Secret Ecstasy

"We behold that which we are, and are that which we behold" -  Meister Eckhart

When God takes us into that secret chamber of His heart, the Holy of Holies, the sweetness of mystical communion, we normally think of rapturous ecstasy, a hidden treasure of incalculable sweetness, radiant light and heavenly bliss and peace.  What we sometimes forget is God's presence is also like a stormy sea.  A stormy sea of Divine Love.  The Song of Songs in Holy Scripture is one of the most beautiful descriptions of this union of the human soul with God.

In the midst of a sweet calm in a storm are divine turnings or changes.  There is a turn from outward things to interior and inner promptings of the Spirit of God with your spirit.  There is a turning from the visible to the invisible.  There is a turning from the mind to the heart which in turns renews the mind.  Sometimes this rapture of the body is so violent or heavy that one loses all strength in the body even though one's mind is perfectly aware of everything that is going on.  There is a kind of physical immobility as if one is being lifted up to a higher reality.  The power of physical movement may be lost but one now moves from thirsting for God to entering into God.  All earthly delight is absorbed into heavenly glory.

Consumed in the furnace of God's presence we abandon everything for God.  This is the mystery of love consummated.  This is what ancient Christians referred to as deification where one becomes one with God and finally enters into their true being which they were created for in eternity.  It is the place of finding home where the divided self is finally at rest in the undivided self of the Divine.  Although one is perfectly as ease and safe in God, there is nothing safe about God.  One time you may experience perfect joy and another time you are weeping uncontrollably or feel like you are going to die.  One never knows where the winds of God's stormy love will take you.  And when one rises up, its with a renewed vision and purpose.  A purpose no smaller than embracing the whole world and all creatures great and small with God's infinite love.