Balthasar ‘I am the vine; it is I who achieve’ COMMENTS

Note:
There has to be a Link: "Vine and Wine" by Benedict xvi, 'Jesus of Nazareth 1, pp.248-263.

The gates of heaven are wide open. 'Heaven is Myself. And it is I who am in you. Do you thoroughly grasp this? (HE AND i)

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Donald ...
To: William J ...m>
Sent: Friday, 16 November 2012, 16:56
Subject: Happy home after great monastery safari

Hi, William,

In this loving morning, you must have thoroughly relished the moments by train and the whole journey.
Thank you for your visit with us...

Reading:- I took the book from you last evening and took the first random of ‘The Father’s Vineyard, Heart of the World,’ over and over ...

The one paragraph , pp.76/77,was more than enough and I am still pondering.

The key, ‘I am the vine; it is I who achieve’,  gives me the bearings BUT from on the inter twining are not easily unthreaded.

Is your tutorial of clarifying possible?

Always a presence joy.

Donald

Paragraph  BY SENTENCE:

Why do you rush on to deed and achievement?

I am the vine; it is I who achieve.

What is your deed if it is not to ripen?

Let my sap rise up within you that you may hang heavy and golden.

Then will the chaotic dream of deeds dreamt by the shoots in the springtime, then will the leaves' proud summer craze, then will all earth's work become ripe within your little taut spheres.

You can bear in yourselves the meaning of the earth, but only through me.

And . when in the bowers of heaven this wine is served up at the Lamb's marriage-feast, then the whole world will be borne within it-as spirit.

Then one will be able to taste on which hillside and in what year of salvation it grew, will be able to savor in it the whole landscape of its origin, and not the least of your joys will be lost.

But everything about it has invisibly turned within, and the dividing borderlines being and being are dissolved in the unifying tide, and all bubbling eagerness has ceased fermenting, and all sadness has resurrected into brightness.   

---

From: William ..
To: Donald ...
Sent: Saturday, 17 November 2012, 16:51
Subject: Happy home after great monastery safari

Dear Father Donald,

Thank you... I did so enjoy our evening discussions, ...  and delighted in immersion in Balthasar's glorious meditation on the Heart of the World! ...

 ...

  

You are setting me a very great challenge to comment 'outwardly' (as opposed interiorily) upon the subtly moving waters of the mind of Balthasar... imagine a river hidden in an estuary: it is below the surface that the hidden course of the river runs, but its course can only known by the movement of the waters or glimpsed at low tide, swallowed up as it is as the tide swells the estuary....

In the passage you define, I believe his initial thought is of our receptivