Order Council
Summer 1973
The meaning of life is to behold the mystery in everything--or
better put, in relations to things. This means beholding the relation
to the mystery in every relationship. And since I am my relations
and the absolute relation is the "final" real self and
is the relation to the mystery, to behold that relation is to
be aware of the self. Human fulfillment is this awareness of the
self. To know mystery is to know self and vice versa. But there
is more. This mystery relation is never independent. It is present
only in relations of temporality. (This is the ensoi.) Moreover,
as the mystery appears in the temporal, the temporal is expanded
ultimately--so that the specific relation becomes relation to
all of creation. So that transparency and universality in the
sense of relation to all, are inseparable. The "pour soi"
is my freedom which is the relation to the mystery but this freedom
I am before the foundation of the world is expended but on nothing
less than all that is. To be absolutely free is to be absolutely
committed. This is the transparency in any given situation. This
is to behold the mystery relation which is the self I am. The
extinction of self, the resignation, submission, annihilation
of self is the cruciform decision to give yourself on behalf of
all. This is obedience to, the vision of, the love of being, mystery,
God.
This and this alone is human fulfillment. It hold
together Mystery-world-self. The fruit of this or better the interior
qualities of transparency are: first, enlightenment or certitude
in the midst of absolute nothingness; second, peace or Problemlessness
in the midst of bearing the indescribably problems of the world;
third, rapture or joyfulness in the midst of the tragedy of life
and fourth, immortality or endlessness in the midst of absolute
contingency. (Herein is the discovery of the blind spot of all
mysticism: the world in the gap between self and god. This underscores
the incarnation and the cruciform principle. It is applying the
insight "in but not of." It centers on service, mission,
love of man.)
In spelling this out we have to consider: 1. The
journey to the state; 2. The concept of union; 3. The delineating
qualities; 4. The ideal of practices. All of this is from the
perspective of the various insights that define our context, such
as the 12 listed on page 5. One of the crucial insights in he
doctrine of transparency is the "indicative of humanness."
Because this is the indicative of humanness (what humanness is
all about) one who is not it, has an invisible sense of emptiness,
he is bewilderingly homesick. This is the ground of the feeling
of being lost, things are askew and the like. It is a sense that
the real is not here, that it is somehow hidden, and I am hence
not quite myself. The first step on the journey toward Fulfillment
is the happening that enables us to come to terms with this. That
is with our lostness. And this involves the appearance of the
other--the nothing--the Mystery. And the awareness that this is
our foundational and defining relation. This happening is happened
by our decision to be our radical relation (indicative) that is
our relation to the mystery beyond yet addressing us in every
happening.
The second step on the journey is the expenditure
of this self. This is not renunciation but expenditure. It is
not annihilation but cruciformity. And in this is our fulfillment.
How these two phases relate to each other relative to time is
difficult. In the first instance, time - has no meaning here at
all. The two stages are two sides of the same coin. They can happen
simultaneously. And in one sense neither has really occurred unless
both have. Still for some there may be an interval of some time
elapse between them. (All of this is crudely spelled out in my
Summer '70 talk on "Being on the Journey to the Center."
) It's like when the second phase is delayed the first somehow
compensates for it. Anyway, the second begins with the awareness
that: 1) Your temporality (en soi) is all of creation plus the
fact that you must relate to all of creation. 2) That relation
to the transparent mystery is only present in the temporal and
in every temporality. The nothingness is everywhere in everything.
3) That you emerged from the universe, creation, humanity (not
family, race, nation, etc. ) and that you belong to the all. 4)
That history is created, not fated, and that this journey of man
is your journey and hence you are responsible for this journey
in every clime and every age. 5) That your self (K-D-B) is all
of you and that this burden of the all is your burden and that
it must consume all of you.
This means that you become aware of your all-ness,
your integrity, on the radical level. It is the expenditure of
your freedom, the submission of your selfhood to involvement.
It is cruciformity--the giving of your all. Your denying yourself
for the sake of all. It is death. A dark night. It is blindness,
aridity, and hell.
