Spiritual Perception (Seeing 'Beneath the Surface')
“We need to stop judging people and making assumptions about who they are and who their families were based on the surface. Life doesn’t happen on the surface. Real life happens beneath the surface, in the layers and layers of our being, in our soul…There is a time to reveal and a time to keep things behind the veil. Although I need to share and connect, I do not want my internal life and struggles to burden or tempt others, or to be an indulgence which would tempt me to make a new mask for myself. So discernment is required. But this does not mean hiding: I do not want to obscure myself in any relationship. I need to create a veil that preserves my dignity by covering—but a veil, unlike a mask, covers not so much by concealing as by revealing the deeper personal reality beneath. I know that I am not defined by my sins, nor by my temptations, my hurts, and my past: this fallen world is but a shadow of a more glorious ultimate reality.” (Jackie Morfesis, Andrew Williams)
“Faith is not a matter of “belief,” an act of intellectual willing. Faith is a perception of things that do not necessarily appear obvious. In the language of Scripture – “faith is the evidence of things not seen.” But the perception of faith is similar to the perception of objects beneath the surface of a lake. If the surface is disturbed, the objects disappear. The objects do not go away – but we can no longer perceive them. In a world of manifold complication – the surface of the water is rarely still. The journey of faith thus becomes a movement away from complication. In the Christian tradition, many have sought the stillness of the desert, the absence of distraction, as a means to spiritual perception…What lies beneath the surface of many scenes, of many texts, of the obvious, of our skin, are entire new and unseen worlds. We can be in the midst of these many worlds and not even be aware of their existence. But when our eyes are opened – physical eyes or spiritual eyes – we can see these new heavens and worlds which bring us ever closer to God.” (Father Stephen Freeman, Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“…sin affects our lives daily, it still remains exterior to us – it clings to us (Hebrews 12:1) like mud and sullies our appearance – it covers over God’s image and likeness in us. However, because sin is not part of our nature, it can be washed away (Psalm 51:2). God’s gifts to us – being created in His image and having His kingdom within us – are part of our human nature which neither sin, death nor Satan can eliminate from us. Baptism can wash away our sins because sin is not part of our being but nothing more than layers like mud covering us and hiding the divine beauty which is part of our being. Beneath the mud of sin is still the invaluable gem of a human being.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh, St. Gregory of Nyssa)
“...the parables [such as the Parable of the Mustard Seed…] have to do with things that are cryptic, concealed beneath the surface of other things. These hidden things are what the Lord speaks of in his parables. The world is already the secret bearer of inner mysteries. They have been there all along, concealed in the structure of existence, and the Lord addresses our attention to them in his parables…The mustard seed does not even slightly resemble a mustard bush, nor does a bit of leaven look at all like a loaf of bread. In both instances there is, rather, a mystery of life that is revealed by a process of transformation.” (Fr. Patrick Reardon)
“Seeing, discerning, and experiencing the spiritual and the extraordinary within the mundane ordinary is the Sacramental life. There’s always ‘something behind the something’ so to speak and we need to grow spiritually to see beneath the surface of things and, most importantly, participate in it. Our highest example of this is that the bread and wine is so much more than bread and the wine.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)
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