inner self will open the whole panorama of what it is. You will enjoy it as you have prepared yourself to receive it. You don’t know what you will be looking at by yourself. Still, with Father, myself, and the Holy Spirit, your personal human lifetime is transformed into someone who can look at the beatific vision through the sunglasses that don’t let through anything except the fullness of your humanity (knowledge, love, and truth of service).”

“This sounds a lot like the boatman on the river Styx who gave a ride to those going to the land of the dead,” I said.

“Where do you think the authors of the myth of Charon got the idea?” said Christ.

Jesus continued, “If the first Heaven is a grand welcoming and reunion with all those with whom you touched during your lifetime, then the second Heaven is that upper room and you get to choose who meets you and shares their ideas. The third Heaven is the grand ballroom, all those who have died in the peace of Christ and those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God. All the choirs of angels are here. All the Archangels are here. All persons judged by God to have discovered how to love authentically are here. All the Saints and saints are here. Most importantly, you are here. This level is the fulfillment of your humanity at its highest or deepest level. Depending on how well you assimilated what I wanted you to know, each person’s capacity and capability will be different to enjoy the NOW. No comparisons of “you are better than me” or “I am right and you are wrong.” You bathe in pure energy, pure love, pure knowledge, and pure service, but you do that according to how much treasure you gathered while on Earth. (capacitas dei)”

“This third heaven is what I allowed St. Paul to see with the eyes of Faith and the “ear of the heart.” I had to be careful because this level is like drinking concentrated orange juice just for humans, just with their physical and mental capabilities. This is why I stressed the need for loving others and being a gathering of believers whose essence is to serve others. especially the poor. And all humans who ever lived in any age are the poor of spirit, the anawin (poor). From Baptism onward, it is all about preparing to live in this third level of reality, your end level in the evolutionary process for all humanity. I wanted you to have the freedom that all reality has when it has my imprimatur (permission to be what nature intended). I also thought it would be a good idea for this third level to be consistent with your human experiences since you would not be able to relate to anything in your world other than what you have expected. It is a surprise at this level. There is no war or rumors of war, no seven deadly sins, no need for material goods. You will be open to the ontic possibility of the manifest ability of all beings you encounter. There is no language at this level other than love and service, but you need not worry. Unlike the Tower of Bable, you have practiced how to listen to my whispering to you in Lectio Divina and meditation before the Blessed Sacrament, so you will at least have some notion of what is in store for you.”

“Heaven at the third level is a person, that of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in a containment field where each person relates to this reality, which answers each question you might have about anything, experience love with anyone at the deepest level (there is no need for marriage or giving in marriage), plus sharing the life story of each person in a language all understand. Humans love to find out the personal stories of others, so I (the Trinity “I”) allowed you the freedom to discover how to know, how to love, and how to serve others using your whole heart, mind, and strength. Heaven is the fulfillment of the Garden of Eden before the fall, now, not just a myth to bring us closer to mastering the intricacies of being human at the level intended by your nature but sidetracked through misuse of free choice.”

“I could not begin to explain all of this to you. You just don’t have the capability nor the capacity to get what immense satisfaction there is in being in my presence and just be what your nature intended,” said Jesus. “I had to not only tell you but show you that the New Jerusalem is not confined to the People of Israel, although they are the root of Jesse, any more than Christianity is confined to only Catholics. Both you and Israel are to be a light of my energy to the whole world, not giving up your particular way of being my disciples, but sharing this good news with others. Stop judging others, that is my job.”

“These three rooms or levels of Heaven I have prepared for you since the beginning when I placed my fingerprints on each atom so that there would be purpose in the seeming chaos around you. They are your inheritance because, for each individual, Heaven is the result of what value you have placed on your four coins while you were alive. You cash them in after you die and each one is different because of the value you placed on each one.”

“The third coin is THE LIFE because it is my life offered up for the ransom of many on the cross,” Christ emphasized. (Philippians 2:5-12) “Enjoy as you are able (capacitas dei) and willing to grow ever and ever deeper into my Christ Principle.” (conversio morae).

“Welcome, good and faithful servant into your Lord’s joy. Because you have been faithful over a few things in your life, this life is the reward of an adopted son and daughter of the Father. Welcome home to your inheritance…forever.”

To be continued…

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