Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CCLXXXV
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
GoodWill IS Love in Action
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
Of all that the Master told us, He considered this as the Greatest of Commandments. So much of what we are to understand as aspirants or as believers is found in the precept that we must KEEP HIS WORDS:
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31).
We ask ourselves WHAT THEN IS LOVE?
In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men.
We add to this THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST which can serve to both give us an understanding of what it means to Love oneself and how it is that we can Love our neighbor:
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them“ (Matthew 7:12).
In the last post we took the ideas from the Values to Live By that we had been using as our Quote of the Day to relate them to the words of the Master and we did get tied up in the single concept of values themselves as a similar, if not identical, way of expressing what is important to us in our Life in this world; what we pay attention to…..our focus. Perhaps we can say here that if a man can accept and follow these Values to Live By as expressed in these sayings, then this man IS well on his way to the reality of his goal and this IS true both individually and corporately. We must however accomplish this as a complete list for the benefit of our Transformation as to pick and choose here is of no more value than to pick and choose which commandments and which sayings of the Master we will follow. The entire New Testament is concerned with Right Living and contains the Master’s instructions on what Right Living means while the apostles, in their writings, are clarifying and amplifying Jesus’ words and we must try to see that this Way of Right Living IS the Way of the disciple and that for this not ALL men may be suited in this particular Lifetime. ALL men however can make progress, can accumulate spiritual collateral in this Lifetime for use in future incarnations, much like we consider ourselves who accumulated such in prior incarnations for use in this one.By our words here we DO NOT say that any man CAN NOT step into the fullness of discipleship at any time as this IS within the scope of the abilities of most ALL men in the world who were born with the necessary emotional and mental equipment. The process of Repentance, Transformation, Redemption and Transfiguration is available to ALL and it IS by the revelations that come to us as we progress that we are able to progress further and the only hindrance IS the self in the world.
We have often tried to express in words that understanding that we have which says that it DOES NOT matter how one achieves; it matters only that he achieves. It matters not that one IS religious and it matters not what religion one may subscribe to; neither do culture. nor race. nor politics. matter in the expression of Love and this IS our point: that to express Love as the Master teaches us IS the Way and none of these other things matter and this IS True even if we do not KNOW the reality of the teachings of the Christ as a man in the world: expression of this Love is inherent in the Soul, the True man. Here we ARE saying that the Hindu is prompted to the Good, the Beautiful and the True even as IS the Christian, or the Buddhist or the Muslim and it IS in hearing and acknowledging and doing what the Soul IS prompting that we make progress and, once a man decides to heed this Inner Voice, he is deciding on Repentance and from this state the needed revelations will flow so long as the focus remains on the things of God as glimpsed in the promptings of the Soul. And it matters not how this appears to happen for any man; the only important part is that it DOES happen and regardless of one’s impression, the way this works is basically always the same as the thought to do Right according to Right Living and Right Values ever comes from the Soul even if one DOES NOT recognize this as the Way. For most there IS change from the ways of the world to the Way of Right Living and Right Values; a change from the self and the self in the world to the greater and common good which is the same as the change of our focus from the self and the things of the world to the things of God. This the Master makes clear as He tells us that whatsoever we do for “one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40).
This change is of course Repentance in our language and culture but this may be called by many different terms as can the Name of God and this ALL matters not as we do have that understanding that there IS but ONE God and it matters not what name we use nor does it matter how one sees the personage of God as this is a purely personal and rather meaningless thing because, as the Master tells us, “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24) and as such He has no discernible body from our perspective here on this Earth. And this is a message that we began several posts back but had never finished as we were discussing the speech by the Apostle Paul to the Greeks at Athens and where we had completed much of these sayings from the Book of Acts as Paul is approached by the Epicureans and the Stoics, the intelligentsia and the philosophers of their time, and asked about his own teachings on the Christ and his crucifixion and Resurrection. Paul does not however begin to preach Christ but rather offers them the understanding that the God that they are worshiping, the UNKNOWN GOD, is the very same God that Paul himself is presenting through Christ. This dialogue continues with Paul saying:
“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring“(Acts 17:24-28).
