I arrived and entered the deepest solitude of my being. ¡I lit the light of faith and, oh, wonder! that solitude was occupied by an Inhabitant: the Father.
If the Father and I find ourselves in a closed room, what do we do now? How do we adore? Jesus comes to answer: ¡Be careful with many words! Now that the Father is there in the most secret place, stay with Him (Mt 6:6).
Staying with the Father means establishing a current of attention and affection with Him, a mental openness in faith and in love. My mental energies (what I am as consciousness, as a person) leave me, are projected onto Him, and remain with Him. And my whole being stays quiet, concentrated, deeply united, paralyzed in Him, with Him.
But it is not only about my going out towards Him; it is not only about openness. Simultaneously, it is a reception because there is also another outpouring—in love—from Him towards me. Suppose He moves out towards me, and I move out towards Him. In that case, if He welcomes my movement and I welcome His movement, the encounter becomes a crossing and crystallization of two outpourings and two receptions. In this way, a convergent, profound, and transforming union is produced, in which the stronger one assumes and assimilates the weaker one, without either losing their identity.
And so, the transforming process begins from the very first moment. The deeper the encounter, the more of the Presence is felt, to impact, illuminate, and inspire the person in their deepest realities, such as their vital core, the unconscious, impulses, reflexes, thoughts, criteria… The more living and profound the encounter is, I repeat, in that same proportion the Presence rushes in, penetrates, and lights up the most intimate and decisive tissues of the person.
The person begins to walk in the presence of the Lord (the Presence is a light in the consciousness). The impulses and reflexes, when they go forth, go forth according to God. And so, the general behavior of the Christian (their style) appears before the world clothed in the “figure” of God. His figure becomes visible through my figure, and thus the Christian becomes a transparency of God Himself. In this way, the Lord continues to advance in the conquest of new spaces, and like in ever-widening concentric circles, the divinization of humanity begins. But everything started in the core of intimacy. All the potentialities are locked up there.
Taken from the book “Muéstrame tu Rostro” (Show Me Your Face), Chapter IV, subtitle: “Quedarse con el Padre” (Staying with the Father) by Father Ignacio Larrañaga.
