by Claire Bowles-Tulsa, OK
Very much like growing to physical maturity, spiritual maturity may be touched upon many times before a person can stand up and say, "I am One with God now."
Was there a moment in your growth from child to adult when you were able to say, "I am mature now. I am grown up at last"? You may have been able to say it one day, but the next day had to take it back and say, "I’ve changed my mind …I’m not mature after all." Isn’t growing up like that? Isn’t it very hard to put your finger on the day you were actually grown?
Even your own mother could not tell you when you were grown. Was it your 18th birthday? Your 21st? We verge in and out of maturity until …until when? At 45 I can’t say I am always mature. It is the same with spiritual growth, which is the growth into Oneness with God.
What was the time frame you put on reaching Oneness with God? How long did you think it would take? 20 years? 200 years?
Oneness-when God and Man are merged into one Being. When God is more than father; more than husband; the other half of yourself. When His punch line and your chuckle occur at the same moment. When His soft word of love to you is yours to Him, simultaneously. When you are the beautiful garment upon His lovely body.
Oneness is something we can taste, then touch, and then touch again as we move towards our eternal Union with God. The first taste of Oneness fills us with the desire to reach it again and again; more fully, for longer periods. Touching Oneness is the catalyst for continued resurrection. It is the confirmation of all your years of work and the reminder of why you are doing all this stretching and reaching towards Divinity.
Before we can examine the Oneness experience itself and what it will be like for each of us (something that we will discuss further another time) we must first believe that there is such a thing as Oneness between God and ourselves.
Well, is there? According to the Divine Principle there is. The fact that Oneness was God’s original desire for us is part of our belief system. The fact that God needs this Oneness with us for His own happiness is also part of that belief system. So why do many of us seem not to believe in Oneness with God?
Oh, we believe it for True Father or True Mother. We even believe in it for humanity as a whole, in some distant, misty future…but not for ourselves. Not me, not now. How could I even lift my face up towards His throne, let alone melt into Him and Him into me?
Our feelings of lowness come from centuries of Christianity. Our sense of sinfulness is what we’ve been taught over the decades of our lives. It is what we are told even now by the myriad spirits whispering in our ears, in our minds.
These religious teachings had their place in history. This education had its place in our lives, too. But now is the time to start to speak aloud the words which are in your heart…in your original mind: "Oneness is within my reach and I am worthy to reach for it…I must reach for it."
Is reaching Oneness such a gargantuan task? I believe it is closer than we think. So close, in fact, that only a small shift in viewpoint would shine a bright light on the short distance we have yet to go; the few steps we have to take, into the arms of our beloved.
Just like growing up physically into a man or woman: you had to follow the rules of physical growth, eating well, etc. But time also dictated your level of growth. At seven, just like every child in the world, your baby teeth were falling out. At fifteen you could see the hairs on your chin if you were a boy, or had your period if you were a girl. Well, now is the time for our growth into spiritual maturity.
True Parents have opened the age of Oneness to us. The age of religion can now be closed at long last. This is the time. Our Oneness is the only thing that can get us past the age of religious structure. Until we reach Oneness, we will still need religion. Let us leave behind those primitive needs of a primitive age. Let us grow up into the maturity that is now made available to us. God has waited long enough and only our growth into Oneness can comfort Him in the truest sense of the word.