Here Paul is telling these Greeks that this SAME God, this UNKNOWN GOD in their terms, IS the God that IS the Creator of ALL. Here Paul is showing the Greeks that He understands their God, who they believe IS responsible for ALL, and that He IS the SAME God that Paul sees as “Lord of heaven and earth” and this is that same understanding that we must show to other religions around the world. We must acknowledge the fact of ONE God and show that we understand that this God IS the SAME for ALL even though He may be seen differently by different cultures and religions around the world. Now this should NOT be a difficult thing to understand and it Truly IS NOT except as the personalities of men, their selfish nature, dictate the views of the man focused in the world and in this we refer to those seemingly religious men of ANY religion who insist on the separative attitudes that we find in men’s thoughts yet today. And it matters not how high up in any particular church one may be, if his attitude is still of that separative nature, he IS NOT practicing True religion at all; he is ONLY practicing his doctrine. And this IS our reality: ONE World, ONE Humanity, ONE God and in this realization there is Peace and understanding and the willing use of our Values to Live By as these effect our relationship with ALL men. Now this may ALL be seen as disparaging to those who believe that they are religious or have found God but still believe that there IS and should be separation, but this IS NOT our intent; our intent is simply to state the Truth as we KNOW it and as we understand it and there is little that anyone can say in the Light of day to dispute our assertion of the ONENESS of ALL. There IS NO valid argument that can be made.
The clear point here is that it is the personality expressing the ways of the world that deflects the notion, not of ONE God, but that another’s God could be that SAME ONE God. This is an effect of the illusion and the glamour that cause that sometimes extreme sense of self that overwhelms even common sense and especially overwhelms the Light of the Soul and that prompting to Truth. Paul found the right way to deal with this issue of gods by his understanding that there CAN ONLY BE ONE God and his willingness to make the admission that the God, who they called the UNKNOWN GOD, was the SAME God that he saw as the Father God of the Christ and the God of the Jews. In our own adopted understanding of God, that HE IS THAT Boundless, Immutable, Eternal, Infinite Existence and it can be said that there is nothing else but HIM we preclude in our own minds that there can be another and so we can see as Paul sees. And we should add here that while some spiritual realities come by revelation, this one can come from education and this takes us back to our discussion of a few days back on the right upbringing of our children by parents, by educators and by the church; can we see how much past and present world disharmony could be avoided by teaching this rather simple Truth?
And Paul goes on to clarify his remarks so that the idea that he is preaching the SAME God can be accepted by these men who may be thinking as most others in the world: that their own sense of God, even the UNKNOWN GOD, was theirs only. First he tell them that ALL men are the work of this SAME creator who IS Lord of ALL and needs naught from His creation as He continually “giveth to all life, and breath, and all things“. While most men and religions around the world want to take claim that God is as they see Him, as they understand Him, the reality IS in Paul’s words; that it IS this ONE God that gives Life to ALL and it IS this ONE God that provides ALL things for men continue in this Earth. This Book of Acts is for us a continuation of the gospels after the death and resurrection of the Master and in this we DO NOT find the words that the apostles write to fellow believers and disciples, rather we find the documented story of the travels of the apostles as told by the Apostle Luke reflecting what he saw and heard of the events and here, in this seventeenth chapter, we have the ‘actual’ words of Paul to these Greeks and perhaps it is in this example that we should find the right ways of evangelizing, of presenting the Good News of One God and sharing then our differences in approach. Paul goes on to reconcile ALL men to the ONE God as he tells us them that God “hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth“. Here ALL should be able to see this ONENESS of ALL humanity as it stretches across the barriers erected by men, barriers of race, of color, of creed, of religion, culture and this list could go on and on. Again we have a Christian ideal as put forth by a most respected Christian apostle that IS not followed because of the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world causing that extreme sense of self that overwhelms even common sense and especially overwhelms the Light of the Soul and that prompting to Truth.
