Meditation 73
The Third Entrance
The eighth step of
love impels the soul to lay hold of the Beloved without letting him go,
as the bride proclaims: I found him whom my heart and soul loves, I
held him and did not let him go [Sg 3. 4]. Although the soul satisfies
its desire on this step of union, it does not do so continually. Some
manage to get to it, but soon turn back and leave it. If one were to
remain on this step, a certain glory would be possessed in this life,
and so the soul rests on it for only a short period of time. Because
the prophet Daniel was a man of desires, God ordered him to stay on
this step: Daniel, remain on your step, because you are a man of
desires [Dn 10.11] [1]
Here
in front of the curtain and entrance into the Holy of Holies of the
Tabernacle of our heart we ask by the help of the intercession of the
Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph's, the Community of the Church, St. Michael
the Archangel (our favored saint) and the Celestial Choir of the
Cherubim, that the Holy Spirit infuse into our hearts the virtue of
burning zeal in order to become praise of the grace of His glory in our
growing participation in Christ like humility on our walk along the
Sacred Way in the grace of our Royal Image of Glory. Amen.
The eighth “memorial stone” which the soul picks out of the river of death to make a garland or a Gilgal (circle) around the Tabernacle of her heart is the jacinth. The jacinth is yellow like a ripe corn, a ripe harvest in the live of grace. In the Old Covenant the jacinth was the emblem of the tribe of Ephraim in the Divine Order of March, but in Hebrew the word means to be fruitful. The divine predestination had intended Ephraim a unique role in its ordinance: it was from the root of Ephraim that the King Messiah should come. This made Jacob confused when he blessed his sons, as we can see in Gn. 48. 12-15,
But Israel held out
his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, the younger, and his
left on the head of Mannasse, crossing his hands – Mannasse was,
in fact, the elder.
Just as in Jacob’s case we become ourselves confused at times in the beginning when God makes us cross handed when we submit to His will when His Hour has arrived. It is the curtain which divided the Holy of holies from the Holy which announces HIS HOUR in glory, the fullness of the Age of Christ on earth in the essence of the soul, the meeting point of God and the human being as His creation. His hour marks the beginning of the fourth mode of the Christification in accordance with God's Essence (Med. 48) when the soul enters the divine abyss of the Trinitarian mystery. It is behind the curtain where its inmost being is illuminated fully in the glory of the Uncreated light.
The divine ordinance destined an hour for our Lord and Royal pattern in the live of grace on the cross, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?” (Lk 24. 26). It is only by following in His path as the Son of Man on the Way of the Cross that this curtain of mercy will be swept aside in the assimilation of the soul to her Royal Image of Glory,
And the veil of the
Sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom (Mk 15. 38).
Our own particular hour – the hour of the freedom of the seventh day creation – is certainly destined here in front of the curtain when the “renewed and resolute spirit” (Ps 51. 12) approaches God in the boldness of its parrisia [2] as a true Royal Image wearing the garments of the light of grace, the vestments of the high priest,
You will make a
curtain of finely woven linen, dyed violet purple, red purple and
crimson, and embroidered with great winged creatures, and put it on
four poles of acacia wood overlaid with gold, with golden hooks for
them, set in four sockets of silver. You will put the curtain below the
clasps, so that inside behind the curtain, you can place the ark of the
Testimony, and the curtain will mark the division for you between the
Holy Place and the Holy of Holies (Ex 26. 31-34).
In Hebrew they named this curtain in ancient times poreket which means to sweep aside, tear asunder or pierce. It is this image which is drawn before our eyes of the Lord as the Lamb of God, bruised, bleeding, broken and pierced on the Cross of Life. The silver sockets which the golden pillars rested on reveal in an authentic way that they are fruits of His holy blood outpoured on the Sacrificial Hill of the Cross.
God instructed Moses to the making of the curtain which ought to be as much as hands breath thick as God's glory dwelt behind the curtain and if the priests had faced this glory without the cover of the blood – the life of the seventh day creation – they had involuntarily lost their own lives.
