ALMIGHTY

by Rodney Collin

To return to the intuitive source of knowledge is indispensable. Religion is drowning in a sea of dialectics. For most men who consider themselves cultured it died a long time ago. Its only salvation lies in a return to the security of essential intellection, of contemplative reason, of love, and of honest and sincere action.

When by discursive reasoning we reduce the furniture on which we rest to particles separated by empty space, its reality and effectiveness disappear; in the same way God and the Spirit disappear -precisely because they are real and effective- when we try to seize ,them in the net of inductive conceptualism.

Reality cannot be demonstrated by means of discursive reasoning. Precisely only the purely ideal, in the sense of the abstract disconnected with reality -that is, the unreal, that which lacks effectiveness- is all that can be demonstrated by knowledge derived from inference and conclusion. For this reason it is possible to demonstrate the theorem of Pythagoras because the ideal triangles and angles of that theorem are pure abstractions of the mind and have no existence or reality for us. One paradoxical demonstration of the unreality of an entity is precisely its demonstrability.

To try to demonstrate the reality of God is to reduce Him to a mere intellectual possibility, that is, to non-existence. And if apart from this one tries to demonstrate His existence, it is as if one were trying to reduce Him to double non-existence. It is well to remember that God does not exist in the sense of an exterior object that establishes or maintains itself outwardly. God is the Being Who is inside the inside, and ‘to be', refers to being "one, eternal and indivisible".

The murderers of God have been His false defenders. Let us rise against false intellectual pride.

Reality and effectiveness are degrees of endeavour and not of understanding (1). The presence of a wall is not demonstrated by the mind but by the calamity overtaking him who tries to deny it.

The sculptor knows of the presence of his marble because of the help it gives him and the resistance it offers to his desire to realize the idea of the statue.

Man knows of the presence of his Divine Maker because of the help He bestows on him when he searches for good, and because of the resistance with which he is opposed when he wanders in search of evil.

And do you know how we know that God is almighty?

By simply recognizing, once we have acquired control of will, that we have never been forsaken by Him; not even in those moments when we most resembled mineral stone. The factual -not dialectic proof is that we were able to find the way back.

Even when asleep and inert we were guided by God.

Only thus were we able to awaken longing,

Gather our strength,

And create will.

Because God is almighty

And governs all.

And leaves us no more freedom than to be honest or dishonest, sincere or insincere, true or false.

Everything is predetermined.

Even our steps?

Yes. (2)

Only the direction of the light of our consciousness is not predetermined.

With our consciousness We can look either upwards or downwards.

Because God is almighty.

(1) Max Scheller.

(2) Except when the 'miracle' described later occurs.

And good and evil depend only on the direction in which our consciousness is focussed.

If we act with bad intention we are acting in view of the bad, and are dishonest; if we act with good intention we are acting in virtue of the good and are honest.

We are sincere when we express our intentions openly; insincere when we conceal them.

We are truthful when we say only what we know; false when we claim to know what we do not know.

Do you really understand what this means?

Do you know, for instance, that you can lie by silence?

Do you know that alone, in the desert, you are able to lie?

Do you know what it means to have your steps predetermined and to have nevertheless the possibility of choosing between good and evil?

Who told us?

Where did we find it?

How did we see it?

O God, give it to us that we may give!

Our mind is weak and we have forgotten it.

Smite us with your justice.

It is good to pursue that which is real. It is bad to pursue that which is false, does not exist, is empty and is dead.

Let the dead bury their dead.

This is the rule of the living.

Stern rule; rule of wood in cross; rule for those who must salt the earth. Rule for the preachers of harmony.

And for the others?

Love and understanding.

Thank You, Almighty.

We are surrounded by falseness; we live among corpses.

We search for truth; we stumble over lies.

It is good to stumble over lies searching for truth.

It is bad to encounter truth and not feel it because we are searching for lies.

It is bad for the wise to pursue justice, for justice is a dead idea.

But if the ignorant pursue it, believing in it, they may encounter kindness on their way.

And meantime it is useless to preach the distinction between the living and the dead to those who are in agony.

It is useless, cruel and much more.

It is useful to teach love, because with love, even looking for falseness, truth can be found.

Do you understand now how it is that we are free in spite of our chains?

