Le blog de la Bergerie
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Le blog de la Bergerie
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I have been thinking a lot about this and this is how I see it: there are basically 3 stages of life:
To recap the 3 stages: first we were in the Womb,
second we are in the World, third we will be
in the One God. In the very first stage, there is an amazing growth,
it is absolutely phenomenal what happens during these 9 months. Our time in
the womb is very vulnerable and requires lots of love, attention and caring
and the biggest threat of all is when the mother forgoes her main responsibility
to protect and nurture the body (and mind and soul) of her baby within her own body (and mind and soul). The first stage is a preparation
for the second one, just as stage number two is a long and winding and challenging
preparation for stage number three. The transition from one stage to the next
one is a very radical one, whether it is our birth in this world or our death
to this world, you can hardly get a more radical transition than that. Notice
that the first stage does not know what the second one entails, which is similar
to what is happening now, in the world, where we spend much of our time in a
sort of denial about the end of life, pushing it out of our awareness, not often
probing what is beyond it.
Regarding the very first stage, let me tell you about the story about a set of twins,
one boy and one girl, who were happily growing in their mother's womb. But
one day, the little girl said: "I think there is more. I have this idea that
we are going to go through a big change soon and we will go somewhere else".
The little boy says: "What are you talking about? I don't want to go anywhere.
We are fine here, we are doing just great, we have everything we need, we can
hear our mother's voice and I love it here, I don't want any change!" The little
girl says: "You must be right" and grows quiet. But after a little while, she
starts again: "There is going to be a change, I can feel it. And we should not
be afraid, it is completely normal, there is a sort of difficult passage but
there is much more afterwards and it is beautiful and bountiful, in ways that
we cannot even begin to imagine now". The little boy is annoyed and says " Leave
it to a girl to always want more! I'm telling you that we should just enjoy
what we have now. Isn't this wonderful? We are safe, we are fed regularly, we
are comfortable and did you notice that she is constantly talking about us?
She is constantly bragging about us to everyone she meets. I just love it! I
hear her voice and it brings peace and joy to my heart and it puts me to sleep
too. Don't talk anymore about any changes, is that clear?" The little girl does
not say one more word. But a few minutes later, the little boy adds, in a slow
and hesitant manner: "The truth is that, if you are right, and maybe you are,
and I have wondered about this, but what it means is that, one day" and his
voice gets dreamy, "it means that very soon we will get to see her face and
she will look at us and smile…"
Everything in the developments of each stage is to bring us to the next one.
Science and technology have given us very practical ways to understand the depth
and breath of the world and even of the womb with, for instance, ultra sound
pictures, which are amazing testimonies of the miracle of life.
But in stage number two, the world is our womb for eternal life. My non-religious
friends asks me sometimes about this eternal-life business: "You are saying
this because you are Christian but I'm not, I don't know about all this and
to be frank, I don't believe in Christ." and my answer is "But he
believes in you. And Someone is there waiting for us at death and
that someone has a name". But I need to be attentive when saying this and be aware of how much this person is open to the Christian faith, to God in general and Christ in particular, and be aware whether this person is truly inquiring, or making small talk, or going through a difficult moment, experiencing suffering, mental, emotional or physical. I certainly need to pray at that very moment asking for help in saying what is most needed for my neighbor, and it always needs to be said with love and caring and humiliy.
Modern statistics have been very consistent when recording
near-death experiences in saying the very same thing, whether the people involved
in them were religious or not, they experience death, the end of a beating heart
and a breathing body and they have an awareness of the moment, of going through
the termination of this stage of life. Religious people know (more or less depending
on the depth of their faith) that it is the moment when the soul separates from
the body. And even atheists or agnostics or skeptics coming back from near-death
experience report the sense of leaving their body or floating above it. And
afterward, they all experienced a tunnel, a white light at the end of it they are welcomed by an
astounding and glorious being…
In stage two, we get so engrossed in checking out every tree in front of us,
we are so busy counting every leaf on that tree, whether we call them emails
or stocks or the number of Likes we got, that we forget about the big picture, but the truth is that
if our mind and our heart can grasp the 3 stages of life as one full continuum,
then we will see the whole forest. Not only the forest, but think about it,
then, finally, ultimately, we will see our Father's face!
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Copyright ©2008-2020 Michele Szekely