The holiness of the divine Essence is so far above all created nature that all vision of God in His Essence means involuntarily a sudden death (Ex 19. 21; Lv 16. 2; Nb 4. 20; Dt 5. 24-26). Only the high priest was allowed entrance behind the curtain in the cover of the blood, an eternal admonition to the fact, that no soul can face God's glory otherwise than clothed in the light garments of redemption in its Christification and fulfill God’s decrees without any pretext: to place our hearts as a sweet offering on the plate of the golden altar. Then the greatest miracles of all miracles and wonders of all wonders takes place, or by the words of Hildigard from Bingen,
When the priest,
dressed with holy vestments, stepped to the altar for the celebration
of the divine mysteries , a bright splendor of
light suddenly fell from heavens. Angels stepped down, and light
flooded around the altar. It remained this way until after the
completion of the holy offering when the priest withdrew. After the
Gospel of peace was read out and offering were laid upon the altar for
consecration, the priest sang the praise of the omnipotent God: “Holy,
holy, holy, Lord God Sabaoth!” and he began that unpronounceable
mystery. At this moment the heaven opened up. A fiery flash of
indescribably bright clarity fell down upon the offerings and streamed
through them wit its majesty, just as the sun penetrates with its light
when it streams upon an object . . . Angels climb down and light floods
the altar . . . Heavenly spirits bow towards holy service. [3]
And the words of Teresa of Avila reach now full meaning in the moment of passing time in this world of light, beauty, love and truth,
Do you think,
daughters, that He comes alone? Don’t you see that His Son says, “who
art in heaven”? Well, since He is such a King, certainly His court
attendants would never leave Him alone, but they will always be with
Him; and they beseech Him on our behalf since they are full of
charity.” [4]
In order to emphasize this mystery still further she used words which the adorers of speculative and analytical theology are not willingly ready to approve still today some four centuries later “O my Lord and my God! I cannot say this without tears and great joy of soul! How You desire, Lord, thus to be with us and to be present in the sacrament (for in all truth this can be believed since it is so, and in the fullness of truth we can make this comparison); and if it were not for our fault, we could rejoice in being with You, and You would be glad to be with us since You say that Your delight is to be with the children of men.” [5]
The bride has reached the “home country” of Jesus and still today the disbelief is the stumbling stone of numerous souls as formerly and just as Jesus “worked no miracles” (Mk 6. 5) in His “home country” He is unable to work this miracle and as formerly He is “amazed at their lack of faith” (Mk 6. 6).
Sacred Heart of Jesus
and fountain of all mercy. I adore You, I love You and worship You. In
sorrow because of my offenses against you I place my own sinful heart
before you for healing in order to be able to live in You and for You.
Merciful King, render my own heart into thine.
Once a Lutheran pastor said to me, “There are two things in Catholicism which seem particular strange to me: the emphasize on the devotion of the Sacred Heart and the adoration of the sacrament of the Altar. Please explain this to me?” I told him that this devotion were the core issues of Catholic dogma. The Adoration of the Blessed sacrament were the focal point of encounter with Jesus in an attitude of all embracing love. It is here were the “miracle” takes place, this Union in love with “flight of the spirit”. This were as common an experience in the Church among a “simple” Franciscan sister as by a highly educated Dominican. This were an enrapture to the Celestial City. When the soul returned she knew that she had been “there”, and never again would such a soul be the same again because of the time see was given to dwell in this Celestial Tabernacle. This mystery were actually suspension of the time sense of the fallen and sinful nature. This particular Lutheran minister believed and said, “Thank you, now I understand.”
This is how our Lord and Heavenly King proofs that He is still with is Church today as ever before. Another Lutheran minister who converted to Catholicism gave me following account regarding his conversion: “I think that Luther believed the Church had been a sinking ship. He left it as a ship wrecker in one of the lifeboats. Suddenly I looked back and saw where I sat in the boat that the ship sailed the high seas of salvation under full sails. I decided to return to the ship as no danger was at hand. The ship had only gone through a breaker,”
May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most mysterious and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified in heaven on earth and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ in the most Holy sacrament of the Altar. [6]
[1]. The Dark Night, II. 20, 3.
[2]. The “boldness” or parrisia was the distinct mark of a free citizen in an ancient Greek city state. It consisted in the right to express oneself at public meetings, what we call a “right of speech” to day. Such right was only granted if the person in question had not committed crimes or offences against its fellow citizens, had a clean “criminal records” so to say. The boldness is a confirmation of the fact that the soul has reached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
[3]. Wisse die Wege Scivias II, 6. (Quotation in “The Physics of Angles,” pp. 186-87.
[4]. The Way of Perfection, 28. 13.
[5]. Ibid.
[6]. The Golden arrow. This prayer was revealed to a Carmelite sister in Tours in 1843 and she heard the Lord say, “The Golden arrow will wound my heart delightfully and heal the wounds inflicted by blasphemy.”
[2]. The “boldness” or parrisia was the distinct mark of a free citizen in an ancient Greek city state. It consisted in the right to express oneself at public meetings, what we call a “right of speech” to day. Such right was only granted if the person in question had not committed crimes or offences against its fellow citizens, had a clean “criminal records” so to say. The boldness is a confirmation of the fact that the soul has reached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
[3]. Wisse die Wege Scivias II, 6. (Quotation in “The Physics of Angles,” pp. 186-87.
[4]. The Way of Perfection, 28. 13.
[5]. Ibid.
[6]. The Golden arrow. This prayer was revealed to a Carmelite sister in Tours in 1843 and she heard the Lord say, “The Golden arrow will wound my heart delightfully and heal the wounds inflicted by blasphemy.”
