DOUBLE LIFE: LOVE IN TWO DIMENSIONS

In this installment about my double life, I wanted to show how human love, as I have come to know it, is based on life experiences of trying and failing, ever deepening, ever sloughing off false trails and betrayals. I do not see human love as bad as much as tainted by original sin, and so without the energy to allow me to go to that level of my evolution for which my nature was intended, but thwarted by reason that may lead to choices that are bad for my intelligent progression.

My paradigm for human love is Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving, which argues that we are not born knowing what love is or how to love, but must learn it from others. He further suggests that not all love is authentic, calling unauthentic love (orgiastic state- sex without love; reliance on drugs for love; and drinking as a way of finding love). I have written additional blog posts on the subject, which you may wish to read later.

If Erich Fromm is my paradigm for what human love is, then I use his description of love with the addition of my second citizenship, that of an adopted son or daughter of the Father, to reach that highest and culmination dimension of my humanity. Notice that I not only need help to begin the process, but I also struggle daily against the pull of my human citizenship regarding what love is and how I should define it. That is where my Catholic Faith helps me to focus on being in the presence of Christ, always an act of my free will, to find out what love is like and how I should express it as an adopted son on earth, while I live. I have listed some ideas that may help explain my concept of Pauline Duality.

IT’S ALL ABOUT PERSPECTIVE (SEEING WITH TWO DIMENSIONS, NOT ONE)

I always look for two meanings when thinking about the word ”Love” in my Lectio Divina. The first meaning is what the world thinks of Love. For this, I reference what Erich Fromm says in The Art of Loving about the meaning of Love. The second dimension is that of the spirit. For this, I use The Christ Principle and the Cistercian practices and charisms to examine “love” from the perspective of Christ’s teaching in Scripture.

I will offer my take on LOVE from these two viewpoints. As an adopted son of the Father, I use what Christ teaches about Love. My approach comes from the totality of my personal experiences and lessons learned about LOVE. I call it “fierce” or “profound” Love to differentiate this key purpose of life from its secular counterpart.

WHERE I FIND LOVE

Since we are talking about my views of what reality looks like, I find love in two universes, not one. I am becoming more and more human as I become more and more like Christ, and I recognize that all I need is to be placed in Christ’s presence and just be myself in silence and solitude. It takes the power of Christ to sustain my heavenly citizenship. I just tap into that power and wait for what Christ tells me to do in the upper room of my inner self (Matthew 6:5).

I can’t do this transformation for you, and Christ won’t do it for me. I place myself in Christ’s presence because His is the power to sustain me in this lifetime and welcome me into the kingdom in the next life, the Church Militant. The question many ask is, “Is this possible?” I say, “Not if you live in just one universe.”

If you have been a romin’ or wandering Catholic, whose spirituality is as dry as eating a green persimmon (Whew), like me, then I encourage you to begin digging for spiritual gold right under your feet. It is there, only waiting for you to know it is there, and then do work and dig for it. Christ gives you the pick-ax and even tells you where to dig, but if you can’t hear Jesus for all the noise around you, telling you what you should be and how you should be a human, you won’t hear his answer in the silence of that upper room of your inner self.

The Catholic Way is the strict way and demands work (Remember that passage in Genesis about Adam and Eve now having to work?). You can’t wish your way to heaven, just as good works for the sake of good works won’t get you there without Faith. Taking up your cross means something. The Catholic Church was founded by Jesus to give those who follow the apostles the same help to make new wineskins each day to hold the wine that Christ offers to you in silence and solitude in that upper room of your inner self, the Holy of Holies, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Don’t throw away twenty centuries of heritage, fraught with going down the wrong paths, but always returning to the center.

My Lay Cistercian life has four distinct boxes, with The Christ Principle at its center. It might look like this. The Christ Principle is my center. When I say “Jesus is Lord,” this is what I mean. When I try to grow deeper each day (capacitas dei) in Christ’s love for me by loving others rather than judging them, that is what I mean. When someone says, “What does it mean to be a Roman Catholic?” this is behind that statement. Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. I have stopped trying to prove anything to anyone about what is in my heart.

REALM OF THE MIND	REALM OF THE HEART
What my masculine side provides.	What my feminine side provides.
THE ALPHA AUTHORITY AND FAITH The Christ Principle My adoption by Christ My acceptance of the Holy Spirit Freely offer my will to the Father Dying to Self	SERVICE AND GOOD WORKS Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy Chapter 4, Rule of St. Benedict Gathering Day Tallahassee Lay Cistercian discernment group Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Lay Cistercian Gathering
KNOWLEDGE AND FREE WILL The Primacy of Holy Scriptures Writings of the Early Church via New Advent Writings of St. Benedict Writings of Cistercian authors YouTube of Bishop Barron and others Catechism of the Catholic Church	THE OMEGA LOVE THROUGH CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICE Eucharist Reconciliation and Penance Lectio Divina Liturgy of the Hours Contemplative Prayer “Do what he tells you.” Humility and Obedience to the will of the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit each day.

Don’t wait until after you die to make changes.

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