Herein is a man's integrity defined. He knows what
is required, not from the outside, but from within. Once this
has happened--a decision must be made. The decision is unavoidable
for this is what radical humanness is. So one either says yes
and dies or he becomes a zombie-either malignant or benign. If
he says Yes and embraces his unlimited humanness then he is the
man. He is humanly fulfilled. As described above, he experiences
certitude, peace and joy and endlessness. He lives his unlife
in service of humanity. There are no external absolutes here.
No measuring sticks. One is left in the life long pain of interiorly
deciding again and again and again. There are no external signs-such
as rags or riches. There is the eternal re-occurrence of one's
freedom, of the mystery and the needs of the world. All of this
is what we mean by the love of God--our love for God. Event one
is God's love for us which enables this second event--our love
for God. The love of God then is: 1) assuming the burden of the
world, 2) giving ourselves entirely in the process, and 3) accepting
this given as our full and overflowing fulfillment. This is the
losing of the self in God. Again, this is internal. There are
no external criteria. Success is here an irrelevant term. Yet
this is not subjectivity. This internality is utter objectivity.
It is what humanness is all about. There is no mortifying the
flesh. It is investment of flesh and the creating of other flesh.
It is detached engagement with the passion of willing one thing.
One is at this moment aware of the power of agape pulsing through
him. He is aware of his sharing in being itself (which is the
ground of the state of endlessness). He is aware of being in harmony
with all creation. He is a fig tree going about being a fig tree,
as he was made and called to be.
We have been dealing with Transparency. The transparent
fulfillment. The transparent integrity. The transparent love.
Just transparent or Jesus love is not a matter of pleasant affirming
feelings toward another. Nor is it primarily a relation to an
individual. This love is a love for all manifest in a particular
act. This love is an expression of a total expenditure of being
in a particular act. This love is an expression of my total fulfillment.
It is me. It is my being.
Second Transparency of Jesus integrity is not a matter
of being faithful to some rule or image superimposed. It is a
primal integrity which I myself define in each situation relative
to loyalty to the race of man or to creation. It is the beyond
of integrity. It is loyalty to being human--to the relationship
to the Mystery that defines me. It is my wholeness, or the whole
expenditure of my wholeness--my one life on behalf of humanity
or creation. Integrity is the over-watching of my death. Again
this is a matter of spirit--between God and myself. No other can
live, judge, though he can and must be an ever occurring judgment
upon me. Thirdly, this love is transparent or Jesus fulfillment.
Here the sheer nature of indicative reveals itself. To be sure
I have received my life--decided it, as it is in the midst of
tragedy, failure' brokenness and all, to be my given, my fulfillment.
Yet there comes-not as consequences but as essential ingredients--certitude,
bliss, and eternality. It's as if I choose these and they are
l-here. My embracement enables the invisible to be present. When
I choose my life as cruciform service, there is the deliverance
of certitude, ecstasy, and endlessness. These are not additions,
not rewards, not special graces. They are the way things are,
were, and ever shall be.
The sum of it all is to be found in witnesses from
the past. It is perfect love, sinlessness, and blessing. It is
love, righteousness, and peace. It is perfection, outward, inward,
and forever. It is beatitude--vision, perfection, and happiness.
It is the running over cup right in the midst of this tragic life
and vale of tears. It is the double XX. The glory of the Mystery,
the divine presence. These, of course, need careful spelling out.
The above is but a rough outline of the direction. If you take
the categories of love, virtues, and bliss, then you must see
these as interdependent dynamics. Each related to the other plus
each related to the whole. The whole is love of God. The love
of God then is each of the dynamics and their inter-relation.
First, the love of God is universal benevolence or the love of
the world in God and the love of God in the world. Secondly, the
love of God is radical integrity, or the love of self or the love
of self in God and the love of God in the self. Third, the love
of God is Endless Fulfillment, or the love of God in God or the
love of God in God and the love of God in God. This last is the
all in all-certitude, bliss, immortality, (the state of endlessness).
