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Contents
1. Wisdom Saying
2. Illustration and Comments
3. Mystical Love Poem
4. Suggested Reflection
Wisdom Saying
The following, part of an extended prayer, is from Nicolas of Cusa (1401-1464), On the Vision of God. Cusa was a cardinal, mathematician, scholar, experimental scientist, and eminent philosopher. He stressed the incomplete nature of human knowledge of God and of the universe.
But I know that your gaze is that maximum goodness which is unable not to communicate itself to all capable of receiving it. You, therefore, can never forsake me so long as I am able to receive you. For my part, then, insofar as I can, I ought to make myself ever more able to receive you. And I know that the capacity which warrants union is nothing other than likeness. But incapacity stems from the want of likeness. If, therefore, I render myself similar to your goodness in every way possible, then according to the degree of the likeness, I will be capable of truth.
Illustration and Comments
Imagine a living fire aflame. God is the Living Flame of Love. See yourself facing the flame. See yourself moving toward the flame. Next, see yourself moving away from the flame.
Imagine the will of the flame is for you to move nearer and nearer to it. The flame longs for you. The flame desires to impart its nature to you. Within you is a yearning to move toward the flame, also. Within you, however, is resistance to this pull toward intimacy. While you are drawn by desire toward the flame, timidity and uncertainty pulls you away.
This is an image of relationship with the Living Flame of Love. The seed of longing, a likeness to the Beloved in us, pulls us toward the One who planted the yearning within. Our fear and uncertainty arouses resistance to intimacy with the Flame. Of course, we turn to substitutes to quench the desire for our True Love, Who waits patiently for us.
As we move slowly closer to the Flame, if we choose to face the fear and uncertainty of such an awesome intimacy, we receive a growing likeness to the Flame. As we move more closely to our Love, our likeness to our Love increases, in proportion.
This does not lead us to a sterile manner of living, as though to be in intimacy with the Flame is a dull moralism or staid, rule-bound religious formalism. No! This is a Living Fire we are in love with! This is Love Itself we are transformed into by intimacy with that Burning and Mutually-Mingling Passion! This is, indeed, a lesser-love-consuming Tryst in All Love!
Nicolas of Cusa well states the excitement of this ardent Affair with the Flame. He writes: And what, Lord, is my life, except that embrace in which the sweetness of your love so lovingly holds me! I love my life supremely because you are my life's sweetness.
Poem
Remember how you looked me in the eyes~
I, though you could, did not see, for
it was a black night~that night, so dark,
I could not even sense you near.
To my surprise, and later delight,
a drop from that sweet wine
fell from your mouth
onto my face.
Soon, I was bathed in red Delight!
Everything turned to pure Light!
And I rejoiced to see you, again,
whose seeing is the sweetness of my life.
My Dear, I am living proof
that a spirited redness like flows from you
can drive an apparently sane man completely out
of his mind~Thankfully!
*Brian K. Wilcox, March 13, 2007
Suggested Reflection
1. What relationship do you see between the opening Cusa quote, the Illustration and Comments, and the closing Poem?
2. What does it mean to rightly lose your own mind through intimacy with the Divine Mystery?
3. Why do you think wine is used in Scripture and among mystics for our relationship with God?
See next page for Purpose of OneLife, reference to the writer's book, and matters pertaining to source material in this devotional.
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