Meditation 53
The Mystery of the Descending and Ascending
The
twelve loaves were placed in two roves on the golden table as
prefiguration of the Bread of life itself, the Eucharist as the only
source of the live of grace and glory – which at the same time is a
Ladder of Love. This truth was revealed to the patriarch Jacob by the
image of the celestial ladder in Beith-el
– the House of the stone – which later became Beith-le-hem – the House of the
bread, “there was a ladder, planted on the ground with its tops
reaching to heaven; and God's angels were going up and down on
it” (Gn 28. 12).
The loaves reveal God's predestination on earth in order to led all human beings to Himself through His Son Jesus Christ in the power of His Spirit. The two rows of loaves represented the sons of Israel in the same way as the stones (Ex 28. 21) or jewels which the tribes walked in accordance with in the desert in the order of their age in the Divine Order of March represented by the Tetramorph. By this is stated that the new and spiritual Israel – the Church – and every of its member must grow continuously in Christ Jesus in the grace of the Royal Image of Glory when Jesus manifests Himself in person within in the four modes of union as explained above (Med. 48). This spiritual growth was an authentic fact in the minds of the desert fathers and the members of the ancient Church as following remark of Macarius of Egypt reveals,
It was as authentic in the life of St. Paul himself as is clearly reflected by his words in the letters to the Ephesians when he had attained to complete maturity in the live of grace and urged other Christians to do the same, to attain “unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God and form the perfect Man fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself” (Ep 4. 13). This disposition had shoot so deep roots in him in the power of the experience of a living faith that he called Christians who did not recognize this fact children in the faith. By the maturity in faith the faithful will not be carried one way or another by the gust of new teaching,
They are children as Christ has not been formed in them, “My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you” (Gl 4. 19). What makes St. Paul's experience so valuable for the Church still today is the fact that he was the first among the apostles who did not see Christ in His earthly life and grew thus in spiritual communion with Him.
We can actually follow his growth in an authentic way in his letters which thus reveal the anthropology of the Christification. After his illumination on the road to Damascus (Ac 9. 1-9; 22. 6-11; 26. 12-18) he dwelt in Arabia (2 Cor 11. 27) – present day Turkey – for three years. This took probably place in 36 AD. In 39 he returned to Jerusalem and stayed by Caiphas for two weeks and met the apostle Jacob (Gl 1. 18). At this same time he seems to have experienced the suspension when he was raptured to the third heaven. The following years in his life are rather obscure, but it is clear that at this time he “attended the tables,” that is had been occupied in the service of the Church, but was neither respected as a prophet – but they enjoyed great respect within the Primeval Church – rather than as an apostle. This is obvious by the fact that he was simply a “second-hand” when he went with Barnabas to Antioch sometimes between 45-49 AD. (Ac 13. 1).
All this time since he met Jacob the apostle in Jerusalem – who had at this time returned from his mission in Spain – this highly educated pharisee had to obey the commands of uneducated and simple men. These years seem to have consisted in the first phase of his purification – the night of the senses and spirit – until a new and completely transformed man appears on the scene when he received the fullness of the life giving power of the Spirit. This former pharisee and educated in the philosophy of the Greeks seems to enter his final stage of purification – the Night of his redemption – when writing the letter to the Romans in 57 AD which seems to mark the final stage of St. Paul's spiritual struggle. Here the consciousness of sin reaches its culmination,
It can be maintained that an excellent light is shed here on the agonies of the dark nights of the soul and here St. Paul stood at the beginning of a new life – the super essential live of grace. It is the “Law of the Spirit which gives life in Christ Jesus” (Rm 8. 2), which releases his soul from the fetters of death.
Now this “Spirit of Life” fills St. Paul, becomes his own life, appears in an authentic manner as a rebirth, rebirth intended for the human race as a new creation in Christ as he emphasized by lofty terms in His letter to the Colossians, “Christos Kyrios, Christ the Lord, has established a new order of things and He now governs the cosmos.” [2] Our Tabernacle prayer here at the golden table when we ask God the Holy Spirit to infuse into our hearts the virtue of spiritual discrimination is thus in itself a grace. At the golden table of loaves the soul goes through her second mode of union and it is the Eucharist which is the source of the grace she get participation in by the effects of this heavenly manna.
