Meditation 61
The Rising of the Morning Star
Constantly
the priests had to watch with attentiveness over these flames of the
lamps that God Himself had lighted by the fire from the altar of burnt
offerings in the courtyard. This fire came from God and the priests
carried the embers from the altar of burnt offerings into the Holy on
their fire pans as no other fire was allowed in this Dwelling of God
the Most High.
The priest used the snuffers when they prepared the wicks, cut them and trimmed so that the light of the lamps could shine as brightly as possible. This demanded that they watched over the lamps in awareness. If the wicks were not cut they started to smoke so that their lucidly diminished and God felt a disgusting smell which was outrageous in comparison with the sweet odor from the golden altar of incense,
If the wicks did not burn as intended the Holy – the image of the heart – this sacred ground was not lighted as God ordered, the darkness began to fight against the light because no natural light was allowed in this Dwelling of God. When the light was covered by this smoke of negligence and carelessness the medical and curing effects of this light were not longer effective. How wholesome is not this admonition for the soul! If she is careless in tending these wicks on the lamp stand of her own heart, it is just a question of time when the smoke of negligence will cover this brightness.
The priest were obliged to cut the wicks and carry their remains out of the Sanctuary on their fire pans, otherwise the flame had begun to flicker or even been extinguished. They had also to take care that the wicks reached down to the oil in the cups in order to draw the oil up through them and did not entangle. All this refers to our egocentric self identity which is entangled in self assurance and pride. These wicks are an constant admonition for us to commit ourselves into God’s hands because He knows “what we need before we ask” (Mt 6. 8). TO REST IN HIM IS TO SEEK CONTINUOUSLY REFUGE IN HIS SACRED HEART,
This we do in our entreaties for mercy in hour continuous prayer. But this is not enough, it is not enough that this prayer is a vocal prayer, it must become an infused prayer saturated by the oil of the Holy Spirit: thus it becomes a true prayer of the heart. It was pure and pounded olive oil that was intended to keep the fire on the lamps burning – a token of the pure and attentive love of the Holy Spirit. “You will order the Israelites to bring you pure pounded olive oil for the light, and to keep the a lamp burning all the time” (Ex 27. 20). The pure and pounded olive oil was made by pounding the berries of the olive tree. When the berries were pounded the oil became much purer than from the winepress. What a mystery is not revealed her! It is in this manner how the Holy spirit gives the soul participation in the divine love of the Trinity. The oil berries are indeed these fruits which the Tree of life carries twelve times a year, or by the illumination of the twelve jewels in our own hearts so this divine fire of the lamps can burn steadfastly.
When these berries were pounded a pure oil was available which was poured into the cups of the lamps when it had been cleaned completely of all grime and particles. In the impulses of the love that the soul experiences in the prayer of union the Spirit pounds her in this way or jabs so His Uncreated Light can burn and shine brightly in her heart. These are the wounds of love that He gives us constantly when He “ravish our hearts” (Sg 4. 9) and this love is “more delicious than wine” (Sg 4. 10). It is more delicious than all former consolations and delights of the soul. When the soul feels this in an authentic way, it is a “love that is strong as death, passion as relentless as Sheoul” (Sg 8. 6). God is a passionate lover who enkindles passionate love in human hearts. This pure oil is an serious admonition to us all and thus we are able to escape from the tragic fate of the five silly maidens whom our Lord and Redeemer gave us account of in one of His parables,
Regarding these five wise and foolish virgin souls they represent the five spiritual senses. The wise virgins had nourished themselves on the gracious gifts of the Holy Spirit and thus their baptismal grace had been restored and they were able to discern the coming of the heavenly Bridegroom, were ready to go with Him into the Holy of holies to the feast of the spiritual matrimony because they had become true high priests in the Royal Priesthood of the New Covenant. Regarding the foolish ones they refer to souls who by reputing our Lord and Redeemer as the Way, Truth and Life (Jn 14. 6) will never hear His coming because of the noise from the outer world of the sense to which they have become so attached. They will never hear his sweet words: COME MY BRIDE, COME!
It is this precious truth which the Holy Spirit marks or engraves in the soul’s heart here at the lamp stand as this is her time of betrothal. He marks it by His fiery runes as a character: a shining star. In the hostia the Infinite descends to the finite in order to enrapture the finite to the Infinite in as humble a way and under such bewildering veil in the sacrament that all previous ideas and fantasies of the soul collapse like a castle made of playing cards in the unity of the souls powers. In this union the human being becomes as Ruysbroeck said “the secret friend of God.” [1] This is a fact that was the locus of the teachings of Thomas Aquinas regarding the theosis or the Christification. Thomas declared, “Therefore charity is friendship.” [2] Thomas had the words of St. John in mind, “I will now not call you servants . . . but my friends” (Jn 15. 15).
