5/3/07

Divine Darkness

It's a dream for every one who studies here in Rome to meet the Pope personally. Finally, by the grace of God I got that great opportunity this Easter as I assisted him in the Mass. After the Mass we could meet him individually and he asked me in the most respective form of Italian,"Di dove Lei, dell'India?" I was really astonished by his humble question and once again realised that meeting some one face-to-face could change the 'subjective pre-images' about him.

As a peregrinator I would always love to reflect about the meeting with God at my final destination (my great hope). What would be the nature of such a reality? Would there be any radical change in my previous knowledge and images about Him? The saints speak about it in terms of the "divine darkness". They say that souls' quest for the vision of God is like, “a progress from light to deeper and deeper darkness. The initial stage is the removal of the darkness of error by the light of the truth. But, from then on, the further the soul progresses the deeper is the darkness into which it enters, until eventually the soul is cut off from all that can be grasped by sense and reason." Here the darkness implies both the invisibility and incomprehensibility of God which transcends all knowledge and images of human experience.

Oops, it is not working anymore, okay… now I leave these super natural realms and come to the earthly realities, i.e. the vision about my fellow beings, my limited knowledge and images about them. Don't these distort or blur my comprehension of their true image? Yes, they do a lot, I can see within myself a 'live archive of prejudices' which hinder me from dealing with them as God wills. I don't want to keep such an archive of prejudices and negative experiences in my relations with others, which only leads me to criticize them harshly and often breaks the communion of love. I have to bury them for the sake of their true image and only in that 'darkness' can I see them perfectly.

Recently, we had a visit to the Vatican archives as a part of our course. The guide explained that if all the files in the archive were arranged in a single line then it would be almost 85 kms long. Thanks for the wise decisions of the Popes who denied the accessibility of this huge archive for all. I think if it is open to everyone, each and every minute detail of the social relations of our Church, a lot of human errors that are reported in the documents there, would distort more her true image which is incomprehensible and transcends all our knowledge. I believe that the true archives of the church should be the long catacombs here in Rome, where lies a lot of true images of Christianity after enduring strong persecutions. They were pure in heart and they could be cut off from all that can be grasped by sense and reason. They have the vision of God in eternity as the sixth Beatitude says, ‘blessed are the poor in heart, for they shall see God’.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Jaimon brother, I read ur article. Its really wonderful. Keep on writing. Let ur light be shown before others so that they may see god and praise His glory.

Anonymous said...

Hallo Jaimon. Das Bild und dem Papst gefällt mir sehr gut. Ich hoffe dir geht es gut. Wir freuen uns alle auf dich!!! Liebe Grüße von Regina

സഞ്ചാരി @ സഞ്ചാരി said...

Vielen Dank Regina, mir geht’s gut. Ich freue mich dass du meinen Blog hat gesehen. Machst gut…
Viele Grüsse, Jaimon

Anonymous said...

dear
it is nice , thought provoking and really inspiring.
darkness is not so bad
--
With Love & Prayers
Br Abhilash

Anonymous said...

dear friend,
so wondeful and touching are your thoughts
a personal flavour makes it so relevent and attractive
all wishes and prayers
go ahead... all success
sorry not to have taken pain to read you
all wishes and prayers

സഞ്ചാരി @ സഞ്ചാരി said...

Dear friends,
Thanks a lot for encouraging me.

Fr.Binu Kunnath said...

Dear Loving Sanchary (Jaimon), It is the time to greet you for your thoughts and simple commends. I am really happy that you could uderstand the importance of the face to face relations. This is what we wanted in our life, face to face life,so that we will have subjective feelings. This is what happened in the life of Moses. He had a face to face relaton with god.And also in the case of Abraham...This what the great philosopher Emmanuel levinas speaks about in his philosophy. But it something very difficult to experience the face to face relations.Remember always, 'with out pain there is no Gain'

സഞ്ചാരി @ സഞ്ചാരി said...

Dear Binu,
Thanks for reading me seriously and enriching my simple Blog with your precious comment. I too agree with that subjective feelings of pain, may be the same when saints speak in other terms as dark nights of faith...purification of soul...etc. in the divine realm.
In the human realm face to face also mean fall in love, surrender oneself to the other...losing his own face, yes really painfull. But it may not be an ultimate loss rather an eternal gain as you achieved many friends in your life through that experience.

Kunnath Hills said...

hai dear, i am in ur list for the first time. thanks a lot. u r bravo come sempre. keep it up.

with lots of love and prayers
Vipin

Vincent Sabu said...

dear brother
you are living man with Christ
your thoughts are really funtastic
the speciality that i find in your writing is simplicity of language

Vincent Sabu said...

Dear Jaimon brother, I read ur article. Its really wonderful. Keep on writing. Let ur light be shown before others so that they may see god and praise His glory.
GvS

Anonymous said...

dear jaimon,
i hope u may be able to read me....
it is so noce....
the real archives of the church is the catechumbs of rome....i do agree with u ...
thanks for leting u to recieve the divine insights....
binoj

Chris Capuchin said...

hai jaimon,

this is a word of appreciation and congratulation on the reflections that are posted in this blog. keep it up, i hold you in high esteem. hope and pray that your study of canon law will not harden your heart, you will have a heart, a heart of flesh and blood!!!!!!!!

with lav

chriscapuchin

സഞ്ചാരി @ സഞ്ചാരി said...

Dear Binoj,
Thanks a lot for your comment,You also inspire me in many ways. Some of my articles have a touch of our usual conversations...let us keep our beautiful friendship and grow up by sharing His 'insights'.

സഞ്ചാരി @ സഞ്ചാരി said...

Dear Christiyacha,
My heart never bocome hard until I keep the friendship with persons like you,especially you have got a special charism of keeping others soft and good. Thanks a lot for your great appriciation.

Unknown said...

index his explanation Full Report Find Out More here are the findings sites

Anonymous said...

bapesta shoes
goyard
goyard outlet
kd shoes
off white nike
kyrie shoes
off white outlet
kyrie shoes
supreme new york
supreme t shirt