We see also in the gospel how John the Baptist grew in the spirit, “The child grew, and grew strong in the spirit, and was in the desert until the day of his public appearance to Israel” (Lk 1. 80). On Fig. 53 we see how this growth is actualized when the soul increases continuously in her stature to the fullness of Christ's maturity as destined for human beings on earth in its descending and ascending in the prayer of union.
Let us now draw our attention to the growth of the soul when it nourish itself on the healthy nourishment of these golden loaves and is clothed in the robe of the high priest. It is here in the illumination of the lamp stand in the Holy where the Spirit begins to adorn the soul with still another item of the vestments of the high priest – in this case the robe – in her assimilation to her Royal Image.
The Holy Spirit intends to led His sanctifying grace reach to the center, core or inmost being of the soul and he does not accomplish this otherwise than the soul declares her readiness and openness. When He sees that the soul is ready He clothes her in the robe of the high priest which sheds light on the growth of the soul in her stature
The robe was seamless as the undergarments of our Lord, “woven in one piece from neck to hem” (Jn 19. 23). The robe refers to the wondrous healing power of the Tree of Life which reaches to whole of the human being as a psychosomatic unity. Thus the robe is a prerequisite so the soul can approach the next of the great tools in the Holy: the Lamb stand and prefiguration of the the sacrament of the Anointment of the sick, the third sacrament of the living.
It is in front of the lamp stand in the illumination of its seven lamps where God heals the inner wounds of disintegration caused by the original sin once and for all. It is indeed lack of this inner unity which is implied by the word sin: disintegration of this unity. This extents both to the souls powers and the unity of Christ's Church on earth which must be dressed in this robe of divine unity.
The robe is intended to cover the purity of the shining white tunic of the priests – this purity which the soul got participation in at the bronze laver in the examination of her conscience. This purity makes her capable of receiving the super mundane and infused virtues which are revealed by the leg and arms of the lamp stand which gradually replace the capital vices in the Night of the spirit. The robe is an inseparable part of the wedding garments of the soul which she will carry in the bridal feast of the Lamb. When our Lord sees that the soul has been clothed in this robe He will reveal Himself in the prayer of union at the the lamp stands and addresses the soul saying, “you will eat and drink at my table in my kingdom” (Lk 22. 29).
It is at the golden table of loaves where the soul sustains herself at the Lords table and becomes saturated by the charitable knowledge which the Spirit gives her participation in by the loaves or the Eucharist. The robe is an inseparable part of this growth in love,
Imagine, dear reader, how joyfully they have weaved this robe in the loom of the heavenly Tabernacle when the shining nation of eternal joy gave the Holy Spirit a helping hand in the weaving of this wondrous robe. Each and everyone of its details reveals its heavenly origin. That is why God emphasized so much that Moses followed His detailed instructions in its making. The purple violet color refers to the heavenly origin and the mystery of the resurrection, that when the soul has been dressed in this robe she will get a participation in the power of the resurrection. God prizes this robe so much that He urged them to put a border on its opening, “so it would not get torn.” This refers to the unifying grace of the heavenly manna. It is the beauty of the pomegranates and the resonance of the bells which enrapture the souls will and intellect so profoundly in the prayer of union that she becomes sick of love which is stronger than death.
It is in this harmonizing resonance of the divine immanence where the inclinations of the will are completely healed of the wounds of the original sins in the radiance of the Uncreated Light. The will is filled with an unspeakable of joy seeing all this beauty and with hope that all its dreams will come true. When this love becomes dominant the soul rises to heaven as a dew in the sun.
Once more we are overtaken by amazement how perfectly God reveals His intentional plan in this Sanctuary of His. On Fig. 53 we see clearly that the second row of loaves reveals the ascension of the soul to the heavenly Jerusalem as a perfection of the six days creation in order to lead it into the rest of the seventh day, beginning with the chrysolite and reaching culmination in the amethyst.
It are the golden bells and the apples on the robe which shed light on this mystery: it are the spiritual senses which make the soul fit to become a “seeing” theological being.
What has come into being in him
was life, life that was the light of men (Jn 1. 4).
