The Mystic Christian Reader

I don't often discuss the Old Testament, for various reasons. First of all, I feel that most of these books are the most dangerous in the bible when read literally (with the possible exception of the Revelation of St. John). Second, while the books of the New Testament were written nearly 2000 years ago, the books of the OT were written MUCH earlier, and are the social relics of a world we cannot possibly understand or relate to.

That being said, the Old Testament, when looked at mystically, is a beautiful, symbolic, and uplifiting collection of documents. This past week, at the Ash Wednesday service I atteneded with my dad, the Old Testament reading was from the ten commandments (Exodus 20). As the minister was reading the verses, the commandment regarding the keeping of the Sabbath Day stood out to me in a way it never had before.

8Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. 9Six days shall you labor and do all your work; 10But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor the sojourner who dwells in your towns; 11For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the seas, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. (Lamsa, pg 88)

What stood out most to me in this reading was God's complete lack of mentioning anything about going to church or any other form of worship on the sabbath. This commandment has nothing to do with worship, and everything to do with not working. In fact, the writer of this particular list of the commandments goes to great lengths to bring home this point. Not only should we not work, but we should instruct our employees, our children, our animals, and anyone hanging around from out of town that they should also not work. Of course, it is wonderful and deserved to take a day off work (especially in those ancient days when work was WORK), a day when everyone, of all social classes is given the day to be free of labor. However, if we explore the deeper meaning of these verses, we are offered a powerful teaching on the nature of God and on the true way to worship Him "in spirit and in Truth." (John 4: 24)

In order to understand this verse mystically, we must explore the deeper meaning of "not working." Once a person progresses on the spiritual path to the point where they feel called to inward practices such as meditation, centering prayer, the Rosary or the Jesus Prayer, they usually find that while the prayer or meditation itself is spiritually beneficial, it is the resulting consciousness, a consciousness free from thoughts of the world and free from desires of the flesh, which is most beneficial. While some spiritual aspirants may become stuck on the idea of the techniques themselves, it is the consciousness they invoke which is the true goal of all true spiritual practices. In this state, the human mind is in the deepest state of "not working" which is achievable while on Earth. In this state, not only are we not moving our body about, doing physical work, but our minds are not consumed with the work of thoughts, emotions, and desires. In this state, free from identification with personal desires, we have truly STOPPED. We cannot do work, because we have lost the sense of being the "doer" in any way and given all identification of Self over to Christ.

This state is the perfection of worship. It is the kind of worship Jesus was speaking about to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well:

21Jesus said to her, Woman believe me, the time is coming, when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will they worship the Father. 22You worship what you do not know; but we worship what we do know... 23But the time is coming, and it is here, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father also desires worshippers such as these. 24For God is Spirit; and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.