The Spiritual Work of Epiphany

In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, poet William Blake wrote, “Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. From these contraries spring what the religious call God & Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell.”

In the Christian story, into the midst of all this contrariness came the manifestation of God made flesh in Jesus. Once again we are brought to the terrible precipice of literalism, both in the reading from Blake and the reading of the Christian Incarnation myth. Did the manifestation of God in flesh happen only one time in one place in one person, Jesus? Is Blake really suggesting that if we hope to have heaven, we have to relinquish the energies bound up in emotions and passions and live only through reason? A short answer for both questions: No.

God knows that this world can be contrary. We have lived in the midst of great opposing forces for years now. The spiritual work we are called to do is to make God manifest in the presence of all the opposites. This is no small task, nor is it for the weak-willed. This work calls for great discipline and the utmost seriousness.

The root of all religious mysticism lies in One. The deep yearning for reconciliation permeates the groanings of all Christian mystics. The ultimate goal in our spiritual formation is to remove all contradictions. Do we seek to fall into a puddle of unconscious goo? No, of course not. We seek the reconciliation of opposites through Reason and Energy that we may know them together as One. We enter into the pristine spiritual state with awareness.

One time, when Muhammad came in from battle he is reported to have said, “Now is the time of the greater jihad.” There are many crusades—wars—jihads that you can join. The spiritual work of Epiphany (God made manifest) is the greater jihad that is far more important--the one in your own heart, your own mind, your own soul, your own body. It is the struggle of acceptance and reconciliation with your own Self.

Blake is right about the contraries being our teachers. Accept the blessings of your successes and failings, your energy and your reason. Accept the good and the evil that you have done and that has been done to you, and listen to what they have to say about you and who you are. Enter the greater jihad to reconcile the contraries and become Epiphany.

Joel t