Second Sunday After Epiphany
Intent: Desire for Liberation
And the Aeon Christ said through Jesus : “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Matthew 7:7–8
This passage is usually rightfully interpreted to emphasize the great mercy of God. His accessibility to us through Christ. But perhaps we forget that this passage also contains the words: knock, ask and seek. Meaning that if we make an effort to reach the Divine It will answer in kind. All this seeking asking and knocking begins with a form of desire. That is an intense desire for unity with God which is the beginning of our salvation and of our ultimate liberation.
This was the essential message of the teachings of the Illuminated Master Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin. “In his Man: His Nature & Ministry” he taught us that:
“…you have to see whether you have purged your being from all those secondary defilements which we daily bring upon ourselves since the fall; or, at least, whether you feel an ardent desire to cast them from you at any price whatsoever, and revive that life within you which was extinguished by the first crime, without which you can be neither God's servant nor the world’s comfort.” (trans. Edward B. Penny)
So the desire of the “person of desire” is twofold. It includes an ardent desire to get rid of everything which separates us from the Divine, and an ardent desire to unite with It. But this desire is different than that of the passions and of the body, for it is a desire directed by will and sustained by gnosis and strengthened by grace.
But we must go further than this and realize that on the paths that each of us tread toward God the object of our desire is also ultimately the cause of our desire. This desire for Divine Unity within us is God. As the Kabbalah teaches us God loves and knows Himself through us. So it is by allowing His Holy Desire to consume us totally that we can truly participate in the repairing of the world (Tikkun) and in fulfilling His plan for the Aeons.
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” (Luke 10:27)
Fulfilling this commandment is the goal of our lives and I can think of no greater example for us in the fulfillment of this Grand Love than the Love that the Aeon Christ showed toward us when he incarnated as Jesus. Among the Apostles this love was also exemplified by : St. John the Evangelist, the Beloved of Christ, and Saint Mary Magdalene, the Consort of our Lord; two very important Saints in the Gnostic tradition.
Let us therefore as One Gnostic Community and One Universal Gnostic Church, pray that we may be filled with His Holy Desire like our holy exemplars St. John the Evangelist and St. Mary Magdalen were. Let us pray that this desire may consume us so fully with its Holy Fire that we may be purified from all secondary defilements which separate us from the Divine; and may the first commandment be fulfilled through us to the greater glory of God and to the comfort of this world. Amen.
This passage is usually rightfully interpreted to emphasize the great mercy of God. His accessibility to us through Christ. But perhaps we forget that this passage also contains the words: knock, ask and seek. Meaning that if we make an effort to reach the Divine It will answer in kind. All this seeking asking and knocking begins with a form of desire. That is an intense desire for unity with God which is the beginning of our salvation and of our ultimate liberation.
This was the essential message of the teachings of the Illuminated Master Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin. “In his Man: His Nature & Ministry” he taught us that:
“…you have to see whether you have purged your being from all those secondary defilements which we daily bring upon ourselves since the fall; or, at least, whether you feel an ardent desire to cast them from you at any price whatsoever, and revive that life within you which was extinguished by the first crime, without which you can be neither God's servant nor the world’s comfort.” (trans. Edward B. Penny)
So the desire of the “person of desire” is twofold. It includes an ardent desire to get rid of everything which separates us from the Divine, and an ardent desire to unite with It. But this desire is different than that of the passions and of the body, for it is a desire directed by will and sustained by gnosis and strengthened by grace.
But we must go further than this and realize that on the paths that each of us tread toward God the object of our desire is also ultimately the cause of our desire. This desire for Divine Unity within us is God. As the Kabbalah teaches us God loves and knows Himself through us. So it is by allowing His Holy Desire to consume us totally that we can truly participate in the repairing of the world (Tikkun) and in fulfilling His plan for the Aeons.
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” (Luke 10:27)
Fulfilling this commandment is the goal of our lives and I can think of no greater example for us in the fulfillment of this Grand Love than the Love that the Aeon Christ showed toward us when he incarnated as Jesus. Among the Apostles this love was also exemplified by : St. John the Evangelist, the Beloved of Christ, and Saint Mary Magdalene, the Consort of our Lord; two very important Saints in the Gnostic tradition.
Let us therefore as One Gnostic Community and One Universal Gnostic Church, pray that we may be filled with His Holy Desire like our holy exemplars St. John the Evangelist and St. Mary Magdalen were. Let us pray that this desire may consume us so fully with its Holy Fire that we may be purified from all secondary defilements which separate us from the Divine; and may the first commandment be fulfilled through us to the greater glory of God and to the comfort of this world. Amen.