I have always been filled with the fires of the love of a God not old, and now to this has been joined the passion of the love of a young man. That love, dear earth, drives Me to your salvation.
~ Gene Edwards, in The Divine Romance
Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ… But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.
~paul, The Least of The Apostles, in 2 Corinthians 4
Oh beloved, it is true.
Within us, right now, are cells that have just come into being. And also within us are cells that have remained from our very early years. However, regardless of our age – even those who have traveled this earth for over 100 years – have only made the smallest scratch on history.
Even the most powerful among us in history, those who have built mighty empires… Most have already crumbled to dust.
Even so, there are two truths that accompany the fact of our temporality. First, as CS Lewis has said, in “The Weight of Glory”:
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.
What CS Lewis said is true. But second, is the most important truth. There is also a deep truth to the existence of a Christian. And it comes from the truth that Jesus said in John 16. He said that it is better that He depart physically and go to the Father. This is vital, because it is from within the deep union of the Father and Son that comes a Holy and completely G_d Spirit. And it is this Spirit that now Lives within us.
This G_d does not even “exist.” Rather, They are the very Wellspring of all existence. They are the very measure of Ancient. They Are days without end, and without the limiting factor of the dimension of time. G_d, the complete Standard, against which time, space, virtue, beauty, and everything is measured – is now Alive within: us.
Can we see it?
We are, as Dr. Peter Kreeft said,
We cannot turn the universe inside out, but we can turn our own minds inside out: we can believe we are mere mortals dreaming the dream of immortality, while in fact we are immortals dreaming the terrible dream of mere mortality. We can dream that we are only dreaming the glory, while in fact we are never so wide awake as when we open our eyes to the glory.
Keep looking… almost there.
Our human lives are broken in every dimension. They fall short in all the virtues. They age and wear out. They fail, and crack. The dust that forms our frame is so fragile that it cannot contain what is within us. We leak badly. And this is some of the best news we have ever had.
For, in our continued brokenness, is anchored a human spirit that will never die, and a hosting of the Very L_RD of Hosts. So, in and through this brokenness that appears so weak and ineffective, comes both our eternal spirit and the Holy Spirit that made us forever alive with Them.
Said more simply: the tiny little cracked pots of our bodies, that would normally just return to dust with no effect, are now dispensers of Ancient Life that will continue on into forever.
So, are you feeling your failures? Do you feel the incredible limitations of your body, and the ways that it fails? Do you see the cracks in your pot? This is very good news. Because, if you have, you are now in the process of discovering what all those cracks are for.
Tonight is your night. Time to let Ancient Life and Eternal Love to flow through those holes in your life.
I came to love You late, O Beauty so ancient and new; I came to love You late. You were within me and I was outside, where I rushed about wildly searching for You like some monster loose in Your beautiful world. You were with me, but I was not with You. You called me, You shouted to me, You wrapped me in Your splendor, You sent my blindness reeling. You gave out such a delightful fragrance, and I drew it in and came breathing hard after You. I tasted and it made me hunger and thirst; You touched me, and I burned to know Your peace.”
~Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
