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| St. Martin of Tours |
No matter how powerful the beneficiaries of dualism might be, the angels of Love have always found their way into the hearts of Love's bravest children. Some of those who followed the Way of Jesus understood that when he said, “I and my Father are
one,” Jesus meant that he was one with Father Love, and that he wanted
his followers to recognize their own oneness with their divine creator. These
were the Way Followers whose hearts and souls stretched beyond the limits of
their own egos. They knew Love well, and they shared their love by healing the
sick, visiting the lonely, feeding the hungry, and praying for the lost. Most
of these followers were ordinary people whose names are written in Love’s book
of memories, but not in the pages of a single hardcover or even a paperback.
The Way Followers whose names are still
known in this world are the ones whose acts of love made such an impression on
the people of their day that their life stories were passed down from one
generation to the next, and written about in history books and religious
texts. The church fathers saw that some of these people were having
mystical experiences: seeing angels, or Jesus and his mother, Mary, or performing miracles that astounded those who maintained impenetrable walls
between themselves and the nonphysical universe.
The church fathers realized it would not
do for their members to witness miracles being performed by ordinary people
like themselves. What would happen if everyone learned to communicate directly
with the divine; to heal the sick and perform miracles? There would be no need
for a priest to act as an intermediary between layperson and God!
If Christians were on intimate terms with the divine and did not fear for their
salvation, the pope and his bishops could not demand that people obey their
laws and pay taxes to the church. They solved this problem by separating
the mystics from the masses. A Way Follower who showed compassion for members
of the human and animal kingdoms, and anyone who performed a verifiable
miracle, or conveyed messages from divine beings would be called a saint. The
saints were assigned a special place in heaven, and ordinary people could ask
them for divine favors—because ordinary people did not know they had a direct
connection to Divine Love.
Throughout the history of Christianity,
fire-and-brimstone preachers have frightened people into joining a particular
church, while the saints (including saintly people who have not been canonized)
have drawn people closer to the divine with their demonstrations of selfless
love. The men and women who became known as saints frequently started out as
rebels against the rules of society, because they intuitively knew these rules
were not conceived in Love.
One saint who lived during the fourth
century was Martin of Tours, son of a military tribune in Sabaria (now
Hungary). Constantine had passed a law requiring young men to take up their
father’s professions, so Martin, born with a longing for peace in his heart,
was inducted against his will into the Roman army at the age of fifteen.
Although he was made an officer like his father, he did not hold himself above
men of lesser rank. In fact, he insisted on polishing his servant’s boots, just
as Jesus had washed his disciple’s feet!
The best-loved story about Saint Martin;
the one that shows how connected he felt to Love’s other children, takes place
in Gaul, where an 18-year-old Martin rode through the gates at Amiens on a
bitter winter’s day, and saw a beggar, dressed in rags and shivering from the
cold. Martin looked upon the beggar and saw the Light of Christ shining forth
from his haggard face. Martin was dressed in armor and a white cloak whose
upper section was lined with lambswool. He removed his mantle and
slashed it in two with his sword, then gave half of it to the freezing man and
wrapped the other half around himself. Many observers jeered at the site of
this finely dressed officer destroying his cloak for the sake of a lowly
beggar, but there were some who realized how blessed they were to witness such
a compassionate act of love.
Many of the saints chose a life of
poverty and self-sacrifice as a way to serve God, and they often had the
ability to perceive spiritual entities, as had the shamans of old. Some saw
Jesus or his mother, Mary, or angels; and some saw the Light of Christ
emanating from everyone they encountered. Just like the shamans of
nature-worshiping cultures, the saints received messages from Love for the
benefit of all who would listen to them. One of these was Hildegard of Bingen,
who lived in Germany during the eleventh century. Her first experience of the
divine took place when she was only three years old, and she felt the Light of
Love swell up inside herself. The Light filled her soul and opened her
eyes to the oneness of all things. Later, after her parents had taken her to
live in a monastery, she would tell her mentor, Sister Jutta, that she saw God
in everything that he had made: plants, animals, and people. As an adult
she would write: “It is God whom human beings know in every creature.”
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| St. Hildegard of Bingen |
Hildegard was never officially canonized
by the Church. Whenever there was a conflict between the laws of the Church and
the guidance that she received in the temple of her own heart, Hildegard obeyed
that still, small voice. Perhaps this is why she was never canonized, but she
has been venerated and loved as a saint within and outside of the Church.
Hildegard and the saints who came before
and after her shared messages of Love with the Christians of their day, even
when the heads of the church were focused on building cathedrals, enlarging
their membership through any means (including violence), and restricting the
beliefs of their members. The saints recognized the oneness of all humanity
with creation, and they were able to convey this message to others through
their compassionate works and their inspired words.
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| St. Francis of Assisi |
Francis of Assisi, Italy’s beloved saint
who lived in the 13th century, is known for the compassion he
extended to every creature, from the outcast leper, to the wolf that terrorized
one of the little towns in his native Italy. No part of creation was less
important to Francis than another, and so he would preach to the birds with the
same enthusiasm that laced the sermons he gave for human ears. Francis
personified nature in his hymn: “The Canticle of the Creatures,” even though
the Church Fathers had decreed that divine spirit is limited to the Trinity:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Christian God created the universe from
nothing: creator and creation are separate and distinct. But Francis knew that
the Holy Spirit lived in every part of Nature. His song raises the elements
from soullessness to membership in the family of Love, and people throughout
the past 800 years have been inspired by his words to include all of creation
in their worship of the Divine.
Excerpt
from “The Canticle of the Creatures” by Saint Francis of Assisi:
All
praise be yours, my Lord,
through
all you have made,
and
first my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day;
and
through whom you give us light.
How
beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendor;
Of
you, Most High, he bears the likeness.
All
Praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Moon
and
the stars; in the heavens you have made them,
bright,
and precious, and fair.
All
praise be yours, my Lord,
through
Brothers wind and air, and fair and stormy,
all
the weather's moods,
by
which you cherish all that you have made.
All
praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water,
so
useful, humble, precious and pure.
All
praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through
whom you brighten up the night.
How
beautiful is he, how cheerful!
Full
of power and strength.
All
praise be yours, my Lord, through our Sister
Mother
Earth, who sustains us and governs us,
and
produces various fruits with colored flowers
and
herbs.
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