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There are two types on the path, those
who come against their will, the blindly religious,
and those who obey out of love.
…
Both are drawn from the source.
Any motion is from the mover.
Any love from the beloved.
(Coleman Barks, Rumi: The Book of Love, Poems of Ecstasy and Longing)
I return to the image of Romance. I do not mean sexual or genital attractiveness, I mean Eros as deep, empathic, and passionate Love. Eros can be for anything, including all Creation or an aspect of Nature. Eros manifests as aspiration to have intercourse, whether that is coitus with another person or heart-to-heart with a soul mate. An image of this “non-sexual” Coitus of Heart is Rumi and Shams; another is Jesus and the Beloved Disciple, likely John, who leaned upon Jesus at the Supper in the Upper Room. Likewise, males and females who are heterosexual can enjoy deeply Erotic relationships with persons of the same gender.
Eros is God Love intimately, compassionately becoming one. Eros is sacred coitus with anything, when you lovingly enter into an empathic appreciation of its sacred Essence (This is one reason much sexual expression in our culture is de-sacralized and harmful to the human spirit and spirit of community; that is, it approaches the other as an object for self-gratification, not experiencing the union of Inner Divinity with another in a mutual self-emptying manner.).
In Eros we enjoy a Subject-to-Subject co-inhering, a mutual God-ing with and in each other. We keep falling in Love with Love; we keeping loving the Beloved, or Lover, in the form of another.
In Love, what we are really seeking is our own Essence, Who is Love. That is why being in love with someone always leaves us with that sensation of Something-Still-Missing. That is why any addiction, even to religion, leaves us with a longing for the next drink:
I cry
Beloved, where are You!
And a million
Whispers arise from the Dark, saying,
Hush! Don’t speak. For
You only hear this Love Letter with
The Heart
When we are Erotic, in a wholistic way, we see the world and others differently. This does not mean we see the world as not needing reform or transformation. We still see injustice and social evils. We are aware of our own need for continuing repentance and conversion of heart. We know we have not arrived, nor has the world, but we know the world and we are always arriving. We are not stuck; rather, we are evolving, though with birth pangs that can lead us to doubt whether the Child will ever be born.
Cameron paints for us a picture of an Erotic Divinity. God says, “I am focused on the good. I see the world as a realm of positive opportunity.” Spirit, within emergence of Creation, focuses on the good. She, the Divine Mother, sees the world as a “realm of opportunity.” Like Mary, Wisdom carries within Herself the Child, Who is the Emerging Potentiality. Like Elohim looking over the formless chaos of matter in Genesis 1, the Beloved sees, already, the Ordered Form of Beauty.
Like this God we approach someone or something we love dearly. This love is not so much a choice by us as a gift to us, coursing through us. When we look at this that we love, due to love we see present good and opportunity. You may, for instance, look into your spouse’s eyes and see, not only the good, but everything and more that you two can become and be together, as One, moving from horizon to horizon, sharing OneLife.
In love, you do not focus on your disagreements, though you may have to work to resolve some of them and to accept others of them. The same applies to all relationships. If we invest energy in negativity, without a pure motive to transform it into good, we bring only negativity into the relationship. If we approach negativity, seeing it as an opportunity for transformation into further good, that is Love-ing.
When one falls in love with another person, if the attraction is mature, that attraction is Erotic. Underlying the manifestation of that attraction is the seeing of good in the other. We, intuitively, sense potential. We may not know the underlying logic, not rationally, of the attraction, but the Heart has reasons of Its own that the mind will never fully know. This is a beginning. However, the Path of Love is a Path ever-returning to envelope that beginning, renewing that Love again and again. Likewise, the process occurs in our communion-in-union with the Divine Spirit, Who is Love.
Notice this passage from Revelation 3:5-7 (WE), containing an address to the Church of Laodicea: He says, "I know what you do. I know that you are neither cold nor hot. And I wish that you were cold or hot. So I will spit you out of my mouth, because you are only warm and not hot or cold. You say, `I am rich and have many things. I need nothing.' You do not know that you are in trouble and need help. You are poor. You are blind. And you have no clothes to wear.”
Imagine, Divine Spirit longing for a passionate relationship with you. Imagine, Sacred Love frustrated, yearning for you to give time for daily intercourse with Her. Imagine, Love pleading for attention, wanting to give and receive deep desire that consumes separateness in One Coitus of Passion.
Lent is a time to fan into flame loves that have gown lukewarm. Lent is a time to breath upon the embers that are barely aglow. Lent is a time for a tryst of Affection, to renew the vitality of a relationship that once brought much joy, pleasure, and good. Lent is a returning to the beginning.
Possibly, this Lent you will find clarified eyes to see the good and potential in relationships, with God or others, even with yourself, that you maybe have not nurtured well or in some you have forfeited and would like to be aflame again with Passion, Hope, and Grace.
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