There exists a Being undifferentiated and complete,
Born before heaven and earth.
Tranquil, boundless,
Abiding alone and changing not,
Encircling everything without exhaustion.
Fathomless, it seems to be the Source of all things.
I do not know its name,
But characterize it as the Tao.
Arbitrarily forcing a name upon it,
I call it Great….
~Tao Teh Ching, chapters 25 and 4 (Translated by Gi-ming Shien and Eugene Rose.)
For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in Whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ… Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving… See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in Him, Who is the Head of all rule and authority. In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, Who raised Him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him.
~ from Colossians 2
Oh beloved, it is true.
This fool of a writer seemed to know a few things in his life in the past. Oh, i was so sure of so many things. But, there was a dry and bitter edge to the knowledge. Something was incomplete. Even as i would come up to the point of actually grasping a concept, i would see that really all that i knew was vapor and dust.
His Word is true. He is The Truth.
It is odd. Everything in my life has changed. I am FAR, FAR, FAR away from being an ecumenical type person. Actually, it seems as we come to see the common threads of His Truth across the traditions, a very clear, very narrow Message becomes visible: Jesus is The Way. Jesus is The Truth. Jesus is The Life…. Him, a personable Person – is meeting each of us as friends, and working to bring us Home into His Triune Life through any means possible.
Can we see it?
This is the mystery of faith we behold in a eucharistic celebration, and in our reading of His Word. Look at the passage again. The mystery has nothing to do with the rituals of our churchgoing, or even the sincerity of our worship. Rather, the mystery is that man-made religion itself has been completely replaced. It is dead. And now, in that rotten corpse’s place, The Eternal Man – the very bridge between The Trinity and humanity – has become the Source, and Object, and Sustainer of a Life of faith in Himself. Oh, don’t think that i am being too mystical about this mystery.
It is simply and totally, all about Jesus.
And the sacrifice that He made, to make this all possible is the most beautiful thing. It is the very outworking of Love Themselves. His sacrifice was so large, so infinite, so eternal as to burst out across all time and space. His finished work is simply made present in the eucharist, and seen in His Word. He is so amazing, and so full. Once we begin to see Him – oh my!
He takes us on down into this same sacrifice with Himself. We die as He died. But now, we Live is a He Lives. Eternal. And this new Life puts us on the way, to more fully knowing The Way. The Chinese call it 道 (or dao [tao]). This word can be as simple as a word for a road or path. But, it is so much deeper. It is, best understood, about Him.
Do you know Him? You can. Just look to Him. Believe. Love. Trust. Follow.
I am beginning to know Him. And, i now understand why there is a forever, beloved. It will take at least that long to find the center of His Great Heart. I am only in the outer courts, far beyond the true boundaries, and the Heat is so great that it burns me up. Still, it draws us in. Oh the adventure!
And… He again, is The Way to the center of even Himself.
It is a weird life; this no longer even needing to believe in God. I no more believe in God, than I have to believe that my wife is sleeping in the same bed with me. I can feel His touch. I can hear His Voice. I sense the warmth of His Presence now, in ever deeper and real ways. I live in a near constant conversation with The King of The Universe. I have come to know Him. And for this, I am profoundly grateful.
You can know Him too, and tonight it your night to do just that. He is The Way. Ask Him how. Jesus will show you.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”
~ Jesus, The 道, and King of The Universe, in John 14
