Fourth Sunday After Epiphany
Intent: The Overcoming of Sorrow
Gnostics are realistic about human suffering. It happens, and we recognize the source of it in the nature of an ever changing cosmos. We also acknowledge it in the impermanence of our natural lives.
This sorrow is a logical result of our emanated separation from the Divine source of all things. This is the cosmic melancholy which is a important part of the Gnostic path and which leads us to connect with what is above and beyond this world. This sort of sorrow is existential and unavoidable. But we are truly fortunate that there is a solution to it. It is the path of Gnosis itself and the descending grace it activates. The salvific power of the Aeon Christ the repairer, and our inner desire for that salvation and unification with the Godhead.
But then there is a more human sorrow isn’t there? One which is completely avoidable. It is all the sorrow we cause ourselves and others through ignorance, fear, egotism and insecurities. The sorrow we cause when we stop abiding in the supreme confidence of our Divine Natures. This sorrow also fortunately has a solution and which is intimately linked to the first: compassion and love.
We must have the courage to recognize that we are the cause of most of our daily sorrows. But sometimes we prefer to live in our sorrow because we are used to it and it is something we know. But we must also remember that when we do this we are only hurting ourselves. Change is difficult, this is true, but change is also a great opportunity. The fact is that the world is made of unavoidable suffering because as a species and as individuals we choose suffering over happiness. This world over the other. We can and must chose to do things differently; we must chose to ever live in the Divine Presence here and now. As the Gospel of Phillip reading for today reminds us:
‘Ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your hearts shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. Hitherto have you asked nothing in My Name; ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.’
Let us therefore pray as One Gnostic Community and One Universal Gnostic Church that we may all remember in times of sorrow to call upon His Holy Name and His Holy Presence to fill us completely with Joy and with a Holy Confidence in our Divine Natures; and by doing so remember to love one another as the Aeon Christ loves us. For when we are fully in His daily Presence we will suffer not, nor cause others to suffer from the many vicissitudes caused by our attachment to the things of this lower world. Amen.
This sorrow is a logical result of our emanated separation from the Divine source of all things. This is the cosmic melancholy which is a important part of the Gnostic path and which leads us to connect with what is above and beyond this world. This sort of sorrow is existential and unavoidable. But we are truly fortunate that there is a solution to it. It is the path of Gnosis itself and the descending grace it activates. The salvific power of the Aeon Christ the repairer, and our inner desire for that salvation and unification with the Godhead.
But then there is a more human sorrow isn’t there? One which is completely avoidable. It is all the sorrow we cause ourselves and others through ignorance, fear, egotism and insecurities. The sorrow we cause when we stop abiding in the supreme confidence of our Divine Natures. This sorrow also fortunately has a solution and which is intimately linked to the first: compassion and love.
We must have the courage to recognize that we are the cause of most of our daily sorrows. But sometimes we prefer to live in our sorrow because we are used to it and it is something we know. But we must also remember that when we do this we are only hurting ourselves. Change is difficult, this is true, but change is also a great opportunity. The fact is that the world is made of unavoidable suffering because as a species and as individuals we choose suffering over happiness. This world over the other. We can and must chose to do things differently; we must chose to ever live in the Divine Presence here and now. As the Gospel of Phillip reading for today reminds us:
‘Ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your hearts shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. Hitherto have you asked nothing in My Name; ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.’
Let us therefore pray as One Gnostic Community and One Universal Gnostic Church that we may all remember in times of sorrow to call upon His Holy Name and His Holy Presence to fill us completely with Joy and with a Holy Confidence in our Divine Natures; and by doing so remember to love one another as the Aeon Christ loves us. For when we are fully in His daily Presence we will suffer not, nor cause others to suffer from the many vicissitudes caused by our attachment to the things of this lower world. Amen.