Union as glorification

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Glory reigns when Christ shares union with the Father with those who who turn and see him in the midst.  For ‘I AM,’ which is God’s Name, ‘I and the Father are one,’ (John 10.30), revealing the mystery of glory which Christ opens with the words, ‘the Father is in me and I in the Father’ (John 10.38).  The Name ‘I AM’ reveals God, because ‘he who has seen me, has seen the Father,’ ( John 14.9).  Christ says we are one with the Father when we are one with him in his Name ‘I AM.’ (John 17: 21-23).  When the Name is hallowed, we are one with him as the Father is one with him.  Separation from God dissolves into indivisible union when unconscious confusion is exposed by Christ in the Name.  Christ unveils the Name to us when he says, ‘Before Abraham was, ‘I AM,’ ( John 8:58), referring us to the revelation of the Name on Mount Sinai, ‘I AM who I AM’ (Exodus 3:14).  On Mount Tabor, glory proceeds from the Father to Christ with the Spirit when ‘God becomes man so that man may become God.’  Patristic wisdom springs from this mystery of transfiguring glory, the revelation of the Name, but warns that union is not confusion even though communion undoes division.

The Name unveils union with the Father through the grace of the Son, avoiding monistic confusion and dualistic division.  The Father generates, the Son is generated but ‘I AM’ our God is one.  The Spirit proceeds from the Father to abide in the Son, drawing us into this mystery of the Son’s union with the Father, an experience of illumination which is neither confusion nor division.  Glory reigns when this mystery opens and wisdom awakens when the Name unveils glory.  The experience of glorification is ineffable but is revealed when wisdom discerns the glory of the Name.  As Christ imparted wisdom to the Beloved Disciple, so elders transmit the Name to the saints, so that illumination opens to glorification in the Holy Spirit.  Poverty of spirit, together with purity of heart, receive this transmission so that Patristic wisdom is renewed.  If ‘I’ and the ‘Father’ are one, the pure in heart see God whenever they turn and see.  For the blind, this is delusion and pride, which is why stones are thrown when the Name is revealed.  The Name was always inscribed in the heart, but the eye of the heart remained blind until wisdom unveiled glory.  The Name is life and light to the blind, awakening hearts in Christ to union with the Father.  ‘I AM’ generates ‘I AM’ here in the midst, but this is not seen until the Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, awakens the eye of the heart.  

‘I AM’ says it all, saying nothing, yet everything.  Seers love wisdom because she sees that ‘I AM’ is not me.  She undoes the confusion between ‘I AM’ and me.  She dissolves the division between me and God.  She inspires elders to transmit the Name from heart to heart, revealing Holy Trinity, God seeing God through God.  The Father bears witness to the Son by sending the Spirit into our heart crying ‘Abba, Father.’   The Son bears witness to the Father by sending the Paraclete, an intercessor, advocate and mediator, who as the Spirit of Truth guides us into whole truth ( John 16:13).  Whole truth frees ( John 8:13); it is not an abstraction.  It is spirit and truth because the Name really does reveal God, as divine ‘I’ awareness and ‘AM’ presence here in the midst.  Christ’s death does not leave us like orphans without a Father, because he sends us the Spirit who reveals God’s children, sons of the Father through adoption and grace.  In the Spirit, we are raised to glory with Christ, having died to death through him.  Glory is uncreated energy, divine activity, not reified substance.  It frees and does not bind.  Christ does not cling to glory but gives everything away, sharing glory with all who hallow the Name.  Glorification is his free gift, enshrined in God’s Name, emptying us of self-centred confusion so as to grant us union and true communion.