Meditation 65
The Sweet offering of the New Covenant
Sometimes we hear
people say when two lovers live in harmony that one and the same heart
beats in their breasts. If we can maintain this in full earnest of any
created being it is the Mother of God. No other created being has
followed the Son of God and her own Son by nature as truthfully as the Theotokos,
The Blessed Virgin is once again a shining star or torch on this Sacred Way in the live of grace. Through whole of her life she brought her Son forth as a first fruit offering, as we can see in an authentic way in four events in the gospels, a mystery that her namesake, Mary of Agreda, shared with us.
The first time it was at His circumcision in accordance with the torah. She knew that this fruit of her womb was holy, innocent and without sin, but nevertheless she led her first-born go through the suffering of the circumcision on the eighth day of His earthly life, but the circumcision was a rite that freed the Israelites from the bondage of sin. This she did because she knew that He would become the first-born among many brothers and sister and their pattern to follow in the becoming community of the Church and like them in everything but the sin. And when the priest wrote His name in the scroll of the temple she gave Him the name which the Holy Spirit had revealed: Jehosuah.
The second time was at the close of the days of purification in the temple in Jerusalem, “observing what is written in the Law – and also to offer sacrifice, in accordance with what is prescribed in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons” (Lk 2. 23, 24).
The third time was when He began His ministry on earth at the wedding in Cana. It was there where she accepted her new role as the mother of the community which Her Son was about to establish and became its intercessor, “On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and His disciples had also been invited. And they ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the feast had all been used, and the mother of Jesus said to Him, 'They have no wine.' And Jesus gave her answer with the mystical words. Jesus said, 'Woman, what do you want from me? My hour has not come yet' “ (Jn 2. 1-3). Here He referred to her role as the new Eve, with this unusual address from a son to a mother, and we see that St. John uses again in verse 19. 26. Mary is the new Eve and mother of all life.
The fourth time was under the crosswhen she brought her Son up as a sweet offering before God the Father and this we are also obliged to do as our own first fruit offerings are nothing but to return to God what properly speaking belongs to Him, a complete disposition of humility,
We need to have a deep insight into the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit enkindles it here in the human heart in front of this precious golden altar by the illumination of the chrysophrasus. It is here were we learn to offer what is most precious to us: ourselves. Only thus we are able to Live in Christ. We offer us thus in the Son as fruition of His redemption. Let us scrutinize our sweet offering brought forth on the golden plate of the altar, a token of the purity of our own hearts and God’s mirror,
Opobalsam (a kind of storax) was the first particle. It refers to the spiritual intellect or nous of the soul. In her awe in the suspensions of the prayer of union the soul becomes “derrationalised”. It is only in the “folly of the cross” that the nous becomes a true eye of the heart (Lk 11. 34-36) and follows the impulses of the theological virtue of faith. Thus the knowledge of the soul becomes a charitable knowledge, an infused and divine knowledge. The opobalsam was called the tear of the myrrh because it appeared on the bark of the tree as drops. Thus we can truly maintain that the blood and water which appeared when the Roman soldier thrust his spear through the Lord’s side upwards to His heart endows the soul with this divine knowledge. This truth was a fact which Catherine of Siena grew to understand,
Thus St. John spoke of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a source and fountain of living water and He gave the Samaritan women share in at the well, “If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me something to drink.’ you would have been the one to ask, and He would have given you living water” (Jn 4. 10). And John of the Cross said, “The soul feels that it is all inflamed in the divine union, its palate is all bathed in glory and love, that in the intimate part of its substance it is flooded with no less than rivers of glory, abounding in delights, and from its depths flow a river of living water [Jn 7. 38], which the Son of God declared will rise up in such soul.” [3] When the soul places her own heart on the golden plate of the altar the opobalsam springs forth from its core as a sweet offering to praise the glory of His grace (Ep 1. 6)
Onycha was the second scent which refers to one of the souls appetitive power or the desire which is transformed into charitable hope by the second theological virtue in pure faith in the prayer of union. The onycha stems from the Thrombosis and they got the oil by burning the shell over a fire. It is this sweet smell of the Bridegroom which draws the soul’s deepest and inmost being gradually nearer to Him in the fiery trials of the prayer when His aroma becomes stronger. The hope is a continuous straining forward in the love of faith, straining after a fuller vision of the Bridegroom eternally. Thus all of the creation cries for fuller share in His far to abundant love.
