The greatest gift we can receive from God is a moment of unreflective certainty1 in the world, the silent nearness ‘in the world’ we spend the rest of our lives unfolding. This encounter with a heavenly emergence—the hidden presence of God becoming recognizable—is the pearl of great price for which one sells all one owns to acquire.
"Again the kingdom of heaven is like to a merchant seeking good pearls. Who when he had found one pearl of great price, went his way, and sold all that he had, and bought it.” Matthew 13: 45-46 (Douay-Rheims)
St. Joan of Arc emerged in my life as an encounter with her hidden nearness ‘in the world.’ It is as if the trajectory of my entire life beforehand prepared me to receive the encounter and the purpose every day after has been to live ever-nearer to it ‘in the world’ through interpretation and discovery. It is my “pearl of great price.” Joan’s nearness was a confrontation in my world, a resplendent moment of intuitive comprehension and sensed presence. Joan’s recognizable role in my life story happened through a mystical touch arising from the spiritual depths of Thérèse’s plays and poetry. I refer to the touch—using Thérèsian terminology—as a “divine glance”2 and the silent unveiling of my sacred mythology—my “story”—through the topology of the “combined hearts” of St. Joan and St. Thérèse. This sudden interruption in my world led to a tireless journey to fully embrace the revelation that so magnificently interrupted me. I could sense the silent unveiling of the story as it simultaneously hid itself from me. It demanded my pursuit. Abandonment to pursuit was its price.
“My beloved is like a roe, or a young hart. Behold he standeth behind our wall, looking through the windows, looking through the lattices. Behold my beloved speaketh to me: Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come.” Canticle of Canticles 2: 9-10 (Douay-Rheims)
The journey transformed my life as I sold everything I had to obtain the pearl—my sacred mythology shimmering across the Kingdom of the Combined Hearts. I describe their kingdom through the sacred topology of “Mystical France.”
Wherefore I wished, and understanding was given me: and I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came upon me: And I preferred her before kingdoms and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison of her. Wisdom 7: 7-8 (Douay-Rheims)
Stepping into the silent unveiling of the sacred topology—Mystical France—was a journey to the primordial ground of the encounter with Joan of Arc. It was the beginning of a relationship with the eternal Kingdom of God through the lifting of its veil ‘in the world.’ The Holy Spirit guided me on my journey as I heard what was silent, received it, and allowed it to bear fruit in my being as the Word of God.
For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two edged sword; and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature invisible in his sight: but all things are naked and open to his eyes, to whom our speech is. Hebrews 4: 12-13 (Douay-Rheims)
In its metaphysical Catholicity, it was a holy consecration to Joan of Arc through whom, by God’s overflowing grace, the Holy Spirit formed the sacred topology in my heart and brought forth the sacred mythology out of the silence. Even more, Mystical France became an expression of True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary who holds the Fleur-de-Lys close to her heart. In its happening, it was nearness ‘in the world’ with St. Joan and St. Thérèse on the sacred mythopoetic golden thread to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
The revelatory manner of the encounter was the nearness of holy friendship3 with Joan of Arc. The plays and poetry of Thérèse lifted the veil over this hidden friendship, revealing it as nearness ‘in the world.’ The effect of this emergence was a sharing in Thérèse’s heavenly friendship with Joan,4 which I called their refulgent “combined hearts.” The purpose of living in the nearness of their combined hearts through contemplative interpretation was my sanctification, conditioned on fidelity to grace. They led me as an heir to their Kingdom, through discovery, and I will not arrive without them. The sacred mythopoetic golden thread was a pathway to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Kingdom of God through a relationship with Joan of Arc and Thérèse.
Despite the frequent philosophical language, my pilgrim’s journey remained primarily devotional. I made no attempt to interpret this “divine glance” as a purely philosophical affair. The astonishing5 moment imbuing my soul in a lifelong relationship with St. Joan of Arc was a supernatural grace from Our Lord Jesus Christ through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I have done my best to describe this silent encounter through my life story and reflections, which I hope will inspire a similarly powerful silent nearness with Joan and Thérèse in others.
Coming next: The refulgence of Mary Magdalene’s heart as “Mystical France.”
“The Second Wind (Live)” from the album The House of New Bethany on my music site, WalterEmerson.com.
Lyrics ©Walter Emerson Adams. Music, vocals, and live audience by Suno ©Walter Emerson Adams.
A second wind caught me. Effortlessly, I reached upward; I was lifted higher, higher. It was the first wind; then the second. Magdalene. The apostle appeared, Mary Magdalene. She received me at the first wind, and cast me into the second, to heights unimagined. As I rose, I was robed in splendor. A crown, a scepter, a silent whisper, “You are a King of France, a royal son of New Bethany.” The Lord’s friendship, God’s place of rest. Mary’s fragrance, Magdalene’s home. From New Bethany, my eyes spanned the world below the second wind.
Footnotes
“The certainty of being is an unreflective certainty, and it precedes all our rational knowledge.” ~ Edith Stein. Potency and Act (The Collected Works of Edith Stein) Kindle Location 484.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux. “I want to console you for the ingratitude of the wicked, and I beg of you to take away my freedom to displease you. If through weakness I sometimes fall, may your Divine Glance cleanse my soul immediately, consuming all my imperfections like the fire that transforms everything into itself.” https://www.archives-carmel-lisieux.fr/english/carmel/index.php/pri-6
“Friendship is born from one soul into another soul; and the soul has value only in itself. Once we meet there, everything else disappears. And yet, by an admiral privilege, time confirms friendship… like two rocks overhanging similar waves and showing them unwavering resistance, so do they notice the flow of years vainly attacking the unchanging harmony of their hearts.” Lacordaire, OP, Henri-Dominique. The Life of St. Mary Magdalene. Dominican Friars, Province of St. Joseph, 2015. pp. 11-12.
“In either case, one spirit, by joining with another, comes to share in the other’s mode of being.” Stein, Edith. Potency and Act - Studies Toward a Philosophy of Being. Washington DC: ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies, 2009. loc. 2064.
“Phenomenological Reduction - A Peer Reviewed Academic Source.” Accessed December 3, 2022. https://iep.utm.edu/phen-red/#H1. “There is an experience in which it is possible for us to come to the world with no knowledge or preconceptions in hand; it is the experience of astonishment. The ‘knowing’ we have in this experience stands in stark contrast to the ‘knowing’ we have in our everyday lives, where we come to the world with theory and ‘knowledge’ in hand, our minds already made up before we ever engage the world. However, in the experience of astonishment, our everyday ‘knowing,’ when compared to the ‘knowing’ that we experience in astonishment, is shown up as a pale epistemological imposter and is reduced to mere opinion by comparison.”