By Abigail George
There’s a Eucharistic art to it that we must be aware of when we discuss the roles of the Holy Spirit and Mother Mary. The natural environment. The supernatural. The neurological. The psychological. The monk in prayer and meditation. The celibate life. The immaculate conception. I often gather new insight into modern religious doctrine and teaching from the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Let us look at the Christian in awe of God. I am in awe of the biblical teachings of the supernatural. We are taught hope, faith, and love from an early age.
Believing in spirit is a calling for the church, believer, non-believer, and atheist, as the believer is called to service. In suffering, the believer must serve. In sorrow, we are tested. The believer must serve. Conflict and war will always result in pain, emptiness, and futility. Physical wounds are healed, but scars remain a reminder, just as stigmata. It is psychic wounds that remain. Words that hurt. Words that challenge us to the very fibre of our being. When you give yourself to the supernatural God, the believer is uplifted and empowered.
That there is still hope, faith, and love for the soul of the non-believer and the spiritual progress of the atheist. Humanity is at a point in time where we disregard empathy foolishly and without a second thought. We no longer regard our eternal brotherhood as sacred. And so, I come to humility. The grace of humility and the gracious mercy it offers us. What is the meaning behind the organic semblance and docile acceptance of the living embodiment of Christ? The holy sacraments. The sacred positivity that stems from the rituals of prayer.
Supplication in the church, the crowning of thorns, the thirst, the Kingdom come, the angelic realm, obedience, and forgiveness are all sacred gifts like the fruit of Mother Mary’s womb. This is life. The figuring out on which side we are on. The simple matter or the complex mandate. How do we choose to worship? How does worship exist in all of the pre-existing structures of the church? Why do we believe in the first place? We spend our whole lives celebrating ceremonies, searching, studying, observing, and educating ourselves in the rigorous teachings of past scholars.
Scholars that have come before us. Prayer, is it just subtle? Is prayer and meditation on the fruits of the spirit mere moral subterfuge? We have this longing for an understanding of the divine and the mysterious, the sacred and the blessing, and the understanding of our cultural gifts, traditions, and heritage. What are the meaning and the purpose behind the moral fibre of our humanity? Where does it come from if not from an omniscient and omnipresent God? Now, let me come to the holiest of holies. God, the Christ. The Christian Saviour. The sacred divine meaning.
The sacred purpose. The sacred sanctification. The moral compass. Is the living Christ a conservative God? A transformative figure that renders every psychological construct in man’s being, every paradigm shift in modern society, the framework of psyche and intellect, the mental and emotional faculties, the physical body and attitude that commands all self-control. That gives rise to self-concept, the ego, the identity of man and church, the branch of motherhood, sisterhood, obedience, prayer, meditation, spiritual progress, and confidence.
The believer sees the effervescent and vital energy, synergy, and synchronicity behind the beauty and the ugliness of poverty and death. And in poverty and death, in the cultural background of poverty, looking at it from a religious perspective of piety and grace, we find supernatural signs—hidden meanings and rich symbolism. In death, the self-concept of the physical body is diminished. The material, in the end, renders itself to the ether. To the unseen, the eternal (eternity), and the hereafter. In death, time stands still. Suffering ceases.
Look at this statement. That humanity is complete in the eternity of poverty and death, but is it, not our knowledge of the hunger of how we continue to exist that has perplexed humanity for all time? Death and poverty pull and push the believer in the direction of being perplexed about what spirituality and the spirit are. The biblical landscape offers us proof and understanding beyond the physical scope. The biblical landscape affords us so much more insight. Is the church an empty ritual, or is it sacred beyond measure? It is not dogma.
It is not dogma that defines who we are. It is our longing for the fruits of the spirit. It is realising that there is more to the ideology of the sonship, the fatherhood, and the Godhead. For millions of years, this landscape we know of as creation is nothing more than proof of the living and unspoiled legacy of the Saviour and Christ. Of our Lord Jesus, son of David, that was promised to the disciples (the followers) by the sanctification of the brethren. All who seek an audience. All who sought the King of kings. The alpha and omega. The son.
To have an audience with Him, the son of God. The creator of the universe. Priests in ancient times were the gateway keepers to Abba, the living and self-fulfilling prophecy of Jesus Christ, the son of David. What perfect meaning does the Eucharist give to our lives? It is not an arrogant or proud or weak God that we serve. We are taught through the sonship about the privilege of the church, flesh, and blood of Jesus Christ, the fact that he died on the cross of Calvary and that he was sent to earth to save us from our sins. Man worships with a sacred impulse.
It is a divine mystery. It means to honour to obey. The Ten Commandments are a manifesto of sorts. In prayer, in silence, there is no moral ambiguity, no singularities of deceit, no acts of immorality or theological deception embedded in doctrine and religious treatise. No matter how much we would like to think of our holy Father as a just being, He is also a mystery of joy and sorrow, grace and mercy. In the past, the biblical teachings were taught about God so that the believer was held hostage to an unforgiving God.
This is where purification takes place by partaking of the body of Christ. Humanity has laws and systems that govern us and continually test our faith. The living example of Jesus Christ lives through us. Our norms, values, and belief systems are taught through Mother Mary, and the Holy Spirit protects us. God is forever omnipresent in these views and statements. We are given the Holy Spirit in the universal household of the church. Mother Mary is our mother. The sonship belongs to us: holy communion, the body of Christ, the flesh and blood.
Humanity and the church are raised in the family. Mother Mary becomes the matriarch and the Godhead, the patriarch in the family unit. They are raised from birth to believe. From the cradle until death, we live with the promise of eternal life. We are taught from an early age that the mother figure is nurturing. The father figure is a caretaker and protector not only of his children but also his family. It is the same for the living Christ and the resurrected figure of Jesus Christ. We are all descendants of a higher unseen power. A power of spirit. Of holy Saints.
That in and of itself is a powerful statement. Another is the descendants of the Lord Jesus Christ, son of David. When taken out of the church, the religious teachings, mandates, doctrines passed down from generation to generation, the fatherhood, the sonship, the holy spirit, and Mother Mary make for an essential and significant statement. It is the good news of the Redeemer. Of the Saviour. The eternal trinity. The fruit of the womb of Mother Mary when the immaculate conception took place was a blessing veiled in disguise. It teaches us to have a forgiving heart.
The psychological framework and truth of the spiritual Father, the Christ-like energy and progress, is not a complex ideology. The Christ-like effigy, the absolute point of the Saviour, is never arbitrary. If we look at the Christ-like figure as a grave illusion, we are making a severe mistake (but this is common). This Christ-like figure is capable of love, hope, faith, and empathy. For without compassion, there can be no religious doctrine. Our spiritual maturation comes with the understanding of benevolence, devotion, and worship of Mary.
To realise what the gifts are of the holy spirit and Mother Mary, look at the biblical perspective of the sonship and the Godhead. The advantage of the truth belongs to the believer. We only have to contemplate, meditate upon, and worship this figure of Christ, our Lord and Saviour, who leads His believers. It is the Godhead that reigns supreme.
Sources:
https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/h/holy-spirit-and-mary.php
