Posted by giveawayboy on October 14, 2005 at 14:06:56:
In Reply to: The Logos (very long) posted by PS on October 10, 2005 at 22:51:14:
:God beholding himself.
I like this. In Hinduism, a significant act of worship is beholding an image of the deity. This action of beholding images of the holy is also part of the Eastern Christian traditions. The saints are those who behold God in their hearts and are transformed into his image. The beholding of an image of a saint is more an exercise of the heart and human psychology than merely that of the eye. When we see the saint we are not only looking at this person and recalling what their lives meant to us(consider Win Spinney here) but we are looking beyond and into that person to see God perfectly hidden, incarnated and enshrined within them; mystically, but really and actively present to us. We are looking but with our spiritual eyes. I feel that part of the Christian understanding is that when we behold God, the process of beholding is supposed to transform us into his nature. When we begin to see God present in his creation, we will eventually see him in every person, every encounter, even in places where we would never have imagined him present.