Thursday, May 25, 2017

Ascension Thursday

Bernadette Roberts

"Perhaps the best explanation for death is summed up in the words “See God and die”, which means the sheer brilliance of God overwhelms the capacity to see and be in this world anymore. If earthly and heavenly life were identical there would be no reason or explanation for death, certainly it would be a loss and not a gain for man. The only purpose for death, then, is because heaven (Beatific Vision) is incompatible with life in this world.

"While Christ said the Kingdom of God is within us – God’s presence in all of us – he also said his Kingdom was NOT of this world, meaning, God is not the world or of this world, which is also why, in his Ascension, Christ visibly disappeared. There is then no perfect seeing, knowing or possessing God in this world, for such is not its created nature, and without a radical, ontological transformation, nothing would be gained by death. If someone could ‘openly’ see God as He is – could bear the vision – and then have to turn back and look at the world, he would think he was looking at hell – such at least is the disparity between heavenly and earthly life."

Forcing the Fit 
Chapter: Comments on Jim Marion's Putting on the Mind of Christ

2 comments:

  1. I wonder whether another way of saying what "See God and die," means is that the realization of God's reality within us kills the egoic self. When the happy day arrives that I realize that the essence of me is not Peter but Christ in me and I in Christ, Peter will be toast. I pray for this. Peter

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    1. It certainly can be said that a true glimpse of God breaks through and is the end of ego, leading to the state of union which making clear our oneness with God. But according to Bernadette, Eckhart and unknown others, that is a step on the way to the full and final 'death'of self. Our work now is cust out for us; for the rest, we must wait and see...

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