Mysticism & Gospel of Thomas – No. 38 – Night of the Soul

Verse - Night of the Soul

Jesus said, "Often you have desired to hear these words that I now tell you, and you have no one else from whom you can hear them. Days will come when you will seek me and will not find me."

Comment

How often do we long to hear advice, to receive his consolation, to hear the words of light, to be certain of his presence. For we know that we "have no one else to hear them from him", that no one else can advise, free and redeem us. But those who go inward also know that there are hours and days when the inner voice is silent. The mystics speak of the dark night of the soul, which follows the first illuminations and precedes the attainment of oneness. It is a time of spiritual drought in which we listen in vain. But in this time of testing our faith and proving our trust, the time passes and finally our longing is fulfilled and the voice of silence sounds more blissful than ever. Then what Luke says will come true:

As the lightning flashes from heaven above and lights up everything under heaven, so the Son of Man will be on his day and will be visible in the blazing of the inner light.

To experience this, we must become aware of the truth in the inward turn, which is expressed in another apocryphal saying of Christ, reproduced by the Church Father Epiphany: Man sleeps - and I am awake. That means: You sleep and do not recognize me, although I am in you, while I am awake and guide you from within. Turn inward - from the sleep-enveloped ego of the outer man to the eternally awake self in the inner man, and become aware of me, so that you can enter from the realm of the dead into that of the living! There are such "dead" on both sides, and in both worlds there are those who have awakened to life, who hear the inner word and follow it.