Continuing with the subject of the intrinsic self-transcendence of the person, Clarke writes of how "all existing beings tend to reach beyond themselves and to form larger unities."
However, only personal being can do so consciously and freely, or with intelligence and will. It is in this latter sense that "we see clearly the full meaning of the whole restless movement of the cosmos," i.e., where it's been and where it's headed, Alpha and Omega.
Speaking of Whom, note that prior to any message from Jesus is the message of Jesus; Jesus himself is the message he brings, and for good reason, since the message is the person as such, and the entire person must be redeemed -- or in the words of Gregory Naziazen, What has not been assumed has not been healed. Therefore, it would appear that the Incarnation touches on the health of the entire cosmos.
Which is either the best or craziest idea ever. If it's the former, then,
as images of God, we too must imitate in our own way the ecstatic, outgoing self-sharing of God as Infinite Good. Personal development in a created person is to become more and more like God.
Okay. Like how?
What I am talking about is a radical decentering of consciousness from self to God.... We are drawn out of ourselves, called now to focus on the Great Center beyond us -- also within us, of course -- to take as our own center the One Center and Source of the whole universe...
In the bʘʘk I called it the Great Attractor, but the meaning is the same; likewise, I referred to the two potential centers (or centers of potential) in man as (•) and (¶); the former is oriented to the World, the latter to O, or Celestial Central.
Between (¶) and O is the Cosmic Telovator, or the nonlocal "place" where self-transcendence occurs. But it's really just a space-age name for old Jacob's ladder.
I prefer telovator, because it is a more dynamic image than ladder. For this is the very dynamo behind the "ecstatic decentering movement" alluded to above:
It is the pull of the Infinite Good, drawing the whole person as finite spirit toward the total fulfillment it longs for, at first implicitly, finally more explicitly....
This is the deep finality built into the very nature of every finite being as spirit, endowed with intellect and will, which can be satisfied only by the total plenitude of being as true (intelligible), good, and beautiful.
In other words, O or bust! Nothing short of this union will suffice.
Now, if persons are the telos of cosmic development, then the Trinity is the telos of the person, wherein its immanent dynamic is revealed to be a circular movement or procession
from the Father to the Son to the Holy Spirit, then back again through the Son to the Father, in an intense, timeless, always completed yet always going on, ecstasy of intercommunion.
Sure would be nice to somehow be grafted onto this timeless intersubjectivity. I have an idea -- it's crazy but it just might work!
5 comments:
I prefer telovator, because it is a more dynamic image than ladder.
Agreed, it indicates that while man certainly gets a lift, the heaviest work is being done by Somebody stronger.
Speaking of Whom, note that prior to any message from Jesus is the message of Jesus; Jesus himself is the message he brings,...
The above, I think, dovetails perfectly with - "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning."
And to accentuate the point, "The Word became flesh and dwelt for awhile among us."
How fortunate, He left us instructions on how to find and board the telovator.
I've begun re-reading Ratzinger's Jesus trilogy, and this idea is already all over the place. For example, Abraham's "whole life points forward, it is a dynamic of walking along the path of what is to come.... Thus the whole history, beginning with Abraham and leading to Jesus, is open toward universality.... this movement toward the whole is present from the beginning," etc.
I've not read Ratzinger's trilogy, but Kass' "The Beginning of Wisdom" kindled similar thinking on my part. Glad you mentioned him in some of your earlier posts.
i may be a tad slow on the uptake, but this post is very fitting for Ascension Thursday.
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