Galbanum was the third scent. It refers to the second appetitive power, the wrath, which is transformed into love of the charity by the theological virtue of the charity. The galbanum strengthened the other scents and without it they lacked strength: to give the weak strength and protection. Thus a holy wrath is filled with jealous zeal and drives everything away which cools the love.
Frankincense oil was the fourth scent. They got it by cutting deep openings into the stem of the frankincense tree reaching to the sap of the tree. Thus the super mundane vine dresser – the Holy Spirit – wounds the bark of the vine in order to let it grow on the stem of the lamp stand by His infused virtues.
The frankincense oil refers thus to the prayer of union as a sacrificial prayer: to the mortification of the last remains of the fleshly nature. It is only by this mortification – which is the one and same thing in order to mortify the remains of all egoism to attain openness in front of God’s immanence – that the soul is able to nourish herself on the sap of the vine or lamp stand. It is this healthy nutrition of the seven divine gifts of the lamps or the sacraments that makes the soul able to discern the real presence of God within by her spiritual senses in the purity of the virtues.
Salt was the fifth particle, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its taste, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out and to be trampled under people's feet” (Mt 5. 13). The salt which the Jews used came from salt mines on the coast of the Death See and was not pure, it was mixed with remains of the soil and by time it got weaker. But this salt has gone through the Christification and has attained eternal value. The salt of the incense preserved the other scents. It role consisted in preservation and protection and refers thus to the prayer which we must continuously cultivate while dwelling in this earthly Tabernacle which is a reflection of the heavenly one in the pure mirror of the Vision of the Blessed.
The sweet offering was thus a sublime confession of existence in God. When the soul discerns the message of the sweet offering in the illumination of the chrysophrasus she follows the impulses of the love of the charity. When she place her own heart on the plate as a sweet offering she confesses that she owes everything to God’s grace and all she has received is a divine gift and thus she is able to commit her spirit into the hands of her heavenly Father as a praise to the glory of His grace and recites with Jesus on the Cross,
When the soul commits her spirit into the hands of her heavenly Father as Jesus on the cross she as followed her Archetype in the formation of the Royal Image of Glory,
Now all divine knowledge becomes love and the answer of the human being is to abandon itself into the hands of this love. In the Greek text St. Luke used the verb parathisomai when he gives account of Christ’s self-sacrifice, “Father. Into yours hands I commit (parathisomai) my spirit (Lk 23. 46). The Greek reflective verb parathisomai means to return something which does not belong to someone to its rightful owner as was emphasized above. Thus the Blessed Virgin brought her Son forth on the Sacrificial Hill of the Cross as a sweet offering because He was the fruit of her own womb and the most precious gift God had ever given a human being. Or by the words of the Carmelite father Wilfred Stinissen,
Only thus the soul becomes a pleasing sweet offering before God and will thus ascend from this altar to heaven on the wings of love. The sublime mystery of the Cross as revealed in the illumination of the chrysophrasus in front of the golden altar is sublime and save us the sad destiny of becoming outcasts,
From the northern quarter of the Tetramorph the soul walked into the blessings of the east and fill’s now the flock of the right hand people in its southern quarter as a Winged man who ascend to God on the wings of love as a pleasing sweet offering. As was emphasized above she has actually become a true high priest in the live of grace, formed in the IMAGE OF THE CROSS,
Only thus the Cross becomes a true Jacob’s ladder to heaven because it is an exact replica of the Sanctuary of the Tabernacle and thus we can praise our heavenly Father for the sublime mysteries concealed in the Cross and we discern in an authentic way when the Holy Spirit has cured us of our spiritual blindness.
