Editor’s Note: This is the sixth in a series of posts based on the longer essay, One Life Divine. Unlike the original essay, these individual installments are illustrated. They are as follows:
- Escape To Reality
- Reality is One
- Reality is Intelligent
- The Manifold Appearance of Reality
- A Body You Have Prepared For Me
- Hidden In Plain Sight
- Jesus Is Calling…
- Reconciled To God
Hidden In Plain Sight
As we continue to reflect on this mystery, it must be stressed that the map, articulated here, is not the territory–just as the word “water” is not the substance that quenches our thirst. All of the above are just words, words, and more words until the Reality toward which they point is seen–the Intelligent Creative Reality in which these words are appearing, here & now. In the words attributed to St. Francis, “What we are looking for is what is looking.”
As such, the essence of this Reality– insofar as it is accessible to us –is the light of the World that is hidden in plain sight! It is not a concept to be grasp or a doctrine to confess, but is, rather, the Way, the Truth, and the Life that we ARE– in Christ –in the unity of the Spirit. It is the “I Am” presence which animates the whole of our experience. It is THIS REALITY which can only be realized by forgetting the little “me” and its fictional story-line (full of imaginary hopes and fears; trying to redeem its past and secure its future); and by abiding here and now in the aware presence and alert stillness that binds everyone and everything together– the aware presence and alert stillness that we are –the Conscious, Creative Reality that I Am.
Although hidden in plain sight, this Way is seen by relatively few and seems quite difficult at first:
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
But with just a glimpse of ______________________, a choice appears to open up.
1) We can continue on our separate way, pursuing an illusory vision in which we imagine ourselves, in time, to be securing our good and avoiding our evil (conceived of as separate and distinct from God, from other human beings, and from the whole of creation).
~ OR ~
2) We we can recognize the light of the World as the narrow gate which has been there all along, but which for any number of reasons has been neglected or rejected:
“This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalms 118:20-24; cf. John 14:6-7).
Getting to Know Jesus in the 21st Century 