In the Eucharist mystery God engraves or marks His seal of betrothal in the heart in the prayer of union. It is only in this way how the human being can be glorified by the Father “through the glory of the Son” which the Son “had with” Him “before the world was” (Jn 17. 5). It is by setting His character or seal on the human heart in His vehement love concealed in the Eucharist that the “Morning Star” (2 Pt 1. 19; Rv 22. 16) arises in human hearts in its splendor. This Morning Star is the spiritual circumcision of all souls whom He loves and loves Him.
The Morning Star takes shape in an untarnished way in the mirror of the contemplation. It is this infused charitable knowledge which is exposed on Fig. 61 above. The seal is a token of the owner's authority and in the Old Covenant it was worn “hanging from the neck” (Gn 38. 18, 25) and resting on the chest covering the heart. In the New covenant it is marked in the heart. The seal or character of the Eucharist means that the human beings walks willingly the Way of the Cross in the prayer of union and thus glorifies God the Father as His Son in grace and as co-heir of Christ.
Only thus the heavenly Father will mark the souls with His seal of glory, the Morning Star. This was God's intentional plan or ordinance from “before the world was made” (Ep 1. 4). The human being was created in order to be “the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ep 1. 6). This it is unable to accomplish otherwise than in full conformity with the precepts of God's ordinance. This was a truth which Jan van Ruysbroeck emphasized when he discussed the glorious effects of the sacrament of the altar when the soul “tastes God, eats, devours, assimilates Him, and in turn is eaten and consumed” [3]
By His purposeful use of sacred symbols God reveals thus how we are lifted up to become one with Him by His Morning Star as a seal burning in our heart. I draw the readers attention to the two triangles of the star reminding us on the push bottoms on elevator’s panels. If someone is in doubt has to the humor of God this should convince the same in this context that He can also be a real jokester. Thus we can maintain in full earnest that thus our Lord and Savior came in His heavenly elevator to earth to “take us up” (Gn 5. 24) with Him, “And through this we are lifted up to and united with the Father, and the Father receives His adopted sons together with His natural Son, and thus we enter into our inheritance of the Godhead in eternal blessedness.” [4]
Dear reader! In His boundless love our living God and Redeemer becomes so human that He follows the customs of human beings in their relationship on earth in this procession of love in the heart. This is what horrifies the theologians of Islam, just as it horrified the Jews formerly. I quote Henry Boulad once more,
“What a blasphemy! Have you ever heard such a nonsense, to maintain that Almighty God is incarnated in flesh and has mouth and a nose, just as I and you! What a blasphemy and degrading of an Omnipotent God! And they warn their believers: Beware of the Christians, these blasphemers!”
As in all true human relationship the lover brings his beloved and becoming bride gifts – the jewels of the Celestial City – as a token of his love. He visit her often in order to know her better and if he is really in love – if his love is true – his thoughts are saturated and filled with his beloved and fair one all the day long from early morning to dust. Some nominal Christian believe in Him: their faith is demonic. They belief in Him like the demons: without love (Jm 2. 19). Such a faith is worthless – not worth a dime – because the higher state of faith (pistis) is love. And He loves them who loves Him (Pv 8. 17). And He comes to the soul as she has raised a worthy abode for Him in her heart,
Now the Holy Spirit begins to decorate His abode still further after having raised the walls of the virtues by putting a roof on this spiritual Tabernacle because without a roof this building is uncompleted, or by the words of Simeon the New Theologian,
Let us thus all at this stage – before entering the southern quarter of the Tetramorph – kneel down and ask the Holy Spirit and Lord of Light to come from His celestial height and illuminate us with His pure and radiant glory. If He takes His grace away from us no purity is at hand in us and all our good intentions comes for nothing. It is in the southern quarter of the Tetramorph where the Sacred Heart draws us to God the Father and thus it is most fitting that we consecrate ourselves to the Sacred Heart because it is here where the Sacred Heart render our hearts into His own.
