Consideration
A bit long today… Bear with me pls…
You have a body. You have a mind. You have a soul. (Strictly speaking, your mind [intellect] is one of the two powers or faculties of your soul. But for purposes of this series, let’s keep them separate.)
Your soul is like the engine or natural life-force of your body. With the soul “connected”, the body can do many marvelous yet natural things that inanimate objects (things without a soul) cannot do, e.g. eat, grow, laugh, communicate, etc. When the soul is “removed” from the body, the body dies and rots. The dead body now operates at the much lower level of a mere inanimate object.
God has also wanted to be the engine or life-force of your soul, the supernatural life-force that enables your soul to do many marvelous and supernatural things that merely natural humans (people without God’s life in them) cannot do, e.g. loving your enemy as God loves you. When God is “removed” from your soul (because you are free to do that), then the supernatural life the soul was living earlier dies and rots. One then operates at the much lower level of a mere human.
The soul finds it difficult to animate a badly injured, abused or diseased-ravaged body. If you’re in a really bad accident, the soul finds it practically impossible to animate your mangled body. The connection between body and soul is lost. You die.
God finds it difficult to animate a badly injured, abused or diseased-ravaged soul. If your life is really bad, God finds it practically impossible to animate your vice-filled soul. The connection between soul and God is lost. Your supernatural life dies.
The converse is true: the soul finds it easier to animate a healthy body; God finds it easier to (supernaturally) animate a healthy soul.
Healthy nutrition, healthy exercise and healthy genes lead to a healthier body. Healthy grace, healthy mortifications and a healthy conscience lead to a healthier soul. (Revisit Body and Soul, Part I: An Analogy for details.)
Over and above everything we have said so far in this Part, more than just wanting to be the engine or supernatural life-force of your soul, God wants to be your dad. He wants a relationship (because He is a relationship! God is love! Love is not an object. Love is a relationship! Between two [or more] people!). God wants a relationship with you. He wants a love relationship with you.
Any relationship takes at least two ingredients:
- Two willing and active parties.
- Time.
“Willing” because God does not force Himself on anyone. He is not a divine rapist. He eternally respects our freedom even if we never ever want to be with Him (this is what hell is: the eternal and free choice never ever to be in a relationship with God. Any sin [while we are still physically alive] is a temporary and free choice not to be in a relationship with God at that moment).
“Active” because you cannot have a relationship with an inanimate object. You can own it, but you can’t relate to it.
God already owns the entire creation. There’s nothing more you can give Him to own. But He doesn’t have a relationship with you… And that He wants. That you can give Him.
“Time” because all relationships are directly proportional to how much you know about the other party. The more you know about your girlfriend or fiancée or wife, the more you can love about her. The more you know about the intricacies and secrets of a sport or of a professional discipline, or of your role model, the more you can love about it/them. The less you know, the less you can love… the less you relate.
We generally need to spend more time with something or someone in order to know it/them better. In the case of our relationship with God, this is precisely what the “norms” are about: those exercises or practices of piety that we norm-ally do whether daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. These norms are a way of wasting(spending) time with God, to get to know Him better, to get to love Him more, to build a stronger relationship with Him.
080420