A Sense of Awareness

I know of a woman who, not long ago, lost her husband of fifty years. She is struggling day by day, as we all do, with the absence of those we love but see no more. She is a woman of strong and quiet faith and she spoke recently of hearing her husband’s voice calling her name as he used to do when he would wake her from her nap. It was clear and unmistakable to her and she wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Her daughter suggested that it was the “sixth sense that we no longer use.” This statement struck me as peculiar at first, as I had not heard it before, but I supposed it to be a secular scientific explanation for such phenomena. I’m sure the woman’s daughter meant well and was trying to be helpful but her statement couldn’t be farther from the truth.

I have experienced such phenomena myself on several occasions, as many perhaps have. Such things sometimes cause us to think of Hollywood movies like Poltergiest, Ghost, and The Sixth Sense. But these are Hollywood interpretations, entertaining and emotionally stimulating though they may be, they should not be taken all that seriously. We have an inherent curiosity about all things supernatural, which is quite natural, but what we do not often realize is that there is only One Who is truly Supernatural and it is natural for us to seek Him – we were made that way: “You have made us for Yourself, O God, and our souls will never rest until they rest in You.” (St. Augustine of Hippo).

In traditional usage, “supernatural” means divine: of God. The supernatural is therefore totally separate from, superior to, and in no way dependent upon what is created – what is “natural” in that sense. Only God is supernatural in His very Being. He can act with supernatural power upon all “natural” (that is, created) things and beings. He can communicate His supernatural life and power to what is created, thus elevating it. But the distinction always remains between what is created and what is supernatural. Supernatural power can bypass all natural modes of operation and can act directly upon spirit. It need not pass via the senses , or through the internal powers of imagination, mind and will in order to reach the soul of a human being. Only God and those who share in His supernatural power can do this.

Preternatural power, which evil spirits possess, is superior to human power in its abilities. It is not bound by laws of physical nature and of matter that govern all our human exercise of power in the physical and psychic orders. By virtue of preternatural power, evil spirits can manipulate psychic phenomena and produce psychic states. They are able to produce fascinating effects in our human fields of perception and behaviour. They may not be and probably are not responsible for all psychic phenomena, but they are masters of this sort of behaviour and have the ability to stimulate and entice us through our senses and imagination. But they cannot interfere with our freedom to choose or reject, because that freedom is granted and guaranteed by the Divine. God, for example, can “give” us grace, which is not ours of ourselves. Evil Spirit can only act upon what it finds and only within the limits of its knowledge. In other words, the preternatural power of evil spirits can produce nothing in us that was not already there, actually or potentially.

So what of the “sixth sense”? Is it a left-over by-product of some primordial soup? Or is it something more? I believe it to be a faculty God instilled in us from the beginning through which we are capable of perceiving His Presence. This faculty no longer functions as it originally did because of the Fall. Adam and Eve enjoyed perfect and constant awareness of God’s Presence, and this is the “natural” state of things, the way God intended and the way it will be again once the fullness of restored Communion achieved by Christ is manifested. In the meantime, this perceptive faculty, or “sixth sense” if you will, must be trained by the intellect, subjected to the Will and activity of God, which is Grace. St. Maximos the Confessor puts it this way: “Cleanse your intellect from anger, rancour and shameful thoughts, and you will be able to perceive the indwelling of Christ. [] He who always concentrates on the inner life becomes restrained, long-suffering, kind and humble. He will also be able to contemplate, theologize and pray. That is what St. Paul meant when he said: ‘Walk in the Spirit’ (Gal. 5:16).”

Everything that has living existence is related to spirit, that is, it has a spiritual dimension. Therefore, everything has meaning and nothing happens without a reason.