O Lord Jesus Christ, King of eternal glories, almighty Word of the Most High God, Power and Wisdom that beholds all things, I profess You, I worship You, I bow to You, the Redeemer of all mankind. You have taken pity on your world that miserably served death. You, being sinless and innocent, endured sore suffering even to death that You bore on the holy cross to save sinful men and to have mercy on them. Now I want to thank You with all my heart for Your Passion and for all those torments that You endured to save me and to redeem all mankind. I beseech You, O Almighty Son of the Living God, heal my spirit by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Teach me, O holy Savior of the world, how I can surely find Your mercy. O my gracious and merciful God, drive away by your mighty cross all temptation, and strengthen me for struggle against sin and for repentance, which is pleasing to You. I want to join Your battle and I appeal to You with all my heart: Chastise and cleanse me from all my vices in this world. And give me so to prepare myself to my death, that in the next world I may find Your mercy and enjoy there the eternal beatitude with You, in fellowship with all the Saints, in that kingdom and dominion, which belong to You with God the Father Almighty and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. [8]
At the cross her
station keeping,
stood the mournful Mother weeping.
stood the mournful Mother weeping.
The Blessed Virgin is once again a shining star or torch on this Sacred Way in the live of grace. Through whole of her life she brought her Son forth as a first fruit offering, as we can see in an authentic way in four events in the gospels, a mystery that her namesake, Mary of Agreda, shared with us.
The first time it was at His circumcision in accordance with the torah. She knew that this fruit of her womb was holy, innocent and without sin, but nevertheless she led her first-born go through the suffering of the circumcision on the eighth day of His earthly life, but the circumcision was a rite that freed the Israelites from the bondage of sin. This she did because she knew that He would become the first-born among many brothers and sister and their pattern to follow in the becoming community of the Church and like them in everything but the sin. And when the priest wrote His name in the scroll of the temple she gave Him the name which the Holy Spirit had revealed: Jehosuah.
The second time was at the close of the days of purification in the temple in Jerusalem, “observing what is written in the Law – and also to offer sacrifice, in accordance with what is prescribed in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons” (Lk 2. 23, 24).
The third time was when He began His ministry on earth at the wedding in Cana. It was there where she accepted her new role as the mother of the community which Her Son was about to establish and became its intercessor, “On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and His disciples had also been invited. And they ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the feast had all been used, and the mother of Jesus said to Him, 'They have no wine.' And Jesus gave her answer with the mystical words. Jesus said, 'Woman, what do you want from me? My hour has not come yet' “ (Jn 2. 1-3). Here He referred to her role as the new Eve, with this unusual address from a son to a mother, and we see that St. John uses again in verse 19. 26. Mary is the new Eve and mother of all life.
The fourth time was under the crosswhen she brought her Son up as a sweet offering before God the Father and this we are also obliged to do as our own first fruit offerings are nothing but to return to God what properly speaking belongs to Him, a complete disposition of humility,
I have nursed and
sustained Him at my own breasts; and as the best of sons that ever can
be born of any creature, I love Him with material love. As His mother I
have the natural right in the
person of His most holy humanity and thy providence will never infringe
upon any rights held by thy creatures. This right of a mother then, I
now yield to thee and once more place in thy hands thy and my Son as a
sacrifice for the redemption of man. Accept, my Lord, this pleasing
offering, since this is more than I can ever offer by submitting my own
self as a victim or to suffering. This sacrifice is greater, not only
because my Son is the true God and of thy own substance, but because
this sacrifice costs me a much greater sorrow and pain. For if the lots
were changed and I should be permitted to die in order to preserve His
most holy life, I would consider it a great relief and the fulfillment
of my dearest wishes.” [1]
We need to have a deep insight into the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit enkindles it here in the human heart in front of this precious golden altar by the illumination of the chrysophrasus. It is here were we learn to offer what is most precious to us: ourselves. Only thus we are able to Live in Christ. We offer us thus in the Son as fruition of His redemption. Let us scrutinize our sweet offering brought forth on the golden plate of the altar, a token of the purity of our own hearts and God’s mirror,
