The Journey of the Mind to God



In man's encounter with the outside world, there is sort of a natural assumption that something transcendent exists, and in some strange way affects what we can sense. From the beginning of recorded history, there has always been a notion that something exists beyond what can be empirically sensed/studied[1]. An atheistic perspective would conclude that the is the result of overly simplistic conclusions which make further investigation seems futile. However, in a sort of irony, one could say the same about that assertion. In fact, it is captivating how much we can know about the created universe i.e. trajectories, densities, atomic structures, and the like are all computable because they always follow set "laws" of existence. When one encounters what is exterior to oneself to the point of knowledge there seems to be a consistent entity behind it all. Our mind zealously marches on a certain path toward the deepest knowledge of reality. The (1) senses and (2) imagination are employed from youth and, in themselves, provide proof of God’s goodness, splendor, and existence. (3) Reason and (4) understanding are formed through age and experience and, directed by God’s grace, they are moved toward the relationship with God. (5) Intelligence and (6) the light of synderesis/height of earthly existence, are the culmination of life in Christ.

(1)We can first and most readily encounter God in the reality He created us to sense. We can find something of the Creator in the creation via the “portals” of our senses: diverse, simple, elegant, ordered, intelligible, and harmonious. It is through our senses and God’s presence within our being that we are formed mentally and spiritually, just as food and water form us physically. (2)Our ability to imagine, which is a consistent mutation in thought, is incongruous to nature and speaks to our connectedness to God. It is through this ability that we can abstract commonalities from the creation to the Creator. (3)Reason, an ability fully present in the animal kingdom only to humans, joins us to Truth Itself. Through reason, we can be guided by Truth. It is through reason that understanding is joined to Truth. Reason acts in accord with God naturally because it is the law that guides us to being perfected in God’s likeness, which is imprinted in our minds and hearts. (4) We are given insight from the first three steps; this guides us to intuit what God is like. We have hitherto become aware of God’s existence and His actions in time and space. At this fourth step, we begin to experience God in his mystery and thus begin our relationship with Him. Our relationship at this point is servile and robotic, as the start of any relationship is, because we recognize God’s loveliness and, reflectively, our lack thereof due to sin. (5) Our intellect is then ready to be transformed and enlightened by the life of the “new” heart. Our faculties begin to be healed from the effects of sin and brought from the darkness of ignorance. (6) Our acts, words, and thoughts are fundamentally influenced by the lux Christi. We thence enjoy the freedom, clarity, and joy which comes from a life lived in union with Christ, and our disposition towards the good makes us grow ever deeper in love with God and ever disgusted by sin and its prospects. Having completed this sixth step, man is moved to love God with the fullness of one's heart, mind, and soul, so that Christ abides in us and we in Him. (cf. Deuteronomy 6:5, cf. Matthew 22:37, cf. John 15:4 RSVCE).

Interestingly, the first three steps pertain to the mind and then heart coming to awareness and some knowledge of God. The final three are more concerned with a contemplative and prayerful development of the newfound relationship with God. In especially the last two, one begins to assume their vocation of holiness and divine filiation through unity with Christ. We, thenceforth, become bone of God’s bone and flesh of God’s flesh(cf. Genesis 2:23, cf. Isaiah 62:5, cf. Matthew 28:20, cf. Revelation 19:7-10, RSVCE). Thence we “ascend to the superessential gleam of the divine darkness by an incommensurable and absolute transport of a pure mind.”[2]

In conclusion, at the beginning of the spiritual steps (4), the mind, heart, and soul are united in their conversion toward God and away from the lesser/shallower realities. At the said stage, one is awakened to the theological virtues and is thus directly pursued by God toward union. At this stage, thus, man is only hindered by imperfection, sin, ignorance, and thereby closedness of heart, which is ultimately “wrestled” with by God’s grace. Therefore, it is only through cooperation with Grace (helped by the dispelling of sin and ignorance) that we can progress from step four to the culmination of step six. The greatest saints witness to the strangeness that ensues through living in accord with God. Would that your faith becomes your fundamental premises.

FN:

  1. cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 27.
  2. Bonaventure, The Journey of the Mind to God, trans. Philotheus Boehner, ed. Stephen F. Brown (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1993), 39.
I know what is in your heart, I know your loneliness and all your wounds, the rejections, the judgments, the humiliations, I carried it all before you. And I carried it all for you, so you could share My strength and My victory. I know, above all, your need for love, how much you are thirsting for love and tenderness.  Yet, how many times have you desired to satisfy your thirst in vain, seeking that love with selfishness, trying to fill the void within you with passing pleasures, with the even greater emptiness of sin.

Do you thirst for love?


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