THE LORD'S PRAYER
AND
THE CREATION WEEK
By The Rev. Erik Sandstrom, Sr.
(Lesson 5)
5. Thy Will Be Done
Thy will be done, as in
heaven, so upon the earth. It might seem that this petition is
self-explanatory. Everyone who believes that there is a heaven knows that the
will of the Father is done there, and it takes little imagination to think that
it would be a good thing if His will were done on earth as well. But to reduce
this third petition in the Lord's Prayer to such a pious thought only is to make
it trivial. If it is to be understood truly, we must first have a certain
knowledge of how the angels do carry out the Divine will. Then, that knowledge
having been well grasped, the problem arises as to how to bring about a like
order on earth. The one viewpoint and the other differ as do the active and the
passive.
If there ever was a prayer that
calls pointedly and explicitly for action, it is this part of the Lord's Prayer:
Let Thy will be done upon the earth. Clearly it is the business of the one who
prays to see to it that the petition is fulfilled: for it is he who lives on
earth, and he alone can decide whether or not he will obey the Divine will
during his sojourn here. He cannot fulfill the prayer for others, for the many:
those others are, of course, in the same situation as himself, and they, too,
must decide for themselves. Thus the growth of the heavenly kingdom in the world
will never come about by force of external circumstance. The action of one will
never establish the kingdom with another. It will spread in no other way than by
individual reception, through man to man.
This is indicated by the very
wording of the petition as in heaven, so upon the earth. For this mode of
speech signifies a descent, from heaven to the earth. Clearly. such a descent
can take place only through the mind of man, thus individually. In his own mind
there must be something of heaven an idea, a concept of heaven, even a measure
of affection for the things of heaven before there can be a descent to the earth
of his mind. Heaven does not come down to earth outside of man, or apart from
him. There is, in fact, no channel of influx outside of the organic which alone
is created to exist in two worlds at the same time, namely, the spiritual world
and the natural. Apart from the Word, which also exists in both worlds at the
same time, and which operates through man, the human mind is the only link
between heaven and earth. Furthermore, if the prayer is to become living at all,
it is obvious that the will of the Lord in heaven can mean that will only in so
far as it is known to the man. What he does not know or comprehend can have no
inspiration for him, and cannot guide him in his mode of action on earth. Hence
it is clear that no other heaven is meant than the heaven of his own mind, the
heaven of his own conception, when he is taught to pray: Thy will be done, as
in heaven, so upon the earth. That heaven is the heaven of his own conscience.
Not that man himself builds
this heaven of his mind! Let us beware lest it be so. That heaven must be built
by the Word; even as the Lord's universal heaven, consisting of countless angels
in whom heaven is individually, is so built. The Word as known by man, then,
gives him the vision of heaven and the conscience of heaven. Small, imperfect
and feeble is the heaven of his mind if he has learned little from the Word,
powerful and effulgent if he has learned much. Yet, whatever the nature of that
heaven, it is of no consequence to him, unless it comes down to his earth to his
everyday thoughts and habitual actions.
The Lord taught this lesson
when He washed the disciples' feet. Peter, being served in his turn by his
Master, objected, saying Thou shalt never wash my feet : but being told that it
was essential that it should be done . . . If I wash thee not, thou host no
part with Me he ardently swung over to the opposite sentiment, beseeching,
Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Then it was that the
Lord gave to him and to all the world this important doctrine: He that is
washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. By this is
meant that man is not cleansed from his evils, that is, is not regenerated, save
in the degree that his external man, signified by the feet, is purified. His
internal man must indeed be brought into a state of regeneration before this can
he done, for there must be a heaven to descend to the earth; but that internal
regeneration is in no way appropriated to him until his earth has been brought
into order. It is essential to note that Peter, although his hands and his head
were clean, had no part with the Lord. The reason is that the preliminary
regeneration of the internal man is purely a matter of building up man's
conscience. For as the doctrine has it: The internal man is purified by
knowing, understanding and thinking the truths of the Word (AE 475: 7); and
again: He that is washed signifies he who has been purified, that is,
regenerated as to the spiritual, which is the good of love and the truth of
doctrine, which must first be received in the memory and the understanding, that
is, must be known and acknowledged. Needeth not save to wash his feet
signifies that the natural or external man must: then be purified or
regenerated, which is done by means of a life according to the precepts of love
and faith, that is according to the goods and truths of doctrine from the Word;
which, when it is done, causes the man himself to be purified or regenerated . .
