The Prisoner

Paul declared that ‘in God we live, move, and have our being’ but to match this a fragment of the Father dwells within the cosmic expanse of our own being; He lives, moves, and has His being in each one of us. We discover that this spirit has a somewhat solitary career; that it is, by and large, incarcerated in the human mind, where it must contend with ignorance, selfishness, and profound moral darkness, and it commits to live and work in these conditions from the moment of our first moral decision until that moment when our mortal coil loses this ability, whereupon it returns to the councils of Paradise to give an account of its labours to effect that salvation of the soul of its indwelling and where it must wait until a judgement determines whether its labours were sufficient or not.

Reflecting on this, I was struck by the words used to describe the predicament of the indwelling spirit, words like: incarceration, imprisoned, a prisoner of love. We read of a devotion akin to a parent that has not just forsaken nights out, or sleep, or generally ever having ‘a life’ but has in fact sallied forth from Paradise, abandoned all glory, in the solemn and sacred attempt to save the soul of a child of time, a commitment that it undertakes from the cradle to the grave.

These words and sentiments struck me. This spirit is imprisoned in my life. I, consciously or unconsciously, exercise my free will in ways that can either liberate or effectively incarcerate the divine gift but how do we so live as to afford the spirit the fullest possible extent of freedom and liberty of action? At its simplest, the answer is Love: love one, love all, love deeply, sincerely, wholeheartedly, and selflessly.

Love is composed three atomic elements: truth, beauty, and goodness. These are the three guiding stars to the spiritually replete life. These elements can be lived and that is what so important about them. When truths is metabolised into your life it breaks down and manifests itself as honesty, sincerity, it becomes an aspirational principle that shapes your dealings with your fellows.

Goodness becomes an avenue to give expression for the indwelling urge to ministry and mercy, to so live that all gain the greatest possible benefit from every breath you draw. It becomes kindness, gentleness, humility, tenderness, forgiveness, forbearance, tolerance, even generosity.

Beauty can, likewise, be experienced, lived, shared, it can be created/discovered, infused, to it we can aspire and through it we can inspire, it can, most precious of all, be stored up in our souls.

Material riches are not required to enjoy the spiritually replete life. The joys of the Kingdom are freely available to all, rich and poor, free and bond, woman and man, and all that will may enter.