Part 2 of Making Attraction and Aversion Work For Us, Not Against Us, a commentary on the 7th Ode of Solomon, written in Apostolic times (to be available as a paperback and ebook later this year).
- My joy is the Lord and my impulse is toward him.
This is a completely theocentric matter. God is the total focus. As the desert father, Saint Arsenios the Great, said: “Unless you say: ‘God and I alone exist,’ you will never find God.”
Certainly religion is important, even essential, but it is only a instrument. No one admires the piano or the violin, but rather the brilliant pianist and violinist. Religion is a tool to be used by the seeker; the seeker is not to be a tool of religion.
On the other hand we cannot imagine a sane pianist or violinist claiming they have no need of a piano or a violin, so neither should we credit someone who says they need no religion. Nonsense is never sense.
There is within each one of us an elemental impulse toward God. Although our intelligence (buddhi) must cooperate in our return to God, still it is never a merely intellectual or emotional impulse. Rather it is inherent in our essential being itself. It is part of our eternal nature. Therefore to be an awakened person means to be experiencing and acting upon this godward impulse.
- This path of mine is beautiful.
How is the path beautiful? “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18). It is beautiful because it increasingly brings us nearer the Divine Beauty: God. Again, God is the measure of the matter, not the seeker or the mechanics or requirements of the search.
- For I have a helper–the Lord.
We are not alone on the path. The Lord of Beauty himself is our companion. But he is not a passive companion. Rather:
