n e w c h u r c h l i f e : m ay / j u n e 2 0 1 6
of living a life of love of self – the total
opposite of a life of love to the Lord.
We start our lives in between
these two loves – in between the fires
of the dragon and the woman clothed
with the sun. To shun one is to move
toward the other. If we move away
from justifying a life of evil, from
making excuses, we’re moving toward
that simple choice to do what the
Lord says, because He has said it. The
woman in this vision is a picture of the
total triumph of that choice. Love to
the Lord is so wholly present within
her that it blazes around her as her
clothing. We are invited to wear that clothing of the sun, which is an image of
how completely we can choose to live the Lord’s truth.
As we read, clothing represents the lower or outward parts of us. (Arcana
Coelestia 5248) Our physical clothing is our outermost layer. It’s what we use to
show ourselves to the outside world – to declare our identity and reveal what
we are. It’s also what we use to protect ourselves. Our spiritual clothing, then,
is what we use to declare and reveal and protect the things that we love, the
things that are more deeply us. Unsurprisingly, we’re told that clothing usually
represents truths. Truth declares and protects good. We are told that truth in
our understanding is what makes the good with us visible. (True Christian
Religion 397.4)
Think of what love is without truth. What is it like to want to do what the
Lord teaches, without knowing how? That feeling, that desire, all by itself, can’t
go anywhere. It can’t do anything. If we want to serve the Lord, we need to
know what He teaches. If we want a friend or a child to know that we love him,
we need to know how to say that, or how to show it.
So the initial part of our spiritual journey is about finding truths to clothe
us. It’s about discovering what we believe, and what our actions will say about
what we really believe. As we do this, we start to “wear” certain ideas, certain
truths, that say to the world, “this is what I am.”
In this state the loves that move us to do what’s right are hard to see; they’re
hidden under something opaque – under layers of cloth, as it were. The love
that’s with us might not manage to look like love by the time it makes it to the
outside. In this state we might find ourselves confronted with an angry spouse
and sifting through all kinds of resentment, on the brink of saying something
cruel, until we remember the Lord saying, “You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.”
So the initial part of our
spiritual journey is about
finding truths to clothe
us... But the purpose of
acquiring these truths
– this clothing – is to
express the love that
moves within them.
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