Communion and Communication
Martin Cecil May 3, 1981
How beautifully and strongly a creative atmosphere may be set—the atmosphere of communion. Only as true communion is known is there anything of meaning and value to be communicated. When communication springs out of the state of communion that communication may open a window of heaven, so that others might share in the communion. Communion requires very few words, if any—communion is made possible of experience when there is spiritual intimacy.
There have been those on earth—I
think of some of the American Indians, for instance—who had some awareness of
the importance of communion, so that when there was a meeting between people
from different parts they would sit down together in silence, maybe for a few
days, in order to establish something of communion. Until that was done there
was no need for words; the words would have been superfluous, unnecessary,
achieve nothing. I recall that when Job had his troubles and his three friends
came they sat with him in silence for a week. Here certainly was an opportunity
to establish communion; evidently it wasn't done, because when the three
friends began opening their mouths their communications were not evidence of
communion. Apparently they had been stewing inside for that week, waiting for
the chance to speak their minds!
I think much of the correspondence
which I have received over the years is an attempt on the part of those
concerned to produce the experience of communion by communicating with me. That
could never be done. There are a lot of wasted words when such attempts are
made. If the letters I have written to many have been of value it would be
because they sprang from an experience of communion, and so were providing
communication which could open the hearts of those concerned to the greater
experience of communion. But if you try to do it in the reverse way it doesn't
work—try to get a communication, which does not spring from communion, to
produce the experience of communion. It won't happen. When communion is the
experience, very few words would be necessary. All the words would be doing in
such case would simply be confirming the fact of communion. This could be done
no doubt in two or three sentences. After all, it's not that I really need to
be enlightened by all the marvelous realizations that people have.
What is delightful to me is to
touch the spirit of communion, which, as I say, requires very few words. If we
share communion, then there are those occasions when communication may be
fitting, communication which allows me to participate in the creative action
which is emerging through you and others. But then that creative action, if it
is actually present, is not an isolated thing either—it will always relate to
what is occurring in the larger picture of our body as a whole. Such
communication is never, when it springs from communion, an endeavor to create
some sort of an empire of one's own, even if it is supposed to be a spiritual
empire. There isn't any such thing on an individual basis. “The earth is the
Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” There
is an overall state of wholeness which is all included in the Lord's domain.
Individuals are of value only
because they are a part of what is springing from the state and the experience
of communion; then what is expressed in whatever way will fit in the
whole. To fit into the whole, the whole must
be seen, must be taken into account; there must be greater interest in that
whole than there is in the particular part which one plays relative to it.
One's own particular part of course requires
close attention but not to the exclusion of an awareness of the far greater
importance of everything else that is happening. This, when it is the attitude,
maintains a state of humility. Humility goes by the board when the person
begins to think that his part is so important that it can ride roughshod over
what is happening everywhere else. Such an attitude would indicate of course
that the experience of true communion was not yet adequately known.
Only at the level of communion is
the reality of agreement established. And yet the word agreement doesn't fit particularly at the level of communion,
because here is a state of wholeness, a state of blendedness—there is no
necessity for agreement. It is one state, after all; and the evidence of that
one state is the experience of communion—communion in spirit we would say. It
is communion one with another, because each is a part of the expression of that
one spirit and it all fuses, blends together, at the level of communion. As
something springs forth from this state of communion through those who know
that state, the agreement appears from the standpoint of the realm of
communication. The form that what is moving in the state of communion is to
take is found naturally and easily on the basis of communication. “If two of
you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be
done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” This is one way of saying that
where there is true communion what emerges into expression by reason of that
carries the quality of agreement in the external sense, and because it springs
from the one source it is done. Here is a summarized definition of the creative
process, but it is absolutely based in the fact that there are those on hand
who participate in communion.
It is clear that at the time of
the Master there was very little communion experienced by those who were in His
vicinity. One could hardly say, for most of them, that they were close to Him.
