Posted by Paul Edwards (Fr. Paul) on May 10, 2012 | Comments (0)


EASTER VII John 15:6-19

"I gave them the words You gave me and they have kept them."

Rational understanding reads the "words" of Jesus as those written in scripture.

Spiritual understanding studies the meaning of the Word of grace to read them in the Scriptures.

There is no biblical evidence Jesus ever wrote a word other than the one in the sand. John 8 St Paul quotes Jesus only one time in His entire minister. "It is more blessed to give..." Acts 20:35 For Paul and the first Christians, the Scripture was the Old Testament. Philip explained to an Ethiopian the meaning of the Old Testament Scripture. There were no words of Jesus written down for the first Christians.

There is a theory of a writing called "Quella". The Q source is a hypothetical written source for the Gospel of Matthew and Luke. "Q" is defined as "common" material found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark. The supposedly ancient text contained the quotations from Jesus. It is one of the foundations of modern gospel scholarship. The existence of "Q" has been challenged. The idea of the existence of a highly treasured document, being omitted from all the early Church catalogs and going unmentioned by all the fathers of the early Church, remains one of the great conundrums of modern Biblical scholarship.

Only Spiritual understanding can explain what Jesus meant when He prayed to the Father that He had given His words to the Apostles and they received or kept them. This does not mean they memorized them as the "Q" source would contend. It means they received them in their heart. Spiritual understanding is that Jesus put His words in the Apostles hearts, as well as in ours. This is why He never wrote down any of His words. Jesus is the Word of God. Feelings of His Love, Peace and Joy are not created by our thoughts. They are created by the Mind of God. Therefore, they are the Words of God. When we are in the Presence of these feelings, we are in the Mind and Wisdom of Christ. I Cor 2:11,16 We will have Words of Wisdom we never could have when we are out of the feeling of the Presence of the Mind of God.

Our thoughts create our feelings of anger, hatred and resentment. The spiritual feeling of His Presence creates our rational thoughts to see the same event in a different way.

Negative emotions are like warning signals from a smoke alarm. They signal we have created them by our own thoughts about other persons or events. It means we are out of the Presence. Some want to take the batteries out of the alarm so they can continue with their rant. Some fiddle with the alarm to turn it off while ignoring the fire that kicked the alarm on in the first place. Others will heed the warning like one feels the bumps on the freeway. It only means we are getting off the track. No need to worry, just straighten up and get back on track.

When was the last time you blamed the alarm for the noise rather than listen to the warning?

Events do not create our feelings. Some psychological theories are based on getting the feelings out of our system. There is the use of loud negative shouts, or the use of paddles against some dummy image. The problem here is we do not have negative feelings of anger or hatred in us. Our thoughts, not events, create how we feel about an event.

Rational understanding knows our thoughts create our feelings. Thoughts shape our reality and ultimately our life. We become what we think. Psychoanalysis, in dealing with feelings, starts with a negative feeling. The feeling is traced back to a past event. The thought about the event is discovered. Then, if possible, the thought is changed to create a positive feeling. Feelings are created by thoughts. We do have negative thoughts that create the negative feelings. Trying to change every one of our negative thoughts to positive ones is difficult enough. Trying to keep them positive is even more difficult.

It is like a cart driven by oxen that is going the wrong way. The driver does not try to turn the two wheels. He turns the oxen. This means we do not dwell on trying to change the initial feeling or the thought. It means focusing instead to change the feeling to the inner Peace Presence. It changes the thought to understand the Wisdom that comes with the Mind of God.

 


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