The Loss of Spiritual Sense
The problem of humanity is the loss of spiritual sense. We live in a material world where everything is measured by size, weight, and color. But God, and even human intellectual life, are not like that. A single thought cannot be weighed, measured, or have a color or smell. Even the holy fathers who could "smell" adultery were smelling the bodies of adulterers because they have a foul odor. The spiritual world is another realm we cannot enter with the images in our minds, no matter what they are. Rather, the mind must be purified. Therefore, the beginning of correctly conceiving the Trinity cannot be found in the material and sensible world. Even the old analogy of the sun's disk, light, and heat is a metaphor aimed at discovering the unity of three things that are one and three. But the spiritual sense must rise to something greater and beyond—to the spiritual life itself, where analogy stops at the door of experience itself, realizing that God is spirit, and the Spirit must be perceived spiritually—that is, not by carnal measures.
Once, a brother came and asked me if the Trinity stands in a single row. I told him a row is a line, and a line is a material image. He said: "So, are They a circle?" I said: "A circle is closer, but a circle, like a line, is a material image (because a circle has a center and a diameter) and is limited." He said: "So, what is the image of the Trinity?" I told him: "It is the image of love—an image we know through spiritual sense and cannot define with any material shape. When you see a mother carrying her child, the vision makes you remember your mother's tenderness. When you see a young man carrying a sick elder, compassion as a sense is born from the material image we see. Love alone moves us to understand the truth of the unity of the Persons, because when we love, we find unity—sometimes even merging with the other. Whoever wants to understand the Trinity does not need many words; they must move from sensory images of love to feeling what love carries of relationships, perceived by sound spiritual sense and sought after."
#Spirituality #Trinity #Love #SpiritualSense #Theology #Contemplation
The problem of humanity is the loss of spiritual sense. We live in a material world where everything is measured by size, weight, and color. But God, and even human intellectual life, are not like that. A single thought cannot be weighed, measured, or have a color or smell. Even the holy fathers who could "smell" adultery were smelling the bodies of adulterers because they have a foul odor. The spiritual world is another realm we cannot enter with the images in our minds, no matter what they are. Rather, the mind must be purified. Therefore, the beginning of correctly conceiving the Trinity cannot be found in the material and sensible world. Even the old analogy of the sun's disk, light, and heat is a metaphor aimed at discovering the unity of three things that are one and three. But the spiritual sense must rise to something greater and beyond—to the spiritual life itself, where analogy stops at the door of experience itself, realizing that God is spirit, and the Spirit must be perceived spiritually—that is, not by carnal measures.
Once, a brother came and asked me if the Trinity stands in a single row. I told him a row is a line, and a line is a material image. He said: "So, are They a circle?" I said: "A circle is closer, but a circle, like a line, is a material image (because a circle has a center and a diameter) and is limited." He said: "So, what is the image of the Trinity?" I told him: "It is the image of love—an image we know through spiritual sense and cannot define with any material shape. When you see a mother carrying her child, the vision makes you remember your mother's tenderness. When you see a young man carrying a sick elder, compassion as a sense is born from the material image we see. Love alone moves us to understand the truth of the unity of the Persons, because when we love, we find unity—sometimes even merging with the other. Whoever wants to understand the Trinity does not need many words; they must move from sensory images of love to feeling what love carries of relationships, perceived by sound spiritual sense and sought after."
#Spirituality #Trinity #Love #SpiritualSense #Theology #Contemplation
ЁЯФН The Loss of Spiritual Sense ЁЯФН
The problem of humanity is the loss of spiritual sense. We live in a material world where everything is measured by size, weight, and color. But God, and even human intellectual life, are not like that. A single thought cannot be weighed, measured, or have a color or smell. Even the holy fathers who could "smell" adultery were smelling the bodies of adulterers because they have a foul odor. The spiritual world is another realm we cannot enter with the images in our minds, no matter what they are. Rather, the mind must be purified. Therefore, the beginning of correctly conceiving the Trinity cannot be found in the material and sensible world. Even the old analogy of the sun's disk, light, and heat is a metaphor aimed at discovering the unity of three things that are one and three. But the spiritual sense must rise to something greater and beyond—to the spiritual life itself, where analogy stops at the door of experience itself, realizing that God is spirit, and the Spirit must be perceived spiritually—that is, not by carnal measures.
Once, a brother came and asked me if the Trinity stands in a single row. I told him a row is a line, and a line is a material image. He said: "So, are They a circle?" I said: "A circle is closer, but a circle, like a line, is a material image (because a circle has a center and a diameter) and is limited." He said: "So, what is the image of the Trinity?" I told him: "It is the image of love—an image we know through spiritual sense and cannot define with any material shape. When you see a mother carrying her child, the vision makes you remember your mother's tenderness. When you see a young man carrying a sick elder, compassion as a sense is born from the material image we see. Love alone moves us to understand the truth of the unity of the Persons, because when we love, we find unity—sometimes even merging with the other. Whoever wants to understand the Trinity does not need many words; they must move from sensory images of love to feeling what love carries of relationships, perceived by sound spiritual sense and sought after."
#Spirituality #Trinity #Love #SpiritualSense #Theology #Contemplation
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