They may have had a sense of being close to their idea of what and who the
Master was, but the true communion was rather conspicuous by its absence. This is the reason why, at the very
conclusion of His ministry, He introduced what has subsequently come to be
called the communion service. It was introduced because those who were present
did not know what communion was—if they had known, there would be no need for
the service. So it was, as He said, a reminder of the importance of discovering
the reality of communion which was available to be known. As is
usual with human beings who are centered in form, the particular approach that
He made with the bread and the wine was taken as though it was some sort of
magic incantation, that all one had to do was to swallow these things and some
remarkable change would occur. How childish! Here were some symbols to remind
anyone who was open to be reminded—precious few
over the centuries—that communion at the spiritual level of experience was
essential, so that something might be brought forth into the world which sprang
from that source. As long as the symbols were taken as though they were
something of themselves the whole point was lost—it has been lost.
Communion is in spirit. That comes
when there is a conscious awareness of the spiritual place where that communion
is known. This spiritual place, the Holy Place, the place of wholeness, becomes
known because there is someone present who knows it. There must be such a
starting point. There was such a starting point of course when the Master was
on earth—He was it. We have subsequently become aware of the fact that if there
is to be a point of focus in life present on earth this focus must arise out of
the body of mankind—it can no longer be a projection. It was a projection at
the time the Master was here. He brought it. He brought the point of focus with
Him and offered it consciously but, as we have seen, it was very quickly
rejected. That opportunity is gone; it can't be recalled; it can't work again
on the basis of a projection in that sense.
Something must arise from within the body of mankind which allows a
focus of life to be made known. This has been done. We wouldn't all be gathered
here this evening if it hadn't been done. And the opportunity was consequently
offered to all concerned to share in that, to share in that focus of life,
awakening to the place of wholeness, the place from whence the experience of
communion may come.
It is natural for spiritual beings
to share communion, spiritual intimacy, spiritual intercourse. On this basis
there begins to be present, and in manifest expression on earth, the focus of
life to which all people may orient. So we have ourselves become increasingly
aware of these things, not merely because I communicate with you in words but
because, in whatever measure, we experience communion. The fact of oneness is a
reality. Then in all our communications the evidence of that oneness takes
form.
Bringing this back again to the
matter of letters—there are those letters which confirm the fact of communion
and they are useful, that this may be maintained in an easy spiritual
association between us. Such letters require few words. Then there are those
communications which are revealing of the particular parts a person is playing
in opening the way for others to share in the reality of communion. This is one
way of indicating what our purpose is, because in sharing communion restoration
occurs. We have seen this in the light of restoration heretofore; that's still
the purpose. But we become aware of the way by which this happens: communion
and such communication as may be necessary to allow that state of wholeness to
permeate this world.
There are many things to be done—much
to be undertaken in the field of things to be done—to provide the facility by
which a centering in life is made possible, by which the orientation of human
beings in death may be changed. It immediately begins to be changed the very
moment the focus of orientation in life is established and is operational. This
focus relates to the conscious mind of the body of humanity. The focus is in
the conscious mind—this is the Son. The direction and the control spring from
the Son. The Son has put in an appearance, to the extent that it is a reality
now, because of the prior working of the Holy Ghost through the whole
subconscious mind of humanity. And so, something has broken surface, and there
is a conscious focus appearing.
That conscious focus is absolutely
essential to what we're about in the creative sense. We must see, and
understand, and be capable of functioning, consciously. And so the way opens.
That conscious understanding expression through this level of the mind of
humanity provides direction and control as a point of orientation toward which,
consciously or unconsciously, those with sufficiently yielded hearts may turn.
Turning, they find something that is stable, steady, sure, always present, not
going off on tangents every now and again, not trying to establish some
particular personal field of important ministry. How many have had that urge? I
wouldn't ask for your hands because I think it's a very general attitude that
has been present. There has been a looking for this great thing that one is going
to do somewhere, while ignoring what may well be done right where one is,
because where one is is where one
belongs, for heaven's sake! That's right, isn't it?
Let us be where we belong and
provide the conscious focus of creative understanding there. This always
requires a certain amount of deliberate action. The deliberate action that is
taken may not seem—at least to the human mind, if it's still around—to be all
that significant. But with true vision, true understanding, springing out of
the state of communion, the opportunity that is present, whatever it may be, is
seen as being the most important thing for oneself, in fact the only thing for
oneself—there isn't anything else.
