Rev. Steve Sanchez

Rev. Steve Sanchez
Swedenborgian Minister

Saturday, February 7, 2015

The Divine of Heaven and Marriage in Heaven - as shown in Movies


There is nothing so deep as conjugal love to move the heart, soul, and the body. This can be truly said because conjugal love has the same root as worship. The reason true love between a man and a woman and divine worship have the same root is that there is a Holy Marriage in the Lord. The Holy marriage in the Lord is between the essence of the Lord and his human body. This bond (was always there) but forged in a new way by Jesus Christ in the process of the glorification while he lived on earth. The culmination of the process is that He made his body divine, something that only He has done, and never will be done again. It is enormously instructive to understand that this process was performed in the face of the most dire situation, and the greatest evil that has ever existed, or ever will exist. If Jesus had not come humanity would have been lost in an eternal darkness. (I cannot substantiate this now but have written a book about it). The point here is the greatest evil had to be matched by a greater love, and the divine truth of love is the most powerful force in all the universe, and with this power within Him Jesus defeated all the forces of evil, and put heaven and earth back in order. This battle was waged in the body of Jesus, step by step, by profound skill, awareness and love – against forces that constantly raised the stakes to destroy him. We see it on earth in the gospel stories, but this is only the tip of the iceberg compared to what he was doing at the same time in the spiritual world. The ‘one’ who does it provides redemption, and we love Him for it. This feeling of love for redemption is the essence of worship. There is something innate in the human soul that recognizes this – we respond to true acts of sacrifice and skill when a man or woman puts their life on the line for others. This is why Jesus said, “There is no greater love than to lay down your life for another”, and this is why we honor heroes of the military and the service, why we have ceremonies, why we need bereavement ceremonies for lost beloved ones in our life.
      We have the same feeling for our true beloved, our wife or husband, if it is true conjugal love, for this union takes our soul, like redemption, to  depth, peace, skill, and happiness that it could never reach otherwise. There are many great loves such as love of children and love of friends, but the highest love is true marriage love. This is why at the end of Interstellar after all they had been through when Cooper finally reunites with His daughter (who he has yearned the whole movie to see again, and who now is older than him) – his old daughter tells him she herself has everything she needs now with her family, - and that he can go. He asks, “where” like a man who has not ‘got it’ yet; and she says one word, “Brand”. Brand is his true conjugal love. He steps back dazed as the true state of his underneath love rushes into his awareness. All this is rife with meaning for it is women who are the true conductors of conjugal love for men. And the story reaches into Biblical proportions and meanings because he is seeking to live with Brand and begin life on a new planet, like Adam and Eve, or the Noah story. The meaning is made even greater when we contemplate the sacred purpose of conjugal love and why it is the highest of all loves, - and that is, that conjugal love is governed by the Lord’s providence to continually perpetuate mankind, and in a higher way to populate the Lord’s heavenly kingdom, which is the end purpose of life. For all angels of heaven are former humans.
      We see the heavenly nature of true love in movies like ‘Gladiator’, and 'Braveheart'. In these movies after the main character goes through enormous struggles for a great purpose they are killed by the treachery of the enemy – which in itself is a clear Christ parallel. Through their life they have the skill, heart and determination to accomplish great things for their people against a ruthless enemy – they help provide justice and redemption to the people. In a way, like all heroic efforts, they give people their heart of integrity back. At the end of each of these movies they are suffering and die in sacrifice for their ideals, and yet they are inwardly at peace, for they see in the spirit their wife reaching to them from heaven and assuring them. This is the peace and promise of heaven, for conjugal love is the very basis of heaven. It is the very basis of heaven because the universal principle of life is that there is a marriage between love and wisdom; this is the universal in every particular because it comes from the holy marriage between Gods essence and His human.
      In the movie ‘Starman’ all of these themes come into play, and are combined because worship and conjugal go together. In Starman the alien is at once wise, possessing unknown powers of healing, technology and resurrection, but he is also profoundly innocent, knowing nothing of life on earth, but taught by a normal, kind, loving woman. She is barren, but he gives her a child when they eventually make love. He tells her she will have a child, and that it will be a boy, that he will be a great teacher on earth. The alien is a Christ figure, along with the child. He says, “shall I tell you what I find beautiful about your planet. You are at your best when things are worst”, echoing the theme that the Lord entered the highest state of love that redeemed the world when the greatest state of evil threatened to destroy all. The nature of the child's inception echos the virgin birth in the Bible. Starman has been using secret little spheres that have given him the power to withstand enormous explosions and to resurrect Jenny when she is shot. Starman gives the woman one of these secret balls at the end while beautiful strains of music evoke deep feeling, and tells her to give it to their son, and he tells her that the boy will know what to do with it. He fulfills the woman’s life through true love for each other. The balls are potentially full of symbolic meaning. Carl Jung interpreted the ring-like spheres of UFO's as projections or yearning for wholeness in the self. Because the child will know how to use them, and he will be a teacher, I would say they represent the internal skill to come into the wholeness of self that leads to fulfillment. The balls are containers of the union of love and wisdom that carrie with them all the information to achieve their ends. For each individual the ball represents the unique gifts given from creation to be of use in life on earth, and in the Lord's kingdom.
     

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