Reality's Manifestation
By John Gavazzoni
What prompted me to once again probe the issue of manifestation---as I have in the past on our web page at least by such articles as, "Incarnation, Not Plan B" (a 2004 listing), "A Precious Truth" (2012), and "The Embodiment (2010)---was an excellent meditation by Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr on the subject. I am often stirred to address certain subjects through the stimulation of what others have contributed, hopefully writing in a responsive mode rather than a reactive one when there is something in the stimulating influence that I find myself not resonating to. In the case of brother Rohr's article, being stimulated to be responsive, especially in a complementary way, will turn out, I expect, to flow quite easily.
There is a sense in which we must get past Reality's manifestation and probe into its Spirit-essence. To get stuck at the level of the merely observable is not what God intends for us by His determination to manifest Himself, THE Reality. The visible, observable, is made of that which, of course, without manifestation, is invisible, unobservable. That's pretty simple. But what is difficult to understand is that God, in His wisdom, has made manifestation to be problematic on the way to, and for the purpose of, becoming startlingly revealing. It is, in fact, by that which is physical--- yes I did say, and did mean, physical---that Spirit-essence fulfills itself.
Far beyond what this disciple is able to explain, is the truth that the incorruptible and immortal, must yield Itself to corruptibility and corruption, mortality and death, in order to draw forth the full radiance of its inner glory. Manifestation must not be understood as being generically distinct from that which it expresses. Spirit Reality is the essence of the manifest form. It is not disconnectedly within; It is essentially, integrally, and constitutionally within. What trips folks up in their thinking is the present, repulsive state of Reality's manifestation. The inner Spirit-essence of all things, has yielded itself over to abject contrariety. It is not that Reality must rid itself of the suffering vessel in order to be seen and known in all of Its glory. Out from His I AM Being, God has created for Himself another dimension of existence, another habitation, as it were, an existence within the ages He has formed. There His manifestation both reveals and veils Itself.
If duality, and duality-consciousness is a problem, it is a problem suffered first by God, Himself, the whole of His ages-framed creation suffering in and with Him, and we humans each suffering our individual measure within the all-inclusive totality of His suffering. There is a very fundamental misunderstanding that sees the outward vessel as generically distinct from that which it contains. The guiding principle is that the container and the contained are of one essence. As God has all-inclusively subjected Himself to that duality of I AM Being and age-during existence, the outer periphery of His Being, where eternity touches time, suffers - as I have written so often - from all that He is not, in order that by such suffering, all that He is, out of the depths of all that He is, might shine forth.
When God's Sonship cried out to God's Fatherhood, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me,?" all of the above which I have tried so inadequately to explain, came to a head. God's tearing of Himself was now complete, and the stage for the great reunion was set. The physical vessel that had born our collective conundrum to the very point of THE Life Itself suffering death for us all, returned - and we all in and with Him--- to that glory which He had left, without It ever leaving Him. But in it all, a dimension of glory's glory had been added, not from without, but out from within. An eternal profit had been gained. God, and we all in Him, in Christ, had become more and more of all that He is, out of the depths of all that He is.
Where is the glory? It is there manifested, AS manifested. It's at that outer-most periphery of God's out-thrusting of Himself where I AM touches "poor, miserable, wretched, blind, and naked." It's by what I've called the tearing of God, Himself, that, as Paul wrote, God emptied Himself, only to refill Himself to thereby increase Himself in the process. Paul wrote - as conventionally translated - that "the body grows by a growth from God." Both Jonathan Mitchell, and Eddie Browne offer an alternative, more literal translation: "The body grows the growth of God." Or, "The body increases the increase of God." THAT says it. Thank you, Jonathan, and thank you, Eddie.
