The final part of our series: How to think spiritually, or thinking like an angel.
“For all Divine influx from heaven passes into the good that exists with a person, and through that good into the truths there. … the Word is the means by which heaven is joined to the Church, or the angels of heaven to members of the Church, yet only to those there in whom the good of love and charity is present.” (Heavenly Secrets, 10355.3,5)
What is Charity (“Kindness”)? (The Heavenly City, paragraphs 100-104).
- … doing things sensibly so that good will come from them – if we support wrong-doers, we are harming other people through them (100).
- … doing what is right in all of our actions (101,102).
- … doing good things, acting honestly and fairly because that is what we wish, without ulterior motives (103).
- … an inner desire that makes us want to do good things even if we do not get anything in return (104).
“When a person judges things from natural perception he supposes that faith, insofar as it is truth taught by doctrine, is prior to charity, insofar as this is the good of life. He supposes this because he perceives how truth, which is taught by doctrine, enters in, but not how good, which is the good of life, does so; for truth enters in by an external route, that of the senses, whereas good enters in by an internal route. In addition he supposes that faith is prior for the reason that he cannot know other than that truth, since it teaches what good is, exists prior to good, and also for the reason that a person’s reformation is effected by means of truth as well as in accordance with truth; indeed he is perfected in good only to the extent that truth can be joined to it, so that good is perfected by means of truth. Yet another reason why he supposes that faith is first is that a person may know the truth and be able to think and speak from it, and to do so seemingly with ardent zeal, even though at the same time no good exists with him; indeed from that truth he may be quite confident of salvation. These and many other considerations cause a person, when judging matters from the sensory and natural man, to think that truth, which constitutes faith, comes before good, which flows from charity. But all these ideas are reasonings based on illusions, for they are things as seen by the sensory and natural man. [2] That which is prior is good itself – the good of life. This good is the ground itself into which truths are sown, and the nature of the ground determines how the seeds, that is, the truths of faith, are received. Truths are, indeed, able to be stored away previous to this in the memory like seeds in a box or in the crop situated in the gullet of small birds, but they do not become part of a person until the ground is prepared. And the character of the ground, that is, of good, determines that of their growth and fruitfulness.” (Heavenly Secrets, 3324)
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” (I Corinthians 13:1-3)
“I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.” (Matthew 11:25)
“Essentially charity towards the neighbour is an affection for goodness and truth and a recognition of oneself as being nothing but evil and falsity. Indeed the neighbour is one and the same as goodness and truth, and to have an affection for these is to have charity, while the opposite of the neighbour is evil and falsity, which a person who has charity turns away from. Anyone therefore who has charity towards the neighbour is moved by an affection for goodness and truth because they come from the Lord, and such a one turns away from evil and falsity because these come from himself.” (Heavenly Secrets, 4956) “Where charity does not exist self-love is present and consequently hatred towards all who do not show favour to self. As a result they see in the neighbour nothing except his evil. Or if they do see anything good they either perceive it as nothing or else place a bad interpretation on it. … But those who have charity hardly notice the evil in another person, but instead notice all the goods and truths that are his; and on his evils and falsities they place a good interpretation. Of such a nature are all angels, it being something they have from the Lord, who bends everything evil into good.” (Heavenly Secrets, 1079)