 |
YAHWEH THE MOST HOLY NAME OF GOD (I AM THAT I AM) |
 |
|
YAHWEH THE MOST HOLY NAME OF GOD (I AM THAT I AM) |
|
The Beatific ends of life
We find ourselves, more and more, in a civilization that lives as though there
were no God and as though its people were soulless. Oh yes, much is made of
religion everywhere. The good religions and the cults have their growing
numbers. Americans are still the most religious people in the western world.
Very few of us are atheists. I fear that many of us practice what I can only
call a "practical atheism". Ours is an age when vulgarity and immorality are
glorified and, practically speaking, though we go to our places of worship
and think of ourselves as religious our words and actions deny that there
is really a Holy God. I did not say that we deny there is a God: even
those who use His Name profanely quite often believe in God. But hear
Jesus' words, "O righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have
known thee; and these know that thou hast sent me. I made known to them
thy name, and I will make it known, that the love with which thou hast
loved me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17: 25-26) We need to know
God as our Heavenly Father and that He is Holy. We must therefore learn
reverence in an irreverent generation, that God is God and not some "word"
or some "argument".
And in honoring that Name, in learning in this life to adore and worship Him,
we shall understand that we have souls to save. This, for all of its talk
of spirituality, our pagan world really doesn't know. There is a depth of
hatred down deep within the world that for all of its religiosity denies
that we are more than animals with reasoning minds. The cults are little
better despite their much talking about souls, for they darken the
understanding of men and women who need to know God, the Author of souls--
the God who breathed our souls into us. Eden and the creation of Adam and
Eve is not a history lesson but rather has to do with the creation of the
human soul. It is written in an ancient style that is meant to convey not
some literal story, but truths about our origins beyond the bounds of time
and space. He breathed the breath of life into us. In a very wonderful
sense our souls are God's breath and they were meant to make us after
God's holy and noble image and likeness. (Genesis 2:7; Genesis 1:26)
Two poems and a hymn come leaping into my heart. Reverence toward the Holy God brings us intimations of what our souls are. There are longings too deep, too wonderful for this life to ever satisfy. We have, at best, but a whispered inference of the love that God has placed within us that can only be realized in loving Him. All other loves are but until death us do part and then we are left with sorrow. Elizabeth Barret Browning expressed what this innate love that comes from the soul is ... and in reading it we are thrilled not only by her love of her husband but, by the eternal possibilities of such a love; the Heaven-bound direction of it has ultimate meaning for any of us who love. For only God is Love and we love with a borrowed love until we are forever with Him:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
(Sonnet XLIII)
Thus St. Paul could say to Christian souls: "Husbands, love your wives,
as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might
sanctify her, having cleansed her [that is, Christ's church] by the
washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to
himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that
she might be holy and without blemish." The Christian soul is to be
loved by other souls, particularly by our mates, as the holiest of
places -- the church, a Cathedral. The capacity to love, the
overwhelming passion of it for our beloved with its protectiveness and
its deepest caring is but a mild hint of what our souls are.
And that we cannot imagine that one day we shall no longer be physically alive upon this earth is the universal mentality of all who have ever lived and died. But our longings, our aspirations, our very thoughts are those that unconsciously know that we are souls, though all about us live as if the body and its aggrandizement is all that life is really about. These words from Alfred Lord Tennyson's glorious masterpiece, "In Memoriam" speak out though our souls may not suspect what they are destined for:
Strong Son of God, immortal Love, Whom we, that have not seen thy face, By faith, and faith alone, embrace, Believing where we cannot prove; Thine are these orbs of light and shade; Thou madest Life in man and brute; Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot Is on the skull which thou hast made. Thou wilt not leave us in the dust: Thou madest man, he knows not why; He thinks he was not made to die; And thou hast made him: thou art just. (the above is from In Memoriam A.H.H. Obit MDCCCXXXIII)
If there is a thirst for water, then there must be water for God has not created such wants in vain. If beauty thrills, though it swiftly passes, we need Beauties that cannot wither and die; for all through life we seek them yet to no avail. No, we must seek Beauty Himself. The greatest of earthly loves has but life's little day; but love comes from God alone, if only we would see it! Those earthly loves lead us to Him who is Love and love's source. If He creates such wondrous longings within our breasts how wondrous must He be, this God who made them all?
Thus can we sing as souls He has breathed forth:
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Fill me with life anew;
That I might love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will --
To do and to endure.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Till I am wholly Thine,
Till all this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of thine eternity.
(Robert Jackson)
And in so singing we ask God the Holy Spirit to dwell within the Cathedral of our soul, to breathe once more that breath that gave us life. And such a wondrous life is then at prayer for we are somehow in Heaven while still upon this changing earth!
We have souls and of them the great Charles Wesley wrote: "A charge to keep I have, A God to glorify; A never-dying soul to save and fit it for the sky!" That is why I speak of the Cathedral called our soul, that is why I long with you for the Beatific Vision; for in our love of beauty, our love of love, we long to adore our Holy God for ever and ever.
Our souls hold within their precincts intimations of the Divine whom we call Father. Lord, help us to learn reverence in this life that in the next we might awaken to that Vision beyond all visions, Thy Holy Love which Thou art both now and forever and ever, world without end. Amen.
Next, Cruciform