As we have seen that the words of Paul from Chapter 8 of his Epistle to the Romans are an encapsulation of our existence here in this Earth as well as our assurance that we will be delivered, we have here in these words from the Book of Acts a testimony of the relationship of men across this Earth and that added understanding that should have been able to help us to understand the Master’s admonition that we Love our neighbor. And Paul does not stop here, he continues to tell us that we ARE ALL of the same blood, a fact that should seal our unity but which unfortunately has not and again because of the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world causing that extreme sense of self that overwhelms even common sense and especially overwhelms the Light of the Soul and that prompting to Truth. This particular saying has much behind it that is covered in the words as he tells us that the ONE God “hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation“. ONE Humanity is seen here and the idea of nations need only be seen as the multitude as this is an accepted rendering of this Greek word so that we can read this as ALL men or, as the original Catholic bible, Douay-Rheims, renders this, mankind. Now it matters not to our Right understanding that we see this in any particular way as ALL mean the same thing but the idea of mankind is better suited to understand the balance of this verse. Here then we come upon the idea of times and bounds and in this there can be much confusion as it may be seen that this is in reference to nations as we understand that word today. Paul’s message here IS simple and can be discerned by looking away from one’s existence in this world when examining words that are speaking of things divine. That the times are “before appointed” is clear; no man KNOWS nor can KNOW the times and the cycles of this Creation and in this reference the Master tells us to be ever ready saying: “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is” (Mark 13:35-33). And we should understand that this time IS fixed according to the Great and Awesome Plan of God and that these words have naught to do with countries or nations but rather to the existence of mankind in the world. Regarding the “bounds of their habitation” we have a similar effect; this IS NOT in reference to a nation and where it may be but rather IT IS in reference to mankind as a mortal being who is bound to this Earth, and its environs as we can see from space travel, and we would be better to look inward in this reference as this IS where the Kingdom IS and, as Paul tells us elsewhere: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” (1 Corinthians 15:50). This then IS our bound as men in the world, that they stay in this world. The journey out is the death of the body but the journey to the Kingdom of God is in realization.
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
Continuing with our presentation of the Prayer of Saint Francis as the Quote of the Day, we should realize that without the apparent links to doctrine, this is well suited to be the Prayer of the disciple and therefore our prayer as well as aspirants to that High Calling. Of course these things that we are saying here in this prayer ARE expressions of Love, ALL of them, and it is by our example in the world that we express them and in the idea of sowing we can find our ‘suggestion’ of’ Love, pardon, faith, hope, Light and joy to those whom we may contact and who may be feeling the opposites. The second stanza is more personal from the perspective of subduing one’s own personality and its ‘needs’ by seeing the needs of one’s brother and neighbor and the stranger who qualifies as both FIRST. And, as we say below, we should see this idea of dying not in the context of the our death on Earth but in the context of the Apostle Paul’s words that tell us: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). This sin is for us our focus upon the things of the world and this death IS one’s continued existence here in this world entombed in the illusion and the glamour….eternal Life then IS our realization of the Truth of Life of the True man, the Soul, the Christ Within which we find when we turn our focus to the things of God.
| Aspect of God |
Potency |
Aspect of Man |
In Relation to the Great Invocation |
In relation to the Christ |
|
GOD, The Father |
Will or Power |
Spirit or Life |
Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN |
Life |
|
Son, The Christ |
Love and Wisdom |
Soul or Christ Within |
Heart of God |
Truth |
|
Holy Spirit |
Light or Activity |
Life Within |
Mind of God |
Way
|
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
This is the Prayer of Saint Francis which we repeat again from a previous post as our Quote of the Day. If we were all to accept these ideas as guiding Lights in our lives, we would be expressing the Love and the Faith that the Master teaches. It is attributed to the 13th-century saint Francis of Assisi, although the prayer in its present form cannot be traced back further than 1912*. Regardless of the True authorship, the sentiments revealed in this prayer are genuine and are in keeping the intent of the teachings of the Master and His apostles. We should note here that the dying is not necessarily the death of the body but the death of the carnal man in the world when one is born again. In this context we read this about Saint Francis: Francis was the son of a wealthy foreign cloth merchant in Assisi, and he lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi. While going off to war in 1204, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life**. Here is the antithesis of the rich young man of the gospels.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen
This is a prayer that is Truly in line with the teachings of the Master and the ideals encapsulated in this should be those that govern our lives and our prayer should be that ALL can see Life in this same way. We should try to see the reality of these words in the verses above regarding feeding and visiting the least of His and our brethren; in these words is a deeper meaning, as clearer expression of Love and, we should look at the Master’s words above as an expression of Love and not merely in the terms that He presents as this is the intent of the entirety of His teachings.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- * Wikipedia contributors. “Prayer of Saint Francis.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 24 Jan. 2013
- **Wikipedia contributors. “Francis of Assisi.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 24 Jan. 2013.