The priest used the snuffers when they prepared the wicks, cut them and trimmed so that the light of the lamps could shine as brightly as possible. This demanded that they watched over the lamps in awareness. If the wicks were not cut they started to smoke so that their lucidly diminished and God felt a disgusting smell which was outrageous in comparison with the sweet odor from the golden altar of incense,
If the wicks did not burn as intended the Holy – the image of the heart – this sacred ground was not lighted as God ordered, the darkness began to fight against the light because no natural light was allowed in this Dwelling of God. When the light was covered by this smoke of negligence and carelessness the medical and curing effects of this light were not longer effective. How wholesome is not this admonition for the soul! If she is careless in tending these wicks on the lamp stand of her own heart, it is just a question of time when the smoke of negligence will cover this brightness.
The priest were obliged to cut the wicks and carry their remains out of the Sanctuary on their fire pans, otherwise the flame had begun to flicker or even been extinguished. They had also to take care that the wicks reached down to the oil in the cups in order to draw the oil up through them and did not entangle. All this refers to our egocentric self identity which is entangled in self assurance and pride. These wicks are an constant admonition for us to commit ourselves into God’s hands because He knows “what we need before we ask” (Mt 6. 8). TO REST IN HIM IS TO SEEK CONTINUOUSLY REFUGE IN HIS SACRED HEART,
“I am the vine, you are the
branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty;
for cut off from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15. 5).
This we do in our entreaties for mercy in hour continuous prayer. But this is not enough, it is not enough that this prayer is a vocal prayer, it must become an infused prayer saturated by the oil of the Holy Spirit: thus it becomes a true prayer of the heart. It was pure and pounded olive oil that was intended to keep the fire on the lamps burning – a token of the pure and attentive love of the Holy Spirit. “You will order the Israelites to bring you pure pounded olive oil for the light, and to keep the a lamp burning all the time” (Ex 27. 20). The pure and pounded olive oil was made by pounding the berries of the olive tree. When the berries were pounded the oil became much purer than from the winepress. What a mystery is not revealed her! It is in this manner how the Holy spirit gives the soul participation in the divine love of the Trinity. The oil berries are indeed these fruits which the Tree of life carries twelve times a year, or by the illumination of the twelve jewels in our own hearts so this divine fire of the lamps can burn steadfastly.
When these berries were pounded a pure oil was available which was poured into the cups of the lamps when it had been cleaned completely of all grime and particles. In the impulses of the love that the soul experiences in the prayer of union the Spirit pounds her in this way or jabs so His Uncreated Light can burn and shine brightly in her heart. These are the wounds of love that He gives us constantly when He “ravish our hearts” (Sg 4. 9) and this love is “more delicious than wine” (Sg 4. 10). It is more delicious than all former consolations and delights of the soul. When the soul feels this in an authentic way, it is a “love that is strong as death, passion as relentless as Sheoul” (Sg 8. 6). God is a passionate lover who enkindles passionate love in human hearts. This pure oil is an serious admonition to us all and thus we are able to escape from the tragic fate of the five silly maidens whom our Lord and Redeemer gave us account of in one of His parables,
Then the kingdom of Heaven will be
like this. Ten wedding attendants took their lamps and went to meet the
bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were sensible: the
foolish ones, though they took their lamps, took no oil with them,
whereas the sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps.
The bridegroom was late, and they all grew drowsy and fell to sleep.
But at midnight there was a cry, “Look! The bridegroom! Go out and meet
him. Then all those those wedding attendants woke up and trimmed their
lamps, and the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, “Give us some of
your oil: our lamps are going out.” But they replied, “There may not be
enough for us and you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy
some for yourselves.” They had gone of to buy it when the bridegroom
arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and
the door was closed. The other attendants arrived later. “Lord, Lord,”
they said, “open the door for us.” But he replied, “In truth I tell, I
do not know you.” So stay awake, because you do not know either the day
or the hour (Mt 25. 1-13).
Regarding these five wise and foolish virgin souls they represent the five spiritual senses. The wise virgins had nourished themselves on the gracious gifts of the Holy Spirit and thus their baptismal grace had been restored and they were able to discern the coming of the heavenly Bridegroom, were ready to go with Him into the Holy of holies to the feast of the spiritual matrimony because they had become true high priests in the Royal Priesthood of the New Covenant. Regarding the foolish ones they refer to souls who by reputing our Lord and Redeemer as the Way, Truth and Life (Jn 14. 6) will never hear His coming because of the noise from the outer world of the sense to which they have become so attached. They will never hear his sweet words: COME MY BRIDE, COME!