Opobalsam (a kind of storax) was the first particle. It refers to the spiritual intellect or nous of the soul. In her awe in the suspensions of the prayer of union the soul becomes “derrationalised”. It is only in the “folly of the cross” that the nous becomes a true eye of the heart (Lk 11. 34-36) and follows the impulses of the theological virtue of faith. Thus the knowledge of the soul becomes a charitable knowledge, an infused and divine knowledge. The opobalsam was called the tear of the myrrh because it appeared on the bark of the tree as drops. Thus we can truly maintain that the blood and water which appeared when the Roman soldier thrust his spear through the Lord’s side upwards to His heart endows the soul with this divine knowledge. This truth was a fact which Catherine of Siena grew to understand,
As she watched others
appear to possess the entire world and still live unsatisfied, she grew
to understand that the inner ache and restlessness we experience are
the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s cry within us. We are made for
unboundless love; and in the blood of Jesus alone do we find the
infinite love and mercy able to satisfy our every human longing. [2]
Thus St. John spoke of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a source and fountain of living water and He gave the Samaritan women share in at the well, “If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me something to drink.’ you would have been the one to ask, and He would have given you living water” (Jn 4. 10). And John of the Cross said, “The soul feels that it is all inflamed in the divine union, its palate is all bathed in glory and love, that in the intimate part of its substance it is flooded with no less than rivers of glory, abounding in delights, and from its depths flow a river of living water [Jn 7. 38], which the Son of God declared will rise up in such soul.” [3] When the soul places her own heart on the golden plate of the altar the opobalsam springs forth from its core as a sweet offering to praise the glory of His grace (Ep 1. 6)
Onycha was the second scent which refers to one of the souls appetitive power or the desire which is transformed into charitable hope by the second theological virtue in pure faith in the prayer of union. The onycha stems from the Thrombosis and they got the oil by burning the shell over a fire. It is this sweet smell of the Bridegroom which draws the soul’s deepest and inmost being gradually nearer to Him in the fiery trials of the prayer when His aroma becomes stronger. The hope is a continuous straining forward in the love of faith, straining after a fuller vision of the Bridegroom eternally. Thus all of the creation cries for fuller share in His far to abundant love.
Galbanum was the third scent. It refers to the second appetitive power, the wrath, which is transformed into love of the charity by the theological virtue of the charity. The galbanum strengthened the other scents and without it they lacked strength: to give the weak strength and protection. Thus a holy wrath is filled with jealous zeal and drives everything away which cools the love.
Frankincense oil was the fourth scent. They got it by cutting deep openings into the stem of the frankincense tree reaching to the sap of the tree. Thus the super mundane vine dresser – the Holy Spirit – wounds the bark of the vine in order to let it grow on the stem of the lamp stand by His infused virtues.
The frankincense oil refers thus to the prayer of union as a sacrificial prayer: to the mortification of the last remains of the fleshly nature. It is only by this mortification – which is the one and same thing in order to mortify the remains of all egoism to attain openness in front of God’s immanence – that the soul is able to nourish herself on the sap of the vine or lamp stand. It is this healthy nutrition of the seven divine gifts of the lamps or the sacraments that makes the soul able to discern the real presence of God within by her spiritual senses in the purity of the virtues.
Salt was the fifth particle, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its taste, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out and to be trampled under people's feet” (Mt 5. 13). The salt which the Jews used came from salt mines on the coast of the Death See and was not pure, it was mixed with remains of the soil and by time it got weaker. But this salt has gone through the Christification and has attained eternal value. The salt of the incense preserved the other scents. It role consisted in preservation and protection and refers thus to the prayer which we must continuously cultivate while dwelling in this earthly Tabernacle which is a reflection of the heavenly one in the pure mirror of the Vision of the Blessed.
The sweet offering was thus a sublime confession of existence in God. When the soul discerns the message of the sweet offering in the illumination of the chrysophrasus she follows the impulses of the love of the charity. When she place her own heart on the plate as a sweet offering she confesses that she owes everything to God’s grace and all she has received is a divine gift and thus she is able to commit her spirit into the hands of her heavenly Father as a praise to the glory of His grace and recites with Jesus on the Cross,
FATHER, INTO YOURS
HANDS
I COMMIT MY SPIRIT (Lk 23. 46).
I COMMIT MY SPIRIT (Lk 23. 46).
