The Center of our Being

The spirit that God has placed in us is beyond the mind and emotions--the psychological realm, if we use the Greek "psyche" to indicate that part of human nature.  The spirit embraces what the mind cannot yet grasp---but if the spirit embraces it, the mind and emotions will catch up, understanding and loving what the spirit has already embraced.

Someone once described the spirit as the hook or the anchor used by mountain climbers--I know there is a name for it----the thing that climbers use to hook into a crevice above them.  Then they use the rope to climb upwards toward the hook anchored in the rock.  So the spirit in us goes ahead of our minds and emotions, anchoring in a rock somewhere above us.  Eventually, the mind clears; the emotions grow peaceful, and we understand and rest in what we have already grasped.

That is why the faith of children is so pure; they grasp on a spiritual level what their minds do not yet understand.  They "know" what they do not yet know intellectually.  Jesus warned us how terrible it would be to lead astray a little child; he said it would be better to have a millstone tied around one's neck and thrown into the sea than to cause scandal to a child.

The knowledge of our inner man grasps what the mind is slow to understand.  That is why the faith of the "little ones," the poor and lowly, often goes beyond the faith of the learned and the scholarly.  Many of us will believe only that which we understand.  Unfortunately, the understanding follows the spirit deep in the center of our being.  We tend to understand only later what we believe (trust).

The Spirit of Wisdom dwells in and communicates to the center of our being, in our spirit.  As our inner man rests in the Holy Spirit, our minds too, like our bodies, become enlightened----their eyes were opened, and they recognized him (Luke 24:31).

Whatever happens in our inner being overflows to our minds, our emotions, and even to our bodies.  This is why Jesus needed to say first to the paralytic: Your sins are forgiven!  Until the inner man is cleansed, and the center of our being is healed, the mind, the emotions, and the body are all blocked and dulled.  We cannot see; we cannot hear; we cannot understand anything.

It is hard to get the mind to stop "talking" long enough to allow the spirit/Spirit to speak.  Those who have the Gift of Tongues---not for others, but for themselves, as a way to pray---have been given a great gift: that of allowing the mind to be still while the spirit has a chance to emerge.  Maybe the Rosary has the same effect of occupying the language center of the brain while the spirit has a chance to come forth. 

Ultimately, though, Jesus said this:  This is the work of God: to believe in the One He has sent (Jn. 6:28).  He did not say that we had to understand, but only that we had to "believe," or trust, in Him.  Then the eyes of our minds will be opened to understand.