It is this precious truth which the Holy Spirit marks or engraves in the soul’s heart here at the lamp stand as this is her time of betrothal. He marks it by His fiery runes as a character: a shining star. In the hostia the Infinite descends to the finite in order to enrapture the finite to the Infinite in as humble a way and under such bewildering veil in the sacrament that all previous ideas and fantasies of the soul collapse like a castle made of playing cards in the unity of the souls powers. In this union the human being becomes as Ruysbroeck said “the secret friend of God.” [1] This is a fact that was the locus of the teachings of Thomas Aquinas regarding the theosis or the Christification. Thomas declared, “Therefore charity is friendship.” [2] Thomas had the words of St. John in mind, “I will now not call you servants . . . but my friends” (Jn 15. 15).
In the Eucharist mystery God engraves or marks His seal of betrothal in the heart in the prayer of union. It is only in this way how the human being can be glorified by the Father “through the glory of the Son” which the Son “had with” Him “before the world was” (Jn 17. 5). It is by setting His character or seal on the human heart in His vehement love concealed in the Eucharist that the “Morning Star” (2 Pt 1. 19; Rv 22. 16) arises in human hearts in its splendor. This Morning Star is the spiritual circumcision of all souls whom He loves and loves Him.
The Morning Star takes shape in an untarnished way in the mirror of the contemplation. It is this infused charitable knowledge which is exposed on Fig. 61 above. The seal is a token of the owner's authority and in the Old Covenant it was worn “hanging from the neck” (Gn 38. 18, 25) and resting on the chest covering the heart. In the New covenant it is marked in the heart. The seal or character of the Eucharist means that the human beings walks willingly the Way of the Cross in the prayer of union and thus glorifies God the Father as His Son in grace and as co-heir of Christ.
Only thus the heavenly Father will mark the souls with His seal of glory, the Morning Star. This was God's intentional plan or ordinance from “before the world was made” (Ep 1. 4). The human being was created in order to be “the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ep 1. 6). This it is unable to accomplish otherwise than in full conformity with the precepts of God's ordinance. This was a truth which Jan van Ruysbroeck emphasized when he discussed the glorious effects of the sacrament of the altar when the soul “tastes God, eats, devours, assimilates Him, and in turn is eaten and consumed” [3]
By His purposeful use of sacred symbols God reveals thus how we are lifted up to become one with Him by His Morning Star as a seal burning in our heart. I draw the readers attention to the two triangles of the star reminding us on the push bottoms on elevator’s panels. If someone is in doubt has to the humor of God this should convince the same in this context that He can also be a real jokester. Thus we can maintain in full earnest that thus our Lord and Savior came in His heavenly elevator to earth to “take us up” (Gn 5. 24) with Him, “And through this we are lifted up to and united with the Father, and the Father receives His adopted sons together with His natural Son, and thus we enter into our inheritance of the Godhead in eternal blessedness.” [4]
Dear reader! In His boundless love our living God and Redeemer becomes so human that He follows the customs of human beings in their relationship on earth in this procession of love in the heart. This is what horrifies the theologians of Islam, just as it horrified the Jews formerly. I quote Henry Boulad once more,
LAM YALAD WA LAM YOULAD! (God
incarnated in the flesh of a woman)!
“What a blasphemy! Have you ever heard such a nonsense, to maintain that Almighty God is incarnated in flesh and has mouth and a nose, just as I and you! What a blasphemy and degrading of an Omnipotent God! And they warn their believers: Beware of the Christians, these blasphemers!”
As in all true human relationship the lover brings his beloved and becoming bride gifts – the jewels of the Celestial City – as a token of his love. He visit her often in order to know her better and if he is really in love – if his love is true – his thoughts are saturated and filled with his beloved and fair one all the day long from early morning to dust. Some nominal Christian believe in Him: their faith is demonic. They belief in Him like the demons: without love (Jm 2. 19). Such a faith is worthless – not worth a dime – because the higher state of faith (pistis) is love. And He loves them who loves Him (Pv 8. 17). And He comes to the soul as she has raised a worthy abode for Him in her heart,
AND WE SHALL COME TO HIM AND MAKE
A HOME IN HIM (Jn 14. 23).
Now the Holy Spirit begins to decorate His abode still further after having raised the walls of the virtues by putting a roof on this spiritual Tabernacle because without a roof this building is uncompleted, or by the words of Simeon the New Theologian,
A house roof is held up by the
foundation and the rest of the building, and the foundation with the
rest of the building are laid to hold the roof – since both are
necessary and useful – and neither is the roof built without the
foundation and the rest of the house, nor can foundation and
walls without roof make a building fit to live in. So it is with the
soul: the grace of the Holy Spirit is preserved by keeping the
commandments, and keeping of commandments is the foundation laid for
receiving the gifts of God’s grace. Neither does the grace of the Holy
Spirit remain is us without our obeying the commandments, nor can
obeying be useful and salutary without divine grace.
