Epiphany is the season of light, enlightenment, the coming of God to us. I want to suggest there are four ways of enlightenment, each interconnected with the other and each, in its own way, sacramental. In the words of Ursula King, we are speaking of the:
Interpenetration of spirit and matter, where matter itself becomes a vehicle for Spirit, a sacrament.
It may be possible for a human being to have an unmediated experience of the divine presence. However, I think it is quite rare. There is a long tradition that for the human spirit to gaze unmediated on pure light, goodness, or beauty would be to die. The human frame is not presently equipped for the experience. There is the Jewish story of Moses who wanted to see divine glory, and who was given a glimpse of the “back parts” of God. The full view was too intense. It is a very beautiful little story. There are, of course, other stories where great saints and adepts have been given the glimpse of God (Mother Julia’s visions, come to mind). However, we know of them because they are rare and, therefore, worthy of recording and remembering over the centuries.
The route to enlightenment for you and me—the route to seeing—will most often be sacramental. It is a mediated experience of the transcendent through the immanent. God will show herself to us in tangential ways, not altogether clearly, in ways open to various interpretations. We hear the voice speak, and others ask if it thundered. We awake from a dream of heaven, and we wonder what we had for dinner the night before! There will always be ambiguity.
- Through mindfulness. Here is opportunity to find God each moment of each day, for those with eyes to see. It requires the discipline of awareness. To be mindful at all times. To be present in each moment, not to be either locked into the past, with its troubled memories, and not anxious of the future with its uncertainties.
- Through sacred texts. We are fortunate to have the record and wrestling of many good people who have been on the same quest toward enlightenment. Their quest is found in the sacred texts of many traditions. It is why we read the scriptures daily as part of the Daily Office. Yet, we take these holy texts as they are—a finite and very human (therefore, imperfect) reaching beyond. They are the wrestling of sometimes very troubled souls facing the same issues we face in our ordinary humdrum lives. The answers and insights they offer will not always satisfy us. Their inordinate outbursts will trouble us. That is to the good. There are no quick fixes. As they wrestled, we wrestle too
- Through reasoned interpretation. Texts, of all kinds, need careful interpretation. There is no such thing as an uninterpreted text. This is magnified when the texts, through long use and untold benefit, have become sacred. The text cannot stand alone as a guide. This is quite a radical idea, for we have been used to thinking that all we need to do with people is give them a copy of our preferred holy book, and all will be well. Sacred texts need a framework of interpretation to make sense. Otherwise the text can make no sense, or even worse, bad sense. That is why in many traditions a high value is placed on the spiritual discipline of study. It is true for us in the Lindisfarne Community for those reading for holy orders.
- Through the mediation of the Spirit of God, the divine energy, the chi. Spirit is what bishop theologian J.V. Taylor called the “go between God.” Spirit is not a completely unmediated experience of the “Godhead beyond God” (as Eckhart would have it). Yet, Spirit brings us closer. For Christians, Jesus is an archetype—a human being filled with divine Spirit. Spirit for Christians is God in the face of Jesus Christ. The mystery of spirit is also the experience of Spirit in people. Christians have become so familiar with the term “the body of Christ” that its power is often lost. Christ as light comes to us not only in an inner mystical way, but is embodied in people of flesh and blood. People become a sacrament of divine presence. Christ is in all. Spirit is in all. Divine energy is in all.
May we find the light.
+Ab. Andy