Perfection & Mysticism — Divine Physics
A contemplation by a Catholic worker.
Following Christ
I found that I have no idea how to love others. Some who say they know, follow culture and custom that fits, instead of pointing at real love. I learned that St. John the Baptist speaks in the same manner as Jesus, but quite different from St. Paul. If we see both of them, they call for repentance, teach how to love, and live so freely, unlike those in a strict spiritual community.
Unlike St. Paul’s instruction to bigger communities, Jesus lives entirely in the present where He told others what He already knows and what He does is what is love.
I was given the grace to learn that rather than to learn from contemplation how to love, acting, and speaking like Jesus are the best way to love perfectly, without trial and error. Many of us often get stuck with rules & traditions which often came from deficient instruction on how to love perfectly. It is so amazing to learn how Jesus does stuff and give small rules to disciples that sometimes last only for a day, but we are stuck so much in rules and laws. Of course, this rule I am talking about is not a commandment. Let’s not mix them up.
The world often confuses love and truth. A directing priest of mine told me so many times that Jesus is the Way, Truth, and Life. So I would like to share some definitions that help me stay focused. I found that Jesus is the only person who knew the full Truth. What He said was from Truth, the heavenly realm, and the nature of God.
However, He doesn’t seem to care much about correcting legends or cultural misinformation.
I believe this is aligned with His teaching, after the world is over, hope perishes, only love last. So, why bother so much to correct everything narrow in God’s view anyway. For example, for him to use 4 directions of earth, speaking of the earth as if it sounds flat, using the old testament that might sometimes be good for the unification with God, but an incorrect fact in itself. Do you know Jesus’ beard color? You can believe whatever you want, right? So why don’t I stay quiet about unnecessary misinformation and fake news or even condone it if I can establish love and, for God’s sake, trying to win the souls of others?
Meaning of Life
No doubt about it, to love God is the answer, but I want to dive into some commonly undiscussed territories. While Aquinas wrote that the meaning of life is to know God, know who you are, and know what you are supposed to do.
As beautiful as it is, I found his writing highly unattractive for me. For me, those are the prerequisites of perfection, not perfection itself. I think participating in His intention most purely and perfectly is what attracts me the most.
Please refer to https://catholicer.medium.com/divine-physics-e924937d46 to learn more about what I mean by participating in God in addition to being in unity to His divine love.
Perfection
I think love can be defined by an action that manifests Truth. I know Aquinas says it is to will the good of others, and John Paul said it is self-giving. But I want to use this definition to protect myself from caring about Truth too much because it is useless in the first place. Even the devil knows the truth.
In our limited existence, life has not given us a complete ending.
- We will receive eternity like God only after he resurrects us.
- We will rule with him only after we die and stay with him.
- We will be glorified only after we die, and our accumulated treasure of love will be crowned to us.
- We do not have life within us until we die and be graciously adopted as a living god by God. But we can take Jesus in the Eucharist to have early access to such life.
- We are not perfect, but this is the only thing we need to work for in life. This is our job that is attainable while on earth.
To reach perfection, we need to learn how to love and to love only.
The issue with this, Jesus’ examples do not resemble every life situation, so we still have the opportunities to learn how to love from Him in Spirit directly. This is where contemplation and mysticism become handy. As mysticism is sort of downloading God’s exposure and contemplating it will put Truth in context and make it actionable.
The Physics of Contemplation
I found it helpful that Jesus, St. John the Baptist, St. Ignatius, St. Benedict & Basil, St. Francis and Clare and his brothers, St. John of the Cross & Teresa of Avila gave a comprehensive compilation of the physics of our spiritual life. My intent is solely to define and group vocabularies to assist one’s journey into perfection. This is not an encouragement from anyone to jump around without Spiritual Directors to find their own way.
I love the picture where a human is a circle with an inner soul circle with a door going to another soul, the Father. Though this picture is weak and incomplete, it gives a thorough distinction.
Body is part of the beautiful creation meant to go through glorification, like in Tabor. It has a soul in it, that brings “material life” to it. The soul forms who we are but as Aquinas said, there are multiple layers in it. I want to throw away this picture for a bit because I am no philosopher, but I want to dive into human consciousness, unconsciousness, and darkness.