The loaves reveal God's predestination on earth in order to led all human beings to Himself through His Son Jesus Christ in the power of His Spirit. The two rows of loaves represented the sons of Israel in the same way as the stones (Ex 28. 21) or jewels which the tribes walked in accordance with in the desert in the order of their age in the Divine Order of March represented by the Tetramorph. By this is stated that the new and spiritual Israel – the Church – and every of its member must grow continuously in Christ Jesus in the grace of the Royal Image of Glory when Jesus manifests Himself in person within in the four modes of union as explained above (Med. 48). This spiritual growth was an authentic fact in the minds of the desert fathers and the members of the ancient Church as following remark of Macarius of Egypt reveals,
As the child in the womb does not
suddenly grow into a man, but gradually, takes form and comes to birth,
and even then is not a perfect man, but must grow during many years
that he may attain to manhood, so also must man grow gradually in
spiritual life, which is a state of highest wisdom and most ethereal
form, until he attains at last to perfect manhood and to complete
maturity. [1]
It was as authentic in the life of St. Paul himself as is clearly reflected by his words in the letters to the Ephesians when he had attained to complete maturity in the live of grace and urged other Christians to do the same, to attain “unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God and form the perfect Man fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself” (Ep 4. 13). This disposition had shoot so deep roots in him in the power of the experience of a living faith that he called Christians who did not recognize this fact children in the faith. By the maturity in faith the faithful will not be carried one way or another by the gust of new teaching,
Thus we shall no longer be
children, or tossed one way or another, and carried hither and thither
by every new gust of teaching, at the mercy of all the tricks people
play and their unscrupulousness in deliberate deception. If we live by
the truth and in love, we shall grow completely into Christ, who is the
head by whom, the whole Body is fitted and joined together, every joint
adding its own strength for each individual part to work according to
its function. So the body grows until it has built itself up in love
(Ep 4. 14-16).
They are children as Christ has not been formed in them, “My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you” (Gl 4. 19). What makes St. Paul's experience so valuable for the Church still today is the fact that he was the first among the apostles who did not see Christ in His earthly life and grew thus in spiritual communion with Him.
We can actually follow his growth in an authentic way in his letters which thus reveal the anthropology of the Christification. After his illumination on the road to Damascus (Ac 9. 1-9; 22. 6-11; 26. 12-18) he dwelt in Arabia (2 Cor 11. 27) – present day Turkey – for three years. This took probably place in 36 AD. In 39 he returned to Jerusalem and stayed by Caiphas for two weeks and met the apostle Jacob (Gl 1. 18). At this same time he seems to have experienced the suspension when he was raptured to the third heaven. The following years in his life are rather obscure, but it is clear that at this time he “attended the tables,” that is had been occupied in the service of the Church, but was neither respected as a prophet – but they enjoyed great respect within the Primeval Church – rather than as an apostle. This is obvious by the fact that he was simply a “second-hand” when he went with Barnabas to Antioch sometimes between 45-49 AD. (Ac 13. 1).
All this time since he met Jacob the apostle in Jerusalem – who had at this time returned from his mission in Spain – this highly educated pharisee had to obey the commands of uneducated and simple men. These years seem to have consisted in the first phase of his purification – the night of the senses and spirit – until a new and completely transformed man appears on the scene when he received the fullness of the life giving power of the Spirit. This former pharisee and educated in the philosophy of the Greeks seems to enter his final stage of purification – the Night of his redemption – when writing the letter to the Romans in 57 AD which seems to mark the final stage of St. Paul's spiritual struggle. Here the consciousness of sin reaches its culmination,
So I find this rule: that for me,
where I want to do nothing but good, evil is close at my side. In my
inmost self I dearly love God's law, but I see that acting on my body
there is a different law which battles against the law of my mind. So I
am brought to be a prisoner of that law of sin which lives inside my
body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body
doomed to death? (Rm 7. 21-24).
It can be maintained that an excellent light is shed here on the agonies of the dark nights of the soul and here St. Paul stood at the beginning of a new life – the super essential live of grace. It is the “Law of the Spirit which gives life in Christ Jesus” (Rm 8. 2), which releases his soul from the fetters of death.
Now this “Spirit of Life” fills St. Paul, becomes his own life, appears in an authentic manner as a rebirth, rebirth intended for the human race as a new creation in Christ as he emphasized by lofty terms in His letter to the Colossians, “Christos Kyrios, Christ the Lord, has established a new order of things and He now governs the cosmos.” [2] Our Tabernacle prayer here at the golden table when we ask God the Holy Spirit to infuse into our hearts the virtue of spiritual discrimination is thus in itself a grace. At the golden table of loaves the soul goes through her second mode of union and it is the Eucharist which is the source of the grace she get participation in by the effects of this heavenly manna.
