LENT III

Life in the Great Transition

The experience of making that ‘Transition,’ of migrating spiritually and thinking imaginally, is a ‘crossing over’ from living in the gospels and knowing Jesus in his human incarnation, to knowing him as the glorified, Cosmic Christ as portrayed in the rest of the New Testament, especially in Paul’s epistles, through the agency of the divine Spirit.

Bishop John Taylor of Winchester characterized this function of the Spirit as The Go-Between God, in his book by this title.  ‘Go-between’ the Father and the Son on the heavenly plane and between Jesus and human beings on earth.  Knowing Jesus ‘in the flesh’ in the gospels was followed by knowing him as the Cosmic Christ in the epistles after his resurrection and ascension.  This was ‘The Great Transition’ that would have been impossible without the aid of the ‘Go-Between Spirit.’

The Apostle Paul never knew Jesus ‘in the flesh:’ for him the ‘Great Transition’ was from Judaism to faith in the resurrected and glorified Christ, as a result of his conversion experience, and later the years spent in seclusion undergoing initiation by the Go-Between Spirit in preparation for becoming Apostle to the Gentiles.

For most Anglicans, making that ‘crossing’ is a more protracted process from baptism as infants, to confirmation at puberty, and initiation to the ‘sacred mysteries’ through regular attendance at the Eucharist subsequently.  As we know from our own experience, this can all take place without ever encountering the Go-Between Spirit as a life-transforming ‘crossing over’ into another state of consciousness.

The process by which the Spirit accomplishes this purpose is transformation through the renewing of the mind, seeding it with wisdom and revelation in knowledge of the heavenly Lord.  This comes about through the faculty of inspired visionary Imagination, focussed on the imagery of Christ’s universal reign over all things above and below, as taught by the Go-Between Spirit.

PG
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