Assuming you know what I mean by consciousness, it is something you can love by growing it with learning the faith, experiencing society, loving one another, and everything we do in daily life. As our brains are designed to access memories so deeply, psychologists have been a source of healing for this layer. I am writing this because most people I ministered know the faith and sometimes are obsessed with it, have major issues in their memories that trigger unconscious reactions, making us know the truth, but incapacitated from loving. It is something one can get help with from faith-driven psychologists.
When you heal your unconscious, what remains is our conscious, healthy unconscious, and a pure but weak will. A Byzantine priest, my confessor, was helping remind myself that body, mind, a soul should go to God together, something St. Bonaventure wrote in his stairways to heaven about forcing our sense, being, soul, body, and everything toward God intentionally, because one is deficient when others are not inline.
Another thing we have access to upon crossing the unconscious wound is the darkness, St. John of the Cross is one of the only few Catholics who formulate the rule we can follow. Still, I believe from St. Francis’ example that these rules should be shallow when proper communal protections are in place. Because a rule is an ability to guard over a complex situation, thus reducing reality into a mere singular situation.
When you are in peace, those who can enter their unconscious will find nothing.
What we call darkness is the very door to the spiritual realm, as I mentioned in the human circle above. It is not something you can access, it is not a place, it is not even anything, it is just your mind of nothingness. Imagination of God is the only thing you can do on your part.
But, this nothingness comes with a cost, the very door ruled by the spiritual world. It is not up to us to open or close it, because our material world is an extension of them, where the government comes from the other side, yet the evil one also has access to the same door. Let’s be clear, this is not silence, which is a present situation of undistracted consciousness and unconsciousness.
I know for many people this is a source of curiosity, but I would like to share from my own experience, that this darkness gives you nothing.
Just like when we are about to explore a new beach, this is just another location, often dangerous, especially backed by our pride to think that we will be careful, unlike others. If you see people being possessed, you might realize that no one really has the authority over them but Jesus’ name. So forget about our stupid curiosity to find things out. Our crowns in heaven have nothing to do with knowing how it feels to be in the darkness. But… That being said, if and only if you long to find Christ, to love Him, and to contemplate divine things, find a good contemplative director who can guide and warn you. Bonaventure wrote, those who enter the darkness without Jesus are like thieves and will pay the price.
If you are confused about what I am talking about, you are very sane then. I am writing about this darkness not to tell people what to do. I am sharing to tell you the activity of divine action. God and the angels have the power to shift the material world as its governors. You might be one of those who ask for health, healing, protection. There are plenty of things God created in the world that can be tweaked, from water flowing in the river, the particle in Mars, to your body, will, situation, and pretty much everything. But I would like to introduce to you the mechanics of natural action from spiritual participants.
When there is an action, they usually come with an intent and a form. The intent is hiding behind the form. The form differs for different people. One might use imagination to enter the darkness therefore, it manifests in imagination along with feeling. Sometimes the form can surpass natural form, which I don’t want to seek because it often leads to idolatry of the spiritual realm, which brings one not to love Jesus and others. The manifestation can be a simple thing, yet profound. Those who seek intense manifestation might easily get them from the enemy, while God, who is the supreme ruler, knows it is mostly bad for us. As Jesus intentionally went up to heaven, we are now begging him to come down so we can see Him and listen to Him. This is often not God’s will. Only those with tears, love, prayer, nightless cry of a pure soul to love Jesus are encouraged by Bonaventure to pursue this if I understand his intention correctly.
On the other hand, know for sure if you pray for others, God can allow spiritual actions that occurred to one through such doors or other doors I am not familiar with. St. John of the Cross wrote, once a form or manifestation occurs, you can peacefully reject it in the name of Christ.
For if it comes from the Spirit, the efficacy remains. Otherwise the evil efficacy goes away.
Isn’t that wonderful? No, still stick with directors and communities under a Bishop because obedience is one of the largest external efficacies you can give to others to bring them to Jesus. This divine action occurs all the time but is neglected all the time. Yet it is there to answer one’s prayers subtly. If you are in God or to use any spiritual Gift, the lord will manifest more visibly to others and create a bigger impact. Bigger is not necessarily better, though.
This area of encounter in the darkness, I’d like to call them the mystical arena. The area of the unconscious and will to process our mind and our thought while in the darkness, I call them contemplation. The wounded memory that prevents peaceful contemplation might need psychological help. And when declining to even receive Christ due to thought or belief system, is the philosophical arena. So, next time you try to bring Jesus to others. Know where to bring them, and speak what is only necessary when asked.
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