Hearing the voice of a deceased loved one may in fact be a comfort and consolation allowed by God (for His own reasons) to those who lovingly grieve as well as an affirmation of Christ’s words that,  “God is not a god of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him” (Luke 20:38). But we should always exercise great discernment and discrimination when experiencing spiritual phenomena, as the Adversary and his minions are ever and always seeking to deceive, mislead and delude. If our “sixth sense” is trained and controlled by humility and dispassion we will gain an awareness of God’s Love and Goodness, in proportion to our faith and God’s Grace active within us:

“If, as St. Paul says, Christ dwells in our hearts through faith (Eph. 3:17), and all the treasures of wisdom and spiritual knowledge are hidden in Him (Col.2:3), then all the treasures of wisdom and spiritual knowledge are hidden in our hearts. They are revealed to the heart in proportion to our purification by means of the Commandments. This is the treasure hidden in the field of your heart (Matt.13:44), which you have not yet found because of your laziness. Had you found it, you would have sold everything and bought that field. But now you have abandoned that field and give all your attention to the land nearby, where there is nothing but thorns and thistles. It is for this reason that the Saviour says, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’ (Matt.5:8): for He is hidden in the hearts of those who believe in Him. They shall see Him and the riches that are in Him when they have purified themselves through love and self-control; and the greater their purity, the more they will see.” – St. Maximos the Confessor.

Let’s stop giving our attention to the land of thorns and thistles and false “supernaturals” and instead concentrate on purifying our sense of awareness – our heart – for God is “… everywhere present and filling all things” and He pours forth upon us His Love, His Beauty, His Goodness, His Mercy, at every time and in every season.

+ + +

A Lenten State of Mind

I share this treatise from St. Isaac the Syrian as  a help in preparing our hearts and minds for the journey through Lent.

Let yourself be persecuted, but do not persecute others.

Be crucified, but do not crucify others.

Be slandered, but do not slander others.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep: such is the sign of purity.

Suffer with the sick.

Be afflicted with sinners.

Exult with those who repent.

Be the friend of all, but in your spirit remain alone.

Be a partaker of the sufferings of all, but keep your body distant from all.

Rebuke no one, revile no one, not even those who live very wickedly.

Spread your cloak over those who fall into sin, each and every one, and shield them.

And if you cannot take the fault on yourself and accept punishment in their place, do not destroy their character.

What is a merciful heart? It is a heart on fire for the whole of creation, for humanity, for the birds, for the animals, for demons, and for all that exists. By the recollection of them the eyes of a merciful person pour forth tears in abundance. By the strong and vehement mercy that grips such a person’s heart, and by such great compassion, the heart is humbled and one cannot bear to hear or to see any injury or slight sorrow in any in creation. For this reason, such a person offers up tearful prayer continually even for irrational beasts, for the enemies of the truth, and for those who harm her or him, that they be protected and receive mercy. And in like manner such a person prays for the family of reptiles because of the great compassion that burns without measure in a heart that is in the likeness of God.

The person who is genuinely charitable not only gives charity out of his own possessions, but gladly tolerates injustice from others and forgives them. Whoever lays down his soul for his brother acts generously, rather than the person who demonstrates his generosity by his gifts.

God is not One who requites evil, but who sets evil right.

Paradise is the love of God, wherein is the enjoyment of all blessedness.

The person who lives in love reaps the fruit of life from God, and while yet in this world, even now breathes the air of the resurrection.

In love did God bring the world into existence; in love is God going to bring it to that wondrous transformed state, and in love will the world be swallowed up in the great mystery of the One who has performed all these things; in love will the whole course of the governance of creation be finally comprised.

Question: When is a person sure of having arrived at purity?

Answer: When that person considers all human beings are good, and no created thing appears impure or defiled. Then a person is truly pure in heart.

Love is sweeter than life.

Sweeter still, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb is the awareness of God whence love is born.

Love is not loath to accept the hardest of deaths for those it loves.

Love is the child of knowledge.

Lord, fill my heart with eternal life.

