GOD’S “FACE”

The Old Testament asserts that we cannot “see” God’s face and live. (Exodus 33:20)

Paul, in the New Testament, however, says: “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully even as I am fully known.” 1 Cor.13:12

How resolve this inter-testamental paradox?

I think the Old Testament was talking about “egos” – false selves that “die,” that is, become extinguished in any “direct” encounter with God. The New Testament, on the other hand, is talking about human beings who’ve been “born again” spiritually – when it becomes possible for a human spirit to actually engage with God’s Spirit directly because, qualitatively, and at the right place and right time, the two can overlap.

Even the briefest glimpse of God gets us “soaked” by Joy –

If God is Love, then, when we’re loving, even if only for a moment,
That’s when we experience God –
Not as a matter of belief, but of lived life.

Love is the aspect of God that resides inside us (Immanent) while Truth is the aspect of God that’s found outside us (Transcendent).

Experiencing the joy of God as a holy fountain inside us –
While having faith in a transcendent God
Who gifts us with significance, context, and meaning –

Turns out to be Heaven for most human beings!

HOLY CORRESPONDENCE

Some poets enjoy exploring beauty in nature –
While others prefer “punching out” big ideas.

Some poets muse about where we came from –
While others look ahead to where we might be going.

Some poets get depressed and lie down in their cups –
While others become, and sometimes remain, righteously angry.

But the greatest poets – the truly great ones –
Look right into the face of divine nothingness
And express the inexpressible.

The truly great ones fall so deeply in love with the Holy
That they write shy “spiritual letters” to eternity
Which sometimes provoke surprising responses from God
And anyone fortunate enough to stumble upon this holy correspondence.

THE “FACE” OF GOD

We will be like God because we’ll be able to see God as God is.” 1 John 3:2 (my translation)

Why would anyone desire to “see” the face of God?

It’s because the more we directly come to “know” God,
The more we’ll be able to “see” like God sees –
“Love” like God loves –

The more we’ll be able, hopefully, to begin thinking and acting like God.

PERPETUALLY SURPRISED

“Love” works like a magical pair of glasses.

Before you put them on – spiritually, you can’t see a thing
But when you place them astride your nose
And look directly through their clear lenses –
You’ll “see” what God sees.

When you put these glasses on,
You’ll immediately be changed into a new person –
Transfigured, like Jesus,
Into someone “born again” –
Able to see the world like a new-born baby
While still retaining all your lifetime experiences.

Really, if you want to “see” just like God does –
Put on these special “love” glasses –

And get prepared to be perpetually surprised!

THE BIGGEST INVISIBLE PARTY

Humanly, I think it’s impossible to know much about God
Except through “spirit” – and, primarily, through “love.”

Generally, God is unknowable to human beings
As if hidden behind a “mystical cloud”
Despite humanity’s best creative images and poetry.

But that cloud, surprisingly, sometimes opens to reveal God
When lightning flashes of radiant love
Break through our quotidian existence.

It’s certainly true that human beings are able to love
More than they’ll ever be able to fully understand.

For example, love is humanity’s “side entrance”
Into a timeless, ecstatic celebration
God has been producing on a regular basis for God’s closest friends –

The biggest invisible party
Held at infinite undisclosed locations
Ever given.

THE TRUE “THEORY OF EVERYTHING”

Universalist theoretical physicists, like Einstein and Hawking, have worked at developing a “grand unification theory” –
Combining cosmology (star theory) with quantum mechanics (particle theory)
Into a “Theory of Everything.”

But that wouldn’t really be everything, would it?
Since such a theory would be limited to “physical nature” – (defined by the Ancient Greeks as “physics”).

By omitting the subjective, a large segment of existence would be left out
Since physical space takes up just part of reality –
While consciousness, of course, constitutes the other part.

Neither “makes sense” without the other!

Physical space – from galaxies to particles – encompasses the objective part of reality –

While psychic space – including mental/emotional thoughts and sensations, ranging from a high of ecstasy to the low of an itch; spiritual realities – like “love,” “truth,” “justice,” and “beauty;” along with “meaning” itself; as well as all the “mathematical tools” we use to measure anything in physical space – whether galaxies, or even the entire universe, by employing humanity’s elegant silver equations – is equally an important part of reality, in its own subjective way.

(So which of the two do you think is the “greater”?)

In fact, isn’t it true that both are essential aspects of “ultimate reality” –

Moreover, these two aspects of reality appear to be not only inter-related,
But, in some senses, and from God’s deeper/wider perspective,
They might, actually, be the same thing.

YOU’RE ALREADY THERE

Whoever starts a search for God,
Amazingly, has already found God.

One doesn’t seek God unless one has, at least in some sense,
Already recognized signs of God in one’s own life.

OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

Since

God’s relationship to the world is “transcendent,” i.e., above and beyond the material world –

and

God’s relationship to ourselves is also “immanent” – as human beings’ highest spiritual potential

Then, it follows that:

These two may be true simultaneously!

That is, God is both infinitely beyond and infinitely within us!

 

 

THE PURE OF HEART

“Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall “see” God.” (Mathew 5:8)

What does it mean – to be “pure of heart”?

I think it means to live without ego
So that nothing can interfere with in-coming reality –

The kind of “reality” that overlaps with a true experience of God.

That’s what “enlightenment” also is –
What happens when one wakes up from egoistic fantasies and dreams
Into the daylight of reality.

A heart that’s not pure is like a little red engine
That is perpetually manufacturing dreams for the ego “self.”

A heart that’s pure, however, “sees” reality
Which is what God wants –
In other words, God constantly encourages us to see God’s face
Which we now know is identical with reality!