About human’s story
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nations. Neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)
This verse, written on a wall of the United Nations’ headquarters in New York bears witness of the dream of humanity to make of the world a place of love and peace. What long a way humanity will then have gone through since Adam and Eve left their carefree life in the garden in Eden!
In Paradise Adam and Eve knew only one restriction: not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil... However, since the seductive serpent encouraged them to eat the forbidden, tasty fruit it was difficult for them not to give in to temptation. If the serpent had promised wealth, celebrity and a dreamy sex life, he would not have been able to seduce them, because people are not really motivated by these things. Money, celebrity and sex are only a counterfeit of man's desires: to be like God. Knowing this profoundly human desire the serpent incites Adam and Eve to make the wrong choice by saying:
God knows that in the day you eat from it ... you shall be like God. (Genesis 3:5)
Since, the serpent seduces people always by the same counterfeiting of reality: lying. Nevertheless, although money, celebrity and the sex never fill their deepest desires, the dream to be “like God” is at the origin of all human initiatives and ambitions.
The human story shows that the desire to manifest the divine immanence lies at the bottom of hearts. Humans claim the right, even for evil, to be their own master, to be gods. That is what is wrong about it. For though man is created in the image of God, he only is a “breath of God.” It is this divine immanence, which urges him to manifest the desire to be “himself”, to demonstrate his freedom. Facing this underlying dilemma Adam and Eve may have wondered: Is it necessary to give up ourselves and obey God or strengthen our freedom and do what we want? They did not realize that the good answer was “Yes and yes” and not “No and yes”.
Our mission is to unite the divine immanence in us with the divine transcendence beyond us: to unite soul and spirit bound to the word of God. In doing so we demonstrate not only the desire that the Spirit of God expresses in us, but we suddenly discover the fulfillment of these words:
For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)
God strengthens our “I” and reveals his divine aspect. Man wanted to assert himself his “I” by challenging God's word thereby Adam and Eve lost the enjoyment of God's presence. Brutally weakened and going frightened they thought only of hiding.
The separation between the soul and God's word (the divine immanence from the divine transcendence) is at the root of all wrongdoing. Trying to become stronger in defiance of God's will condemns our ego to mediocrity and discredits our personality. Self-esteem lowers and withers like an uprooted plant. When the mind is disconnected from the word of God, we can no longer reflect the image of God nor face Him any more.
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon. (I Corinthians 15:41)
The light of the sun symbolizes the divine transcendence - God's love, and the light that reflects the moon symbolizes the divine immanence in man. Every time the moon is in front of the sun, the moon reflects its light bright and full; otherwise, it only gives a pale reflection or even becomes invisible... This is what happened to Adam and Eve. By eating, the forbidden fruit to be “like God”; they separated the divine immanence of the soul with the divine transcendence, and actually achieved the opposite: being no longer able to stand in front of God's “oneness”, their light reduced to such a pale reflection of the Lord Eternal they went into hiding. Their disconnection with the “oneness” of God had as another tragic consequence, the degradation of women status and the curse of the male domination:
He shall rule over you. (Genesis 3:16).
Because of this male dominance (which was highly appreciated through centuries), God took a male aspect in the eyes of the world. God was no longer “all in all” - oneness - but preferably a male god. This contempt makes that the evolution of the humanity consists, paradoxically, in the struggle to reconnect with the one who is the only true God. Precisely this God of love that Christ has shown saying:
He who has seen me has seen the Father. (John 14:9)
Our soul’s desire is toward its ultimate face-to-face with God. This redemption of the soul and spirit will put an end to this unfortunate male dominance, which remains nowadays. Then humanity will understand that God is “beyond” transcendence and immanence, that He is “unicity”, and that the miracle of true love is its union with God without being itself a god.
By receiving the word of God, Abraham and Sarah put in movement the process of Redemption, which develops, thanks the receptivity of Isaac, Rebecca and twelve son of Jacob. At first individual, the Redemption becomes tribal through the liberation of their descendants from slavery in Egypt then it extends to the whole people with the collective revelation of the Law on Mount Sinai, when in the midst of a fire, God spoke to them face to face. (Deuteronomy 5:4) The culmination of the Redemption turns national with the return of the Jewish people from exile to the Promised Land and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. However, the ultimate Redemption will be universal. The whole world gets ready with the aim of the fulfillment of the prediction of Esaïe (proclaimed by the United Nations), and that of the celestial army:
Glory to God in heaven and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased! (Luke 2:1)
Initiated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ - the Messiah - the Redemption will extend to the whole world by invading it with the love and knowledge of God's mysterious oneness.
Then the knowledge of God will fill the earth as the waters fill the seas. (Isaiah 11:9).
The end of wars, the reign of the love and peace are however not the ultimate end. Peace, faith, hope and love are not a destiny but a journey without end...