When the soul commits her spirit into the hands of her heavenly Father as Jesus on the cross she as followed her Archetype in the formation of the Royal Image of Glory,
Now all divine knowledge becomes love and the answer of the human being is to abandon itself into the hands of this love. In the Greek text St. Luke used the verb parathisomai when he gives account of Christ’s self-sacrifice, “Father. Into yours hands I commit (parathisomai) my spirit (Lk 23. 46). The Greek reflective verb parathisomai means to return something which does not belong to someone to its rightful owner as was emphasized above. Thus the Blessed Virgin brought her Son forth on the Sacrificial Hill of the Cross as a sweet offering because He was the fruit of her own womb and the most precious gift God had ever given a human being. Or by the words of the Carmelite father Wilfred Stinissen,
We have like Jesus
become bread and wine. Our life is like a mass from morning to evening
and we are offered. Our life as been changed into the Eucharist. We
only exist for others, we are sweet offering for God and our
neighbors.[5]
Only thus the soul becomes a pleasing sweet offering before God and will thus ascend from this altar to heaven on the wings of love. The sublime mystery of the Cross as revealed in the illumination of the chrysophrasus in front of the golden altar is sublime and save us the sad destiny of becoming outcasts,
Christ’s head was
directed eastward, and His legs westward, because He experienced death
according to His humanity and was strengthened to resurrection
according to His Godhead. His left hand was stretched southward, and
His right hand northward, because the people of Jerusalem and Jews
became left hand’s people, that is outcasts, on account of their
unbelief, and He, after His Passion, chose for Himself right hand’s
people out of heathens from the north. [6]
From the northern quarter of the Tetramorph the soul walked into the blessings of the east and fill’s now the flock of the right hand people in its southern quarter as a Winged man who ascend to God on the wings of love as a pleasing sweet offering. As was emphasized above she has actually become a true high priest in the live of grace, formed in the IMAGE OF THE CROSS,
And when the cross is
raised up, then it partly stands firm in the earth, and partly is in
the air, because Christ united heavenly and earthly things, and He
reconciled with Himself earthly men and His Angels. On the cross He
stretched out His both arms because He offers the embrace of His
mercies to all whom He loves. He stretched out His right hand because
He released all His friends from hell, and carried them along with Him
to eternal glories. He stretched out His left hand because He calls
many unworthy men to His mercies and cleanses them through
repentance. [7]
Only thus the Cross becomes a true Jacob’s ladder to heaven because it is an exact replica of the Sanctuary of the Tabernacle and thus we can praise our heavenly Father for the sublime mysteries concealed in the Cross and we discern in an authentic way when the Holy Spirit has cured us of our spiritual blindness.
Prayer to Christ
O Lord Jesus Christ, King of eternal glories, almighty Word of the Most High God, Power and Wisdom that beholds all things, I profess You, I worship You, I bow to You, the Redeemer of all mankind. You have taken pity on your world that miserably served death. You, being sinless and innocent, endured sore suffering even to death that You bore on the holy cross to save sinful men and to have mercy on them. Now I want to thank You with all my heart for Your Passion and for all those torments that You endured to save me and to redeem all mankind. I beseech You, O Almighty Son of the Living God, heal my spirit by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Teach me, O holy Savior of the world, how I can surely find Your mercy. O my gracious and merciful God, drive away by your mighty cross all temptation, and strengthen me for struggle against sin and for repentance, which is pleasing to You. I want to join Your battle and I appeal to You with all my heart: Chastise and cleanse me from all my vices in this world. And give me so to prepare myself to my death, that in the next world I may find Your mercy and enjoy there the eternal beatitude with You, in fellowship with all the Saints, in that kingdom and dominion, which belong to You with God the Father Almighty and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. [8]
[1]. City of God, 6, 7.
[2]. Catherine of Siena’s Ways, p. 132.
[3]. Love’s Living Flame, 1. 1.
[4]. Jacopone da Todi, “He appeared in this form as to give us a norm.”
[5]. Indre vandring, p. 152.
[6]. Book of Homilies, p. 52-53.
[7]. Ibid.
[8]. Ibid.
[2]. Catherine of Siena’s Ways, p. 132.
[3]. Love’s Living Flame, 1. 1.
[4]. Jacopone da Todi, “He appeared in this form as to give us a norm.”
[5]. Indre vandring, p. 152.
[6]. Book of Homilies, p. 52-53.
[7]. Ibid.
[8]. Ibid.