. wherefore it is said that man is then every whit clean (AE 666: 2). That
conscience is what is implied in these statements may appear from what is taught
elsewhere about it, as for instance in the following: The characteristic of the
spiritual church is that man is born again by means of doctrinal things of
faith, after the implantation of which a conscience is insinuated into him, lest
he should act against the truth and good of faith (AC 765); Conscience is
formed by the Lord in man's intellectual part (AC 875e); That which a man has
heard, acknowledged and believed makes the conscience in him (AC 1077):
wherefore the conscience is a better one in proportion as its truths approach
more closely to the genuine truths of faith (AC 2053; cf. AC 986, 863, 918,
1043, 1044).
Now, then, the building up of
conscience in the internal man, and this by means of truths of doctrine from the
Word, constitutes the regeneration of that internal man; and, let it he
repeated, man can have no idea of heaven apart from what has been so built up.
There he has his vision of his eternal goal; there is his concept of the true
pattern of life; there resides the strength of his conviction, from which he is
fortified in it; there is the Lord's kingdom in its beginning with him. All this
however, is but a potentiality but a prophecy. The fulfillment depends entirely
on whether or not the external man will be formed after the pattern of that
internal; for only the obedience of the external man causes the man himself to
be purified or regenerated (AE 666: 2). That is why the Lord told Peter that
unless He should wash his feet, Peter would have no part with him.
We can now see how the first
three petitions in the Lord's Prayer form a connected series. First there
is a looking to the Lord, the source of all enlightenment, and the hallowing of
the truths He teaches and the uses to which He points the things that tell of
His name. Second there is a study of the Word the open Word, the law book
of the kingdom in order that this His kingdom may be established above the
expanse in the internal man. And then, third, there is the descent of
the kingdom, of heaven, to the earth.
In this, as noted previously,
we see a parallel for the first three days of creation. To begin with, there is
the appearing of light ; afterwards follows the separation of the knowledges of
good and truth that belong to heaven from those that pertain to the world of the
waters above the expanse from those beneath; and then there is a state of
repentance, signified by the first vegetation from the earth.
This turns our minds to the
mode by which the kingdom of heaven descends to the earth the mode by which the
regenerated internal man effects regeneration in the external man, and thus in
the whole man. That mode is repentance. Influx is according to reception, and it
is therefore impossible for the things of the internal man, the things of
conscience, to put their imprint upon our everyday thoughts and habitual actions
unless these thoughts and actions be changed so as to agree with what is
heavenly. That is why the Baptist could have no other gospel than this: Repent
ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 3: 2). Perhaps John did not
know that this kingdom was not to come merely by an external following of Him
who was mightier than he, whose shoes he was not worthy to bear, but the Lord
Himself was to teach that the kingdom cometh not with observation (Luke 17:
20). It comes from within, from the internal mind where it is first raised up,
and from there it descends.
From this it is clear that the
petition, ''Thy will be done, as in heaven, so upon the earth, is essentially a
prayer for help in repentance. It is a prayer for light and strength to do the
works of repentance, so that the external man, the earth of the mind, may also
do the will of the Father who is in heaven.