So, taking advantage of everything
because we are not alone—we all take advantage of our own personal field of
operations, seeing this personal field of operations in terms of the whole—then
everything gets attended to. The unified state, which is the natural state in
the field of communion, emerges in specific ways to make possible creative
action at the level of communication. We all have things to do, presumably at
times things to say, at the level of communication. I like to be acquainted
with those things with which I should be acquainted, but I would have to
acknowledge, as I think you need to acknowledge also, that there are many
things with which I do not need to be acquainted in a direct sense. There are
still some who tend to give me another installment in the serial of their
biography. Well there may be some things I should know but undoubtedly there is
far more that I shouldn't know. I'm not particularly the prying type! I like to
be offered what I need to be offered, and not offered what I don't need to be
offered. This requires a certain amount of discernment presumably—spiritual
discernment. It requires that one have some sort of awareness of the whole and
what therefore would be fitting and what wouldn't.
I don't stand alone in this
ministry. There are others who share responsibility, and if there is a
reluctance to let the true design work, then that person could be classified I
suppose as an obstructionist. Let's let it be the way that is made available to
us. And we all know what that is. We all know! We try to deny it at times. We
try to go around different paths so as to avoid the necessity of letting the
true design emerge. It emerges through people, just like you and me, and in
that emergence I suppose it might be said that according to some human concepts
someone is not functioning perfectly. Would any of us claim that distinction
for ourselves? Allow things to operate the way they are designed to operate,
and the way we know they are designed to operate is the way that is apparent to
us—not fanciful imagination, as if it was someway else, but the way it is.
On this basis, because we are
capable of sharing spiritual communion, we can participate in the creative
action of the spirit of God with great power and effectiveness on earth. We
know the truth of our spiritual union in this realm of true communion. We can't
find it in the realm of communication, for what is present in the realm of
communication, to be of any value at all, must spring from this field of
communion. And how seemingly still unknown this is to so many; they think
they're going to achieve great things because they're capable of communicating
great things. That's not it. Communion.
Wisdom is the experience when
there is communion. That is the sense of the fitness of things, isn't it, a
sense of the fitness of things at this level of communion, not yet out here in
the realm of communication. And when it is experienced in this beautiful
heaven, then what emerges in communication will fit—it will ring true; it will
be right. But nothing that is communicated that does not spring out of the
realm of communion will properly carry any weight at all. It will partake of
this business of rationalization, indicative of the impure heart. Communion requires a pure heart, so that the
spirit is known clear as a bell. Those who know that spirit know each other.
There is spiritual intimacy, spiritual closeness. I see so many barriers being
sustained. The barriers are sustained, not in this realm of communion but in
the realm of communication, in the realm of human busyness. We may indeed stand
together in the Holy Place, because the tone really sounds quite clearly, and
being heard it may be yielded to so that there is communion.
This evening there is the open
opportunity, in deep humility, to be aware of the reality of this realm of
communion. It's here present with all of us, it's here present with all people
on the face of the earth, but who have pure enough hearts to know it? It is
here to be known. It is here as our place of abiding. It has been the secret place. It is the place
of wholeness.
How beautiful to share the
glorious blended oneness which is known in this Holy Place, the place in which
we may abide, so that all that springs forth in our communication, in the realm
of words and actions, may carry the sound of the True Tone. Then all that we do
will be seen as a part of the creative action of the spirit of God, by reason
of this whole body. All self-importance evaporates and there is an ease in the
external sense which allows movement into whatever area may be necessary, in
association with whomever it may be necessary to be, for the creative purposes
of God—not for one's own great ministry, not for any other reason, but for the
creative purposes of God, which are achieved under the direction of the Son, by
the power of the Holy Ghost.
Lillian Cecil — Martin, your
beautiful words speak of the essences of love in our own hearts in this moment,
and we feel at one with you and with each other in this holy place. May we so
abide.
Martin Cecil — Abide, indeed, in love, in a natural ease which can alone be experienced in the Holy Place.
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