Audio Message:
Who are "The
Ruined?" (if you
want the shorter version, skip ahead 25 minutes into the audio file)
Photo by John McColgan:Bitteroot, Montana
2000
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Isaiah
6:1-8
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a
throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the
temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two
wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their
feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to
one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole
earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the
doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with
smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I
am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean
lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” Then
one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand,
which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched
my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt
is taken away and your sin atoned for.” Then I heard the voice
of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” |
"The
Ruined" are those countless ones throughout the ages who have
encountered the presence of the living God to such an extent that they
are "ruined" for the things of this world. They can never return for any
extended time to what was formerly known as "normal life." They are
burned with a vision of the beauty of God in the face of Christ--and
they seek this in everyone and everything they meet. They desire to take
the invitation to enter into the divine dialogue that eternally takes
place between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They have
realized that there are no other pleasures left that this world can
possibly offer; and so they are driven ever deeper into the mysteries of
God until they drink from "the river that delights His city." They have
encountered the Resurrected Christ and have gazed into His eyes of fire
with their hearts. The fire in His eyes has burned into their hearts and
eyes; and they now see the entire creation bathed in the fire of God's
passionate love. (See Hopkins's poem,
"God's Grandeur"). Consequently, the rest of their lives on earth,
and even onward into heaven is an eternal journey into the
Sacred Heart of Jesus.
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Psalm
84:10
Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I
would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell
in the tents of the wicked. |
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Philippians
3:7-14
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for
Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the
excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I
have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own
righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through
faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the
fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if,
by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I
press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has
also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have
apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which
are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God
in Christ Jesus.
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