The emphasis in repentance, as
far as man is concerned is on the external of the mind. Two things, however,
need to be understood in this connection. First, the external mind includes
everything that comes clearly to our awareness not. only what we do and say but
also what we feel and think. It is true that feeling, or affection, does not
come to our immediate consciousness except as we think of it. But we can
certainly do this, and thus detect the affection; for we can always know what it
is that causes a feeling of delight, or undelight, and this reveals our
affection. Second, we must know that more is to be cleansed within us than that
which comes to our consciousness, more than the external man. For the very
origin of all evil affections and vain thoughts, and hence of all selfish acts
and foolish words, must also be removed. That origin, however, is beyond our
reach. We cannot look down into our ruling love, as we can from conscience look
down into our external man. Our ruling love, with its own interior affections
and imaginings, is known to the Lord alone, who, being above, is able to look
down into it. Therefore this ruling love, together with its subordinate loves,
can be moved away only by Him. But it is most essential to know that He does not
do it, cannot do it, unless we pray in very act that His will may be done on
earth as in heaven.
The ruling love, like
conscience, is said to be in the internal man. But there should be no confusion
of these two, for the one internal man is in the will and the other is in the
understanding. The will, as we know, is corrupt by nature, and cannot be saved,
for it loves only self and the world. But the understanding, being separated so
that it can operate and see and conclude independently of the will, is salvable.
It is there alone that conscience can be implanted and an interior heaven thus
formed. But meanwhile the external, conscious mind is influenced by the ruling
love in the internal of the will; as it is simultaneously and in constant
competition influenced by the ruling love, the conscience, in the understanding.
But if there is to be unity in the man, one will or the other must obviously be
put to silence. This also is done through man's life in the world. Either
conscience is exterminated, or the will of the native proprium is made
quiescent.
The second law of the Divine
Providence refers to the latter being done. At the same time it gives the
precise law by which the third petition of the Lord's Prayer is granted. It is
a law of the Divine Providence that man should, as of himself, remove evils as
sins in the external man; and thus, and not otherwise, the Lord can remove evils
in the internal man [of the will], and then at the same time in the external
(DP 100). It is said, and then at the same time in the external, for the
external is only apparently cleansed by man's persistence in the work of
repentance. It is not actually made pure except by the removal of the impurities
that inflow from within. Nevertheless, the truth stands that it is man's part to
receive heaven as of himself, to do the Lord's will on earth as it is done in
heaven. It is for him, as it were, to invite the cleansing influx.
But how is the Lord's will done
in heaven? We know from the Old and New Testaments that the angels perpetually
praise the Lord; and we know from the Writings that this praise consists
essentially in a life of use to the glory of His name. That use springs from the
application of the truths and goods of the Word, as understood by the angels, to
acts and words of charity, and all this as of themselves. This is performing
uses from wise judgment, from a true and loving understanding of the Word. And
we pray for nothing but the enlightenment and the strength to do likewise when
we say, Thy will be done, as in heaven, so upon the earth.
This petition is perhaps the
best loved portion of the Lord's Prayer. At any rate, the abbreviated form of
it, Thy will be done," is probably the most repeated part. This may be said in
merely passive, unreflecting, indifferent submission, thus as an expression of
empty piety. It may also voice a prayer for strength and courage and hope in
moments of difficulty and stress. If so, consolation and trust are given, and in
their strength the man then goes forward. This, too, is a form of repentance;
for if his affections and anxious thoughts in times of stress do not arise from
a willful purpose of evil, they yet originate in a lack of trust in the Divine
Providence.
The point to be emphasized,
therefore, is that this prayer, Thy will be done, must ever be spoken with a
clear and definite purpose of going forward! The Lord in Gethsemane set the
supreme example. From His Mary-human He was in deepest distress, and He fought
to derive life and power from His Divine. This is expressed by His words:
Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt." And a little later He said: O
My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be
done.
If man would learn to pray in
like manner, then the Lord of heaven and earth would stoop down to wash his
feet, and then his external would be as his internal. This, in our day, is the
New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven.
TO CONTINUE :
Beginning -
Lesson - 2 -
Lesson - 3 -
Lesson - 4 -
Lesson - 6 -
Lesson - 7 -
Lesson - 8 -
Lesson - 9 -
Lesson 10 -
v v v |