All of this has to do with the now in which the past and the future
exist. This is what state of being mean. To love God then finally
is at-home-ness, certitude, at-home-ness peace, it is at-home-ness
forever.
All of this has to do with the other world--the world
of transparency. That world in this world, our time: is the Age
of Resurgence. Our proclamation is the Mode of transparency. This
is not a new structure, a new faith, denomination, church or religion.
It is a mode of living, a religious mode to exist in the midst
of established religion for the sake of revitalizing it. The mode
of transparency has to do with the happenings or the events; one
and two (described above). It has to do with the internal qualities
(4 or 16 or 64 on Other World chart). It has to do with practical
exercises (as in the 144's). It has to do with missional engagement
or historical roles (such, as the religious and the work). It
has to do with social forms (the dynamical structures of the movement).
It has to do with the context of the post-modern world view. And
primarily it rests upon the understanding of the contentless Christ.
This last is becoming clearer every day. In these
three sayings it is all held: Take up your cross; thy sins are
forgiven; my peace I give unto you. In the first Jesus is the
exemplar of taking the salvation of the world upon his shoulders
even unto death. He is there as the first fruit on the way. Indeed,
his person has become the judging sign. To behold him is to behold
the humanness of universal benevolence. He is our condemnation
and our confidence. In the second Jesus is the one who grasps
sinlessness through grace as none other. Even to the point of
seeing that whosoever's sin you (or he) forgave on earth would
be forgiven in heaven (by being). It is as if he runs to forgive
before you have sinned. He is our integrity. The ontological deeps
are probed. Our only concern is to follow and trust. This is righteousness.
Sinlessness. Integrity. It is walking in the way of universal
concern in confidence. It is the way.
The third "My peace--not as the world,"
This is the state of fulfillment of humanness. The peace that
Jesus had in the midst of suffering and tragedy--that of his own
and that of the whole world that he made his own--is the peace
of any who follow him in being human. What is his because he dared
to embrace the indicative is any man's who does likewise. The
nature of this peace is dealt with above. Jesus showed the way
in word and deed and being.
In dealing with this. whole matter we must consider
the Sea of Tranquillity, the Mountain of Care, the River of consciousness.
These have above been roughly covered. Now we must turn to the
1,and of Mystery. This is the whole, the center, the essence.
The present in a~ 1. It is love of n.od as such. So we must consider
the Mystery and the Awe. Two sides of the same coin. To stress
one without the other is falsification and destructive. And to
deal with these divorced from freedom, agape and peace is perversion.
The mystery meets us in situations only as freedom, love, or fulfillment.
So also there is only awe of freedom, awe of love and awe of peace
in the second stage or phase or step of humanness. Awe for the
sake of awe is demonic. Inducing such for the sake of inducing
is doubly so. Here we touch upon the practice, the exercise, the
means, the rehearsal, the way. This is difficult, dangerous, and
important. The issue is the above, holding together the mystery
and the awe in relation to love, freedom, and fulfillment. Both
mystery and awe have the quality of the objective. There is the
"other-than." What keeps all of this from becoming subjective,
ethereal, and dis-involvement is the injection of the world between
God and self. When mystery and awe are met in the world (Incarnation)
the great danger points are avoided. Freedom is the relation to
the Mystery, which is both dread-filled and fascinating. So with
love. So with peace. It is like the Mystery in each case is Yes
and No and No and Yes. Judge and Redeemer. Creator and Denier.
He who does not hate the mystery does not love it. And he who
does not love the mystery does not hate it.
The practices relative to this participation in humanness
have too often been the reality itself. This actually is their
form of denial of life. For us the exercises are rehearsals of
the reality. Now they are the reality, this they must be to be
rehearsals but they are for the sake of being aware of that reality
in the very midst of everyday life everywhere all the time.
1. The category of Transparency
2. The context of Incarnation (sarcous)
3. The idea of cruciformity
4. All that is is Good (Being)
5. Sanctification as burden of the world
6. Relational view of the self
7. Matter into spirit
8. Concept of the Indicative
9. The Other World Concept
10. Justification and sanctification (Relation of the Word)
Joseph W. Mathews