Monday, March 17, 2014

The Eternal Soul

‘Nothing can be compared to the great beauty and capabilities of a soul; however keen our intellects may be, they are as unable to comprehend them as to comprehend God, for, as He has told us, He created us in His own image and likeness.”
- Saint Teresa of Avila – Spanish Mystic and Nun


Ancius Boethius (d. 526 C.E.), a philosopher who bridged ancient philosophy and Christianity, defined eternity as the “entire and perfect possession of endless life at a single instance.” He said “anything which exists in time…cannot properly be considered eternal, for anything in time does not embrace the infinity of life all at once, since it does not embrace the future of the past.  Only that which understands and possesses the infinity of endless life, that lacks no future nor has lost any past, can properly be considered eternal.  Such an eternal thing fully possesses itself, is always present to itself, and possesses all infinity of changing time before itself…”

So what does suggest about our soul, which is called eternal but is present in our human body?  Although I believe our souls do not possess the omniscience (all knowing) of God, our soul fully possesses itself, is present to it, and is knowing of itself and God.  To be eternal is to be “not of space and time”, but present within our human body which exists in space and time.   I believe that I am not only human to which God through the Holy Spirit and others can make God known, I have an internal compass of love which is knowing of itself and God, called the soul.   It is the balance between the soul and humanity that is so amazing and breathtakingly beautiful.   When the Bible writes of Adam and Eve eating the apple from the tree of knowledge, it symbolized our focus on our physicality (we saw our nakedness) and that we no longer “know or sense” God.  I believe that God always intended that our humanity and physicality be balanced with our soul, but we must remember.



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