My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE. Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΜΕΣΩ ΗΜΩΝ! ΚΑΙ ΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΑΙ.
THE FRUIT OF PENTECOST: THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HEALING (PART III)
By Reverend Father George Morelli
Healing on a False Foundation
Some physicians, psychologists, and other health and mental health leaders have built the intellectual foundation of their healing practice on philosophical sand. Remember the words of Jesus told to us by Saint Matthew (7:24-27): "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came , and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been found on the rock. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it."
I am choosing to use the personality model of Abraham Maslow (1970) as he specifically considers what he labels "people's religious experiences" as perfectly explainable by natural means alone. Abraham Maslow's view of religious experiences is at complete variance with the teachings of Christ and His Church. Maslow considers that spiritual reality does not exist. His premise is the sand which the Church Spiritual Fathers would say, could come from God, is the basis of our delusions. This premise of sand blinds us to the reality of the Divine reality of the spiritual vision and is the cause of our blindness.
God's Truth Cannot be Seen Because of Our Spiritual Blindness
For Maslow, Saint Basil's beautiful Anaphora prayer in his Liturgy would be myth and a figment of man's imagination. Consider the rock of spiritual vision of Saint Basil's inspired words describing salvation history:
"O God, from Paradise into this present world, and didst turn him [mankind]again to the earth from which he was taken, providing for him the salvation of regeneration, which is in Thy Christ Himself...Thou didst visit him in diverse manners, through the tender compassion of Thy mercy...Thou didst send forth Prophets, Thou didst perform mighty works by the Saints...Thou didst appoint guardian Angels. And when the fullness of time had come, Thou didst speak unto us through Thy Son Himself...and being purified with water and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, He gave Himself a ransom to death...through the Cross, that He might fill all things with Himself...and rose again from the dead...making a way for all flesh...the Resurrection from the dead...in which He gave Himself up for the life of the world..."
What Maslow calls "peak experiences," labeled by him as "transcendence," are merely psychological events that can be simply and thoroughly understood by what he calls science alone. Paradoxically, there is a hint of truth in Maslow's ideas: it is not science, it is poor armchair philosophy and worse understanding of spiritual vision.
For without the Holy Spirit, no human person can engage in the spiritual contemplation of God. Saint Maximos the Confessor tells us, "Just as it is impossible for the eye to perceive sensible objects without the light of the sun, so the human intellect cannot engage in spiritual contemplation without the Light of the Holy Spirit. For physical light naturally illumines the senses so that they may perceive physical bodies; while spiritual Light illumines the intellect so that it may engage in contemplation and thus grasp what lies beyond the senses " (Philokalia II).
The Holy Fathers of the Church have warned us that we are subject to delusions, and may mistake them as coming from God, or are inclined to deny God sole cause altogether. Maslow does not have the spiritual vision or insight to see that God IS Spirit. God not only sustains and governs the world but brings about all healing if He so wills. And God, His Only-Begotten Son and His Spirit and His healing, can only be perceived if we are not overcome by pride and arrogance and hence deluded.
This is so beautifully described by Saint Gregory of Sinai: "Delusion manifests itself...in the form of mental images and fantasies...though its sole cause and origin is always arrogance. The first form, illusory visions, is caused by self-conceit; for this leads us to invest the divine with some illusory shape, thus deceiving us through mental images and fantasies. This deception in its turn produces blasphemy..." (Philokolia IV).
It is only the humble, like the Prophets, Apostles, and Church Fathers, and those up to the present day who are inspired by the Holy Spirit, who are able to sense the indwelling of God at the center of their hearts and His wondrous effects on them and the world surrounding them. Only those who have spiritual vision can pray from their hearts the kneeling prayer of the vespers of Pentecost:
"Who is so great a God like our God. Thou art the God Who does wonders, the art the God who does wonders."
Thus, the foundation of all healing, built of rock, is the spiritual vision only made possible by the Holy Spirit.
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MY BLESSING TO ALL OF YOU
The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
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Glory Be To GOD For All Things!
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George