Only the dead and the false are bound by chains. Nothing can prevent one death from following another, No one can prevent a leaf from falling from a tree when it is dry, and another leaf from budding in due time.

The blind man to whom we gave some coins was destined to receive them, and we were destined to give them.

But the light of kindness that was kindled in the blind man's soul on receiving the love with which we gave them is not written in any book of destiny. Our will is completely free to grant this light according to its own choice.

Now we will tell you what more we have learned about the riddle of the moral sphinx.

All our steps are predetermined, except when love is allowed to perform miracles.

Normally every day is the same as the preceding one. Today we do the same as we did yesterday, with very few variations. At least the moral quality of our actions today is the same as of yesterday. What we do today is determined by what we did yesterday. Many things are already predetermined by what we did some years ago.

Yesterday we wronged without noticing it; today we wrong again without noticing it. Yesterday we stinted some coins to a beggar; today we stint them to someone else. And from today it is determined that next year we will continue to do the same. The fundamental theme of the tune of our conduct is always the same, day after day.

While the miracle does not occur.

Not many occur; they are not lavished on us, but they do occur.

Miracles on a minor scale transform to a greater or less degree the fundamental theme of every man's conduct, at certain stages of his life- for instance, in the transition periods between childhood and puberty, between puberty and youth, between the latter and maturity, and between maturity and old age. We are not aware of them, sometimes because these transformations are very slight, or more or less gradual, or because they happen to all men.

But eventually greater miracles may also happen to us that fundamentally alter the moral essence of our behaviour.

These are the miracles of love. They do not happen every day. It is not in our power to alter the course of destiny at every step. If someone is selfish and all his acts bear the stamp of selfishness we cannot expect that two or three times a month he should act with real generosity and disinterestedness, in manifest contrast to the fundamental nature of his other actions. But if the same man is awake, and while his conscience is vigilant he receives a gift of love, this gift may perform the miracle of changing decisively the future course of all his acts.

Such is the immense importance of love.

If we receive it with good will, it may cleanse our hearts of all their impurity and turn us into other springs of harmony.

The childish boast that we are free to do, or not do, whatever we like, is not true. Those who assert this do not know the omnipotence of God. Power over destiny does not belong to man, but to God.

Our conduct always follows the same channel. We always move along the circumference of a circle, and we cannot diverge from it. We are slaves bound to the wheel of destiny. In this the Moslems are right. But from time to time, at certain moments of life -limited, but of great value- God offers us the opportunity of changing the position of the wheel's axis, We shall never leave the wheel, but sometimes we are able to transform it and make it different.

We are not gods, and we cannot change our fate at every step, but it is so arranged that two or three times in our lives we have the possibility of changing its course fundamentally.

It is enough that we be vigilant and awake for love to strengthen our will.

"Ask and it shall be given unto you.”

The omnipotence of God is infinite for all those who ask with their whole heart.

"The Kiss of Love" is the title of the story that tells of the creation of our will.

Everything was different after that kiss.

That which formerly compelled us began to pass us by, leaving us in a surprising immobility.

Only the kiss was burning in our hands.

The little lights that formerly dazzled us continued to shine, but we no longer seemed to see them.

The warmth of the kiss burned us.

And since then we live only by its virtue.

Before, our arms were the sails of a windmill and had no longing to fly.

Our legs were limbs that only jerked to the beat of a metronome.

Our senses were in constant contention, because their desires were belligerent.

Today we only feel the breath, the music and the call of that kiss.

And our life includes only two stages: the darkness of what was before and the splendour which is after.

Often we fall asleep and seem to lose the feeling of that which sustains us.

Then we are distressed. Again we see the former brilliancy. Again we hear the old 'tic-toc'. Once more we perceive the conflicting calls of our senses. But everything that formerly gave the false warmth of feverish movement, today only produce the coldness of anguish and helplessness.

When we do not feel the kiss, all that formerly was pleasant fills us with dismay.

Such is the virtue of the kiss of love that once received in our hands.

Since that moment we also know how to kiss.

And we learned that love transforms all who are awake.

And that all who once have felt the kiss of love have the duty to give it to those who have not yet received it.

We had no will.

Our soul was in agony.

Then we were told very simply: “Yes you have will.” And we were kissed with the kiss of love on our hands.

Since than we have will.

And our soul is invigorated.

Now do you know how the will that leads us to God is created?