We see also in the gospel how John the Baptist grew in the spirit, “The child grew, and grew strong in the spirit, and was in the desert until the day of his public appearance to Israel” (Lk 1. 80). On Fig. 53 we see how this growth is actualized when the soul increases continuously in her stature to the fullness of Christ's maturity as destined for human beings on earth in its descending and ascending in the prayer of union.
Let us now draw our attention to the growth of the soul when it nourish itself on the healthy nourishment of these golden loaves and is clothed in the robe of the high priest. It is here in the illumination of the lamp stand in the Holy where the Spirit begins to adorn the soul with still another item of the vestments of the high priest – in this case the robe – in her assimilation to her Royal Image.
The Holy Spirit intends to led His sanctifying grace reach to the center, core or inmost being of the soul and he does not accomplish this otherwise than the soul declares her readiness and openness. When He sees that the soul is ready He clothes her in the robe of the high priest which sheds light on the growth of the soul in her stature
The robe was seamless as the undergarments of our Lord, “woven in one piece from neck to hem” (Jn 19. 23). The robe refers to the wondrous healing power of the Tree of Life which reaches to whole of the human being as a psychosomatic unity. Thus the robe is a prerequisite so the soul can approach the next of the great tools in the Holy: the Lamb stand and prefiguration of the the sacrament of the Anointment of the sick, the third sacrament of the living.
It is in front of the lamp stand in the illumination of its seven lamps where God heals the inner wounds of disintegration caused by the original sin once and for all. It is indeed lack of this inner unity which is implied by the word sin: disintegration of this unity. This extents both to the souls powers and the unity of Christ's Church on earth which must be dressed in this robe of divine unity.
The robe is intended to cover the purity of the shining white tunic of the priests – this purity which the soul got participation in at the bronze laver in the examination of her conscience. This purity makes her capable of receiving the super mundane and infused virtues which are revealed by the leg and arms of the lamp stand which gradually replace the capital vices in the Night of the spirit. The robe is an inseparable part of the wedding garments of the soul which she will carry in the bridal feast of the Lamb. When our Lord sees that the soul has been clothed in this robe He will reveal Himself in the prayer of union at the the lamp stands and addresses the soul saying, “you will eat and drink at my table in my kingdom” (Lk 22. 29).
It is at the golden table of loaves where the soul sustains herself at the Lords table and becomes saturated by the charitable knowledge which the Spirit gives her participation in by the loaves or the Eucharist. The robe is an inseparable part of this growth in love,
They made the robe of the ephod
woven of violet purple. The opening in the center of the robe was like
the neck of a coat of mail; round the opening was a border, so that it
would not get torn. On the lower hem of the robe, they made
pomegranates of violet purple, red purple and crimson and finely woven
linen, and made bells of pure gold, putting the bells between the
pomegranates all round the lower hem of the robe, alternately, a bell
and then a pomegranate, all round the lower hem of the robe of office,
as Yahweh had ordered Moses (Ex 39. 22-26).
Imagine, dear reader, how joyfully they have weaved this robe in the loom of the heavenly Tabernacle when the shining nation of eternal joy gave the Holy Spirit a helping hand in the weaving of this wondrous robe. Each and everyone of its details reveals its heavenly origin. That is why God emphasized so much that Moses followed His detailed instructions in its making. The purple violet color refers to the heavenly origin and the mystery of the resurrection, that when the soul has been dressed in this robe she will get a participation in the power of the resurrection. God prizes this robe so much that He urged them to put a border on its opening, “so it would not get torn.” This refers to the unifying grace of the heavenly manna. It is the beauty of the pomegranates and the resonance of the bells which enrapture the souls will and intellect so profoundly in the prayer of union that she becomes sick of love which is stronger than death.
It is in this harmonizing resonance of the divine immanence where the inclinations of the will are completely healed of the wounds of the original sins in the radiance of the Uncreated Light. The will is filled with an unspeakable of joy seeing all this beauty and with hope that all its dreams will come true. When this love becomes dominant the soul rises to heaven as a dew in the sun.
Once more we are overtaken by amazement how perfectly God reveals His intentional plan in this Sanctuary of His. On Fig. 53 we see clearly that the second row of loaves reveals the ascension of the soul to the heavenly Jerusalem as a perfection of the six days creation in order to lead it into the rest of the seventh day, beginning with the chrysolite and reaching culmination in the amethyst.
It are the golden bells and the apples on the robe which shed light on this mystery: it are the spiritual senses which make the soul fit to become a “seeing” theological being.