As for me I say that those who are tormented in hell are tormented by the invasion of love. What is there more bitter and violent than the pains of love? Those who feel they have sinned against love bear in themselves a damnation much heavier than the most dreaded punishments. The suffering with which sinning against love afflicts the heart is more keenly felt than any other torment. It is absurd to assume that the sinners in hell are deprived of God’s love. Love is offered impartially. But by its very power it acts in two ways. It torments sinners, as happens here on earth when we are tormented by the presence of a friend to whom we have been unfaithful. And it gives joy to those who have been faithful.

That is what the torment of hell is in my opinion: remorse. But love inebriates the souls of the sons and daughters of heaven by its delectability.

If zeal had been appropriate for putting humanity right, why did God the Word clothe himself in the body, using gentleness and humility in order to bring the world back to his Father?

Sin is the fruit of free will. There was a time when sin did not exist, and there will be a time when it will not exist.

God’s recompense to sinners is that, instead of a just recompense, God rewards them with resurrection.

O wonder! The Creator clothed in a human being enters the house of tax collectors and prostitutes. Thus the entire universe, through the beauty of the sight of him, was drawn by his love to the single confession of God, the Lord of all.

“Will God, if I ask, forgive me these things by which I am pained and by whose memory I am tormented, things by which, though I abhor them, I go on backsliding? Yet after they have taken place the pain they give me is even greater than that of a scorpion’s sting. Though I abhor them, I am still in the middle of them, and when I repent of them with suffering I wretchedly return to them again.”

This is how many God-fearing people think, people who foster virtue and are pricked with the suffering of compunction, who mourn over their sin; They live between sin and repentance all the time. Let us not be in doubt, O fellow humanity, concerning the hope of our salvation, seeing that the One who bore sufferings for our sakes is very concerned about our salvation; God’s mercifulness is far more extensive than we can conceive, God’s grace is greater than what we ask for.

When we find love, we partake of heavenly bread and are made strong without labor and toil. The heavenly bread is Christ, who came down from heaven and gave life to the world. This is the nourishment of angels. The person who has found love eats and drinks Christ every day and every hour and is thereby made immortal. …When we hear Jesus say, “Ye shall eat and drink at the table of my kingdom,” what do we suppose we shall eat, if not love? Love, rather than food and drink, is sufficient to nourish a person. This is the wine “which maketh glad the heart.” Blessed is the one who partakes of this wine! Licentious people have drunk this wine and become chaste; sinners have drunk it and have forgotten the pathways of stumbling; drunkards have drunk this wine and become fasters; the rich have drunk it and desired poverty, the poor have drunk it and been enriched with hope; the sick have drunk it and become strong; the unlearned have taken it and become wise.

Repentance is given us as grace after grace, for repentance is a second regeneration by God. That of which we have received an earnest by baptism, we receive as a gift by means of repentance. Repentance is the door of mercy, opened to those who seek it. By this door we enter into the mercy of God, and apart from this entrance we shall not find mercy.

Blessed is God who uses corporeal objects continually to draw us close in a symbolic way to a knowledge of God’s invisible nature. O name of Jesus, key to all gifts, open up for me the great door to your treasure-house, that I may enter and praise you with the praise that comes from the heart.

O my Hope, pour into my heart the inebriation that consists in the hope of you. O Jesus Christ, the resurrection and light of all worlds, place upon my soul’s head the crown of knowledge of you; open before me all of a sudden the door of mercies, cause the rays of your grace to shine out in my heart.

O Christ, who are covered with light as though with a garment, who for my sake stood naked in front of Pilate, clothe me with that might which you caused to overshadow the saints, whereby they conquered this world of struggle. May your Divinity, Lord, take pleasure in me, and lead me above the world to be with you.
I give praise to your holy Nature, Lord, for you have made my nature a sanctuary for your hiddenness and a tabernacle for your holy mysteries, a place where you can dwell, and a holy temple for your Divinity.

Adapted from Met. Hilarion Alfeyev’s The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian 200(Cistercian Studies 175), Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications,2000.