Highly esteemed readers:
I am sending you on this occasion the last of the seven engravings alluding to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which is entitled…
…SPIRITVS TEMORIS DNI
─’The Spirit of the Fear of God’─
To enter into this last “gift” of the Holy Spirit requires the use of modesty and humility, since we are talking about nothing more and nothing less than that which we call God.
It is necessary to understand that God, the BEING, is above all a portentous energy endowed with extraordinary qualities such as omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence and a series of metaphysical qualities that escape the cheap reasoning of the rational humanoid.
The BEING, or God, is beyond good and evil, beyond all the illusory things of our existence and that we often come to consider as real when in truth they are things belonging to the relativity of our presence. In this way we can affirm without fear of being wrong that He is the owner of our life from the moment we are born, and He continues to be our owner when we leave for other dimensions when our earthly death arrives.
When Moses, in his time, gave humanity the TABLETS OF THE LAW, the first commandment that was expressed in them was, precisely, “You shall love your God above all things…”. This meant and still means that everything else: friends, family, possessions, husband or wife, material goods of any kind, etc., etc., etc., would be secondary in the order of priorities to be taken into account in the development of our transit in this valley of tears.
When we allow our intellect to intrude on our spiritual life, that it is when our ANIMAL EGO begins to pull its strings, trying at all times to make us feel that we are self-sufficient and that the idea we carry in our psyche is wrong. Obviously, this happens when we allow ourselves to be trapped by what we call identification with things, or with the external and internal states that surround us, and that is where the sleep of the Consciousness begins to take shape…
That state of numbness has been accompanying us for centuries and millennia and has caused the sad separation of us from that energetic portent that we call the BEING. As a result of this separation, countless tragedies, dramas and comedies have happened to us, and the worst thing about all this chaos is that we do not manage to identify the cause of all these malevolent circumstances ─namely: the “I”─. Gnosis, fortunately, taught us and teaches us to transform the events that happen to us daily in order not to reinforce our blindness so as not to continue being thinking sleepwalkers. That is why sociologists call the three-brained biped that walks the streets of large cities Homo sapiens sapiens.
But that biped to which we mention does not know why it exists, what it exists for, who brought it to life, why it lives and where it goes when it dies… It is unquestionable that if we do not profoundly question our relationship with the divine, obviously our own Creator can determine, when he sees fit, our disappearance from the world of the living, because we are and have been a part of that creation that we contemplate by means of the help of our five senses.
If we human beings were concerned with finding the reason for that Creation, which includes the whole of Nature and the Cosmos or Universe, it would be a different story, and we would then begin to find a meaning to our presence in the midst of all that scenario.
Unfortunately, dear reader, the pseudoscientists of our time study the Cosmos and Nature with an air of pseudo-wisdom and always believing themselves to be absolute bearers of the essence of truth, all of which makes them invent chimeras which they end up calling truths. Like when it was said that the Earth was flat and no one could go beyond the horizon, or like when it was commented that there were only three dimensions, made up of the length, width and height of any one thing, to end up discarding those pseudo-truths with the affirmations of an Einstein who had established the law of relativity, followed by the appearance of a Hinton and his approach to parallel universes.
That is why the maiden in our engraving appears dressed in a simple way, with her head bordered by the fire of enlightenment and wearing a laurel wreath on it. The laurel is the symbol of the victory of truth. That is why this image of the laurel is present again in the right hand of the woman in our subject. God, the BEING, is infinitely powerful, but at the same time very magnanimous, because he represents the intelligence of intelligences, and part of that intelligence is constituted by his extraordinary humility. That is why, on one occasion, the wise Solomon exclaimed: “The glory of God consists in hiding his secrets and that of man in discovering them.”
On the other hand, it is good to know that, when because of our self-importance we end up scorning the powers of the BEING and we become creatures that practically challenge His omniscience and omnipotence, then we end up being condemned by Divine Justice to inferior strata or infra-dimensions, where only weeping and gnashing of teeth are heard, as the Holy Scriptures affirm.