A house left without roof through the negligence of the house builder is good for nothing, and cause the builder to be derided. In the same way a man who, through the keeping of the commandments, has laid a foundation and has built high walls of virtues, if he does not receive the grace of the Holy Spirit and does not see it and sense it in his soul, is still imperfect and is an object of pity to the perfect. The cause of his being deprived of grace may be twofold: either because he has neglected repentance or because, overawed by the prospect of completely acquiring all virtues as too great an undertaking, he has omitted some of them which, , although apparently unimportant, are nevertheless quite essential for the final construction and completion of the house of virtues, for without them the house cannot be roofed in by the grace of the Holy Spirit. [5]
A house left without roof through the negligence of the house builder is good for nothing, and cause the builder to be derided. In the same way a man who, through the keeping of the commandments, has laid a foundation and has built high walls of virtues, if he does not receive the grace of the Holy Spirit and does not see it and sense it in his soul, is still imperfect and is an object of pity to the perfect. The cause of his being deprived of grace may be twofold: either because he has neglected repentance or because, overawed by the prospect of completely acquiring all virtues as too great an undertaking, he has omitted some of them which, , although apparently unimportant, are nevertheless quite essential for the final construction and completion of the house of virtues, for without them the house cannot be roofed in by the grace of the Holy Spirit. [5]
Let us thus all at this stage – before entering the southern quarter of the Tetramorph – kneel down and ask the Holy Spirit and Lord of Light to come from His celestial height and illuminate us with His pure and radiant glory. If He takes His grace away from us no purity is at hand in us and all our good intentions comes for nothing. It is in the southern quarter of the Tetramorph where the Sacred Heart draws us to God the Father and thus it is most fitting that we consecrate ourselves to the Sacred Heart because it is here where the Sacred Heart render our hearts into His own.
CONSECRATION TO THE SACRED HEART
Most kind Jesus, Redeemer of the human race,
look down upon us
humbly prostrated before thine altar.
We are thine and thine we wish to be,
but to be more surely united to thee,
behold we individually today
freely consecrate ourselves
to thy most Sacred Heart.
Many indeed have never known thee.
Many too, despising thy commandments,
have rejected thee.
Have mercy on us all,
most merciful Jesus,
and draw all people to the Sacred Heart.
Be King, Lord, not only of the faithful
who have never forsaken thee,
but also of your prodigal children
who have abandoned thee,
and lead them quickly to their Father’s house,
lest they perish of misery and hunger.
Be King over those misled by error
and call them to the harbor of truth
and the unity of the faith,
so that soon there may be one fold
and one Shepherd.
Be King over all unbelievers.
Deliver them out of darkness into light
and into the Kingdom of God.
Grant, O Lord, safety to thy Church.
Give peace and order to all nations.
Make the earth resound from pole to pole
with one cry:
Praise to the divine heart
that wrought our salvation.
To it be glory and honor for ever.
Most kind Jesus, Redeemer of the human race,
look down upon us
humbly prostrated before thine altar.
We are thine and thine we wish to be,
but to be more surely united to thee,
behold we individually today
freely consecrate ourselves
to thy most Sacred Heart.
Many indeed have never known thee.
Many too, despising thy commandments,
have rejected thee.
Have mercy on us all,
most merciful Jesus,
and draw all people to the Sacred Heart.
Be King, Lord, not only of the faithful
who have never forsaken thee,
but also of your prodigal children
who have abandoned thee,
and lead them quickly to their Father’s house,
lest they perish of misery and hunger.
Be King over those misled by error
and call them to the harbor of truth
and the unity of the faith,
so that soon there may be one fold
and one Shepherd.
Be King over all unbelievers.
Deliver them out of darkness into light
and into the Kingdom of God.
Grant, O Lord, safety to thy Church.
Give peace and order to all nations.
Make the earth resound from pole to pole
with one cry:
Praise to the divine heart
that wrought our salvation.
To it be glory and honor for ever.
[1]. The Sparkling Stone, chapters 9, 10
and 11.
[2]. Summa theologiae, II. II. 23, 1.
[3]. The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, XLVII.
[4]. Ibid.
[5]. Simeon the New Theologian, Philokalia, On the Prayer of the Heart, 119.
[2]. Summa theologiae, II. II. 23, 1.
[3]. The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, XLVII.
[4]. Ibid.
[5]. Simeon the New Theologian, Philokalia, On the Prayer of the Heart, 119.