If we are to be the hand, feet and face of God in our world, as mentioned at the end of my last blog – how does that affect the way we live?
I have discovered it first affects the way I see myself. Then it affects the way I see and treat others. It also affects the way I relate to the mystery we name as God.
This is not new theology – it dates back to the Christian Desert Mystics of the 3rd Century AD, and is also reflected in a familiar 19th-century Russian book, The Way of A Pilgrim, and its sequel, The Pilgrim Continues his Way, which taught a way of prayer that both supports our spiritual growth, and enables us to see the sacred presence shining through everything with the eyes of our soul.
Others have also referred to learning to see with the eyes of our soul. William Blake, for example, encouraged us: 'To see a World in a Grain of Sand and a Heaven in a Wild Flower. Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand and Eternity in an hour'.
I am sure we all have had moments, which the Canadian depth psychologist, Dr David Benner, referred to as 'the thin places in which we live...through which we (can) pass to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary, the secular into the sacred'. Perhaps this is why opening the eyes of the blind and helping the deaf to hear was such an important part of Jesus' mission. They were symbolic signs of hope, given in Isaiah 61:1-2. If so, how do we learn to 'open our eyes' to see the world, others and ourselves, in this way?
One way I am finding helpful is Sri Chinmoy's suggestion I made in my first blog. To make a deliberate decision not only to use 'eyes of my mind' to contemplate God's presence within me – but to learn to open the 'eyes of my senses' to experience the presence of God within me and in all people and all creation. I find that takes more concentrated effort! However, Chinmoy encourages us to take one further step and to open the eyes of my soul to discover that in every moment, God is taking birth within me and around me. Perhaps this is what Gerald Manley Hopkins meant when he exclaimed: the 'World is charged with the grandeur of God'.
How do I foster this way of experiencing God's presence? Chinmoy again offers some helpful advice: First, by developing a regular practice of prayer and meditation which tunes our heart and mind towards God. Then begin to look with the eyes of Blake and Hopkins, and seek with an inner intuitive awareness – is the best way I can describe it – the 'soul' or 'presence' within the person or part of creation before me and intuitively stretch out to engage with this 'face of the Divine'.
I gain comfort in knowing I am not going loopy in practising this – and take comfort in the Jewish mystic, Arthur Green's encouraging words:
God
is manifest in the human mind and spirit
as well as in birds, trees, and human love.
God is there in the human longing to comprehend and unite with divinity.
This stretching forth of mind and soul to that which is most deeply within us
as an essential part of religion's value.
Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.
Phil
Benner, D. G, Presence and Encounter:The Sacramental Possibilities of Everyday Life, Brazos Press, 2014.
Green, Dr. Arthur. Seek My Face Turner Publishing Company. 2003.
Sri Chinmoy, God Is: Selected Writings of Sri Chinmoy, Aum Publications, 2012.
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