In the lower part of our engraving we observe, accompanying the maiden, a high-flying bird. We all know that these birds can certainly soar to unestablished heights, and the sharpness of their vision allows them to detect from above the movements of a simple earthworm. In the same way, the vision of the Creator, the vision of the BEING, contemplates everything; that is why it is traditionally said, speaking of God, that He sees everything, He perceives everything from his kingdom on high.
We must also add to the description of our engraving two animal creatures similar to a mixture of goats with human breasts and endowed with claws. Both creatures carry a rope between their mouths that at the top points to a row of leaves that show a human head in its central part. The human head is there to tell the reader:
«Si non in timore Domini tenueris te instanter, cito subuertetur domus tua. Eccles. 27».
Translation: ‘If you do not stand firm in the fear of the Lord, your house will soon be torn down. Ecclesiasticus 27’.
Let us now reflect on the following sentences:
“Ecclesiasticus, 27:
God Speaks Today
1 Many have committed sin for gain, and those who seek to get rich will avert their eyes.
2 As a stake is driven firmly into a fissure between stones; so sin is wedged in between selling and buying.
3 If a person is not steadfast in the fear of the Lord, his house will be quickly overthrown.
4 When a sieve is shaken, the refuse appears; so does a person’s faults when he speaks.
5 The kiln tests the potter’s vessels, and the test of a person is in his conversation.
6 Its fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree; so a person’s speech discloses the cultivation of his mind.
7 Do not praise anyone before he speaks, for this is the way people are tested.
8 If you pursue justice, you will attain it and wear it like a glorious robe.
9 Birds roost with their own kind, so honesty comes home to those who practice it.
10 A lion lies in wait for prey; so does sin for evildoers.
11 The conversation of the godly is always wise, but the fool changes like the moon.
12 Among stupid people limit your time, but among thoughtful people linger on.
13 The talk of fools is offensive, and their laughter is wantonly sinful.
14 Their cursing and swearing make one’s hair stand on end, and their quarrels make others stop their ears.
15 The strife of the proud leads to bloodshed, and their abuse is grievous to hear!
A Secret is kept:
16 Whoever betrays secrets destroys confidence and will never find a congenial friend.
17 Love your friend and keep faith with him, but if you betray his secrets, do not follow after him.
18 For as a person destroys his enemy, so you have destroyed the friendship of your neighbor.
19 And as you allow a bird to escape from your hand, so you have let your neighbor go and will not catch him again.
20 Do not go after him, for he is too far off and has escaped like a gazelle from a snare.
21 For a wound may be bandaged, and there is reconciliation after abuse, but whoever has betrayed secrets is without hope.
Hypocrisy
22 Whoever winks the eye plots mischief, and those who know him will keep their distance.
23 In your presence his mouth is all sweetness, and he admires your words, but later he will twist his speech and with your own words he will trip you up.
24 I have hated many things but him above all; even the Lord hates him.
25 Whoever throw a stone straight up throw it on his own head, and a treacherous blow opens up many wounds.
26 Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and whoever sets a snare will be caught in it.
27 If a person does evil, it will roll back upon him, and he will not know where it came from.
28 Mockery and abuse issue from the proud, but vengeance lies in wait for them like a lion.
29 Those who rejoice in the fall of the godly will be caught in a snare, and pain will consume them before their death.”
I add below a few sentences for your reflection:
“I fear God, and after God I fear chiefly the one who does not fear Him.”
Saadi
“Fear must always be preserved, but it must never be shown.”
Quevedo
“Fear is the measure of the qualities of the soul.”
Virgilio
“Many lack that little bit of world and practical tact, without which it is so easy to encounter new obstacles at every step, even where the road is flat. They come and want to see on their own and think they are doing well when they barely glimpse, and they have a great need for us to pity them.”
Pius X
“I know of no such unquestionable badge and ensign of a sovereign mind as that of tenacity of purpose which invariably continues on its way until reaching the very end.”
Emerson
MEMENTO MORI
─’Remember that you are going to die’─
KWEN KHAN KHU
