Meeting God (Christianity)

John Ruusbroec refers to a number of ways in which Christ, coming from above, like a mighty lord and benefactor, and from within outward, meets with us, coming from below like poor servants, and from outside inwards.

1. Natural union, no intermediary: All persons, both good and bad, naturally possess a nobility in the essential unity of spirit which, in its bare nature and in the highest part of its being, is naturally united with God.

2. Meeting God with intermediary: The spirit exists in unity in its activity, in itself, as its created, personal mode of being. In this unity it is either like God (by means of grace and virtue) or unlike God (because of mortal sin). Human beings are made in the likeness of God, in the grace of God. Losing this likeness is damnation. Whenever we turn to God, so that God finds in us a capacity for receiving His grace, He gives us life and makes us like Himself by means of His gifts. Christ enters us with gifts (with intermediary). We enter Christ with our virtues (with intermediary). There is constant renewal, with the giving of new gifts and the spirit turning back to God in accordance with how it has been called and gifted, and in this encounter receiving new gifts. Christ imprints His own image and likeness on us, delivers us from our sins, sets us free and makes us like Himself.

3. Meeting God without intermediary: Similarly, Christ enters us above all gifts (without intermediary); we enter Christ above all virtues (without intermediary). This is the most interior way of life. Incomprehensible light transforms and pervades the spirit's inclination to blissful enjoyment in a way devoid of particular form. It can only be known through itself. God calls in an overflow of essential resplendence which, enveloping in love, makes one lose one's self and flow into the darkness of the Godhead. One with the Spirit of God, one meets God with God to possess eternal blessedness with Him and in Him.

There are three modes in which the interior way of life is practised: emptiness; active desire; resting and working in accordance with righteousness. These are described in separate entries.