Into the Depth of God and his Eternal Essence of One with Us!

We can easily become threatened by the thought that the Lord has called us each to become One with God when the reminder that our sins might stand in the way. After all, we are told that purgatory stands ready to accept our soul upon dying because there remains some dross on our soul that must be purged before entering into the Beatific Vision. If that is the case then how can anyone understand the literal words of Jesus when he told the disciples; “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.” (Jn 17: 20 - 21).

Mystically speaking, one can feel the closeness that is drawing our soul deep into the essence of God’s presence the more we reach into that presence which must exist beyond the secularism of human desires. It is here that the attractions of life’s temptations literally fall away from whatever could reach our sense of human evils and allow only the mysterious arm of God that accepts a true identity with the divine.

Not too many will even consider this theme since it establishes a human only thought that very few will even understand its ramifications. Who in their right mind would attempt this; Many will ask? However, that is exactly what I am speaking about since this is not a hyper-bole idea that no one would dare reach into the mystery of eternal essence that awaits each one. It is within the capable spirit of mankind to hear the words of God through his Holy Spirit to go beyond the simple restrictions of man. St. Paul did that exactly with the guidance of the Holy Spirit after encountering Jesus on the road leading to Damascus. Christ was calling him to an unknown future that he would become the author to the Gentiles and eventually us as well.

Am I stating that each of us will become like Paul? We must place the events in our ministry as they become visible and the Spirit sends us into the various roles he has already prepared each of us for. Will they all be simple and straigh-forward? Were Paul’s? No, but even Jesus did not find his message accepted and he suffered death on the Cross at Calvary for just that. Does that mean the mysterious closeness of reaching the presence of God will excuse any problems? It in fact will become a quicker path to suffering; just like Jesus and St. Paul. Do you still want to seek this entity of being One with Christ? You should! We are moving in that direction through the essence of being One in God as Christ is One with his Father.

Quoting Augustine: Since I do indeed exist and yet would not exist unless you were in me, why do I ask you to come to me? I am not in hell, yet you are there. For the psalmist says: If I descend into hell you are there. Therefore, my God, I would not exist at all, unless I were in you from whom and by whom and in whom all things exist. Yes, Lord, it is so. To what place do I call you to come, since I am in you? Or from what place are you to come to me? Where can I go beyond the bounds of heaven and earth, that my God may come to me, for he has said: I fill heaven and earth? Who will help me to find rest in you? Who will send you into my heart to inebriate it, so that I will forget my evil ways and embrace you, my only good? What are you to me? Have mercy on me, that I may speak. What am I to you that you command me to love you, and grow angry and threaten me with terrible punishment if I do not? Is it then a small sorrow not to love you? (Taken from Augustine's Confessions and reprinted in the Readings from the Office for the Ninth Sunday in ordinary time).

Ralph B. Hathaway