ORIGINAL SIN: TWO WAYS TO OPEN HEAVEN’S GATE.

I have discovered two ways to peer through a glass darkly and attempt to reach a deeper level of my humanity, and thus, my spirituality. Scriptures tell us that, “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” (Luke 17:21) If this is true, then Hell must also be contained within us, that which is unauthentic to our nature and particularly our destiny. Ouch!

HORIZONTAL SPIRITUALITY — One is the complex way that took me a lifetime to discern and open myself up to the transforming energy of the Holy Spirit in that upper room of my inner self. This is the more complex of the two ways. It is a characteristic of my life moving forward in the stream of nature, yet with tools of human reasoning and the freedom to choose something outside or even contrary to that natural flow. I collect life experiences are seek to answer the three fundamental challenges to my humanity.

• What does it mean to be fully human at the next level of my evolution?
• How can I love fiercely?
• What is the truth not corrupted by human original sin?

Sometime in the past, the strain of life from which we originate broke through that barrier that keeps all other life forms subservient to the strict laws of nature (and, I might add, the physical laws, too). All of us are influenced by these natural directives but have developed intelligent progression beyond them with the help of human reasoning to address the three fundamental challenges each human faces (see above), plus, for each individual, the freedom to choose what is good or bad for us. Sin is a concept that I have come to respect that describes the choices of those things that are bad for my nature, even though they seem to make me happy at the time. Human nature, and within that flow of life down through the centuries how each one of us addresses those innate but quite tidally locked waiting for resolution, is the context where I must solve The Divine Equation, the questions, and answers coming, not from my flawed humanity (original sin) but from an absolute truth beyond my nature. Any questions or answers that would come solely from my humanity (physical and mental universes) would have neither the capacity nor the capability to solve these three fundamental archetypal yearnings within the human bosom. It is a conundrum of logic that The Divine Equation is the key, not to prove that God exists, but rather, what it means for me to exist, to resolve those three dimensions of what it means for me to be fully human.

They are: What must I know to keep penetrating the depths of my humanity to reach a finality of who I am? How does profound love, involving how Christ loved us, bring closure to a life challenged by the temptations of the kingdom of the earth? Is there a reality where truth is absolute and not clouded by the experiences of the moment? Ironically, this is what is meant by our being created in the image and likeness of God. St. Augustine has one of my favorite sayings: Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.

The keys that unlock the human mind to a far deeper dimension (virtual spirituality or capacitas dei) are and have always been right in front of each of us. In my lifetime, I have come up with six such keys that have helped me to take the next step, the Christ Principle. This is not just a lock of the mind but a template that overlays these three fundamentals of my humanity, indicating what is true, absolutely. Belief comes into play when I am aware of all this consciousness and complexity in my life, as well as the trends that precede my time on this earth, and I must choose what is good and what is evil (what does not solve this Divine Equation but seems to do so in a pseudo-humanistic way).

It takes a lifetime to be open to all the possibilities before me each day. Now, I am not the Catholic I was twenty years ago. Horizontal spirituality is waiting each day for Jesus to be present to me, ironically, only happening when I abandon my will and accept whatever God’s will is for me. Horizontal spirituality is the accumulation of attempts when we make a choice to be present to Jesus.

MY DOOR TO HEAVEN’S GATE

Because I can, I try to grasp this series of locks and keys with the following syncretic example of a door, mainly because it makes sense to me. An example of a syncretic analogy is The Garden of Eden, a story that encapsulates the whole dynamic of what it means to be human and the introduction of what good people do, dumb or sinful things, while being good in their nature.

Given that it has taken me a lifetime of struggle and trial and error to move to this point, here I stand before the door of all that I am, one that has the three fundamental questions emblazoned on it (your door might use French, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, or Spanish). This is the door of my life experiences, what I have chosen in my life to be good over evil, my center of existence is on this door. As I face it, there are six combination locks, situated randomly on the face of the door, with six handles next to them. It is a huge door and made out of beautiful oak. I wonder what carpenter made it?

Seated next to the door on a simple wooden bench is an older gentleman, wearing the garments of a Cistercian monk, the white robe contrasting with the oak-stained door.

“I am the gatekeeper,” He said. “Sit down and rest awhile.”

“This all seems too familiar,” I thought to myself. “That can’t be so.”

“I was with you at your Alpha (when you were born) and I am with you at your Omega as you have reached the next level of your humanity, my adopted son (daughter). I know everything you ever did, both in my name and those names other than my own.” He said. “Let’s see what you have learned about what I have told and shown you about answering the three fundamental questions of humanity. I left those imprinted on your heart so you wouldn’t ever forget them. I gave you the freedom to choose, with the unintended consequences of being wrong and missing the mark I set for humanity. I call that sin.”

“Can you tell me the locks that keep your humanity from its ultimate fulfillment?” said the Gatekeeper. “Over your time on earth, there are six questions that you must answer to move to the next level of your evolution. This step of evolution requires you to let go of all that you knew about the meaning of life to accept the way, truth, and life of Christ, the kingdom of heaven on earth. These questions are:

1. What is the purpose of life?
2. What i the purpose of my life within that purpose?
3. What does reality look like?
4. How does it all fit together?
5. How to love with all my strength and will?
6. I know I am going to die. Now what?”

The key is a person, but not just any person. This key, like all reality in Heaven, is alive. The key is Christ, and to open these six locks and all I have to do is insert it and turn it. Turning the key means I place myself in the presence of Christ and ask for mercy, pledging that His will be done. I do this horizontally over a lifetime of trial and error. With Christ is the kingdom, the power, and the glory; that is the only way I can move to the deepest levels of my humanity and fulfill the purpose of my life and my humanity.

VERTICAL SPIRITUALITY — The other way is just as authentic but is the product or outcome of my years of struggling and searching for the questions and answers to the purpose of life, but a direct conduit to Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father while also sitting on the couch next to me in the upper room of my inner self. This occurs every time I abandon (die) myself and become aware that I must fear the Lord to place myself in the proper disposition to just sit there and wait. I sit there as a wounded human with the “fear of the Lord.” Of course, this does not mean fear as much as respect that God is God and not my nature. It is through, with, and in Christ that my humanity can relate to a God I cannot see or approach with any human reasoning. (See Rule of Benedict, Chapter 7:10) Disposition is key to building the capacity for me to receive the whispers of God in a way that my human will recognizes. “Whatever is received, is received according to the disposition of the one who receives it.”

Vertical spirituality is the time I take right now, in the moment, to make horizontal spirituality real. My evolution of spirituality went from saying prayers to being the prayer I said. Waiting has been a focused theme with my Lectio Divina and Lay Cistercian approach to a relationship with the source of my energy that will propel me to the kingdom of heaven in heaven. Waiting means the time I take to consciously choose Jesus. Waiting is prayer. Prayer is not only the time I spend in Lectio Divina, Eucharistic Adoration, reading Sacred Scripture, but also the preparation before and after that oral or meditative prayer.

Placing myself in the presence of Christ in that upper room of my inner self is all I can do to be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and become a deeper level of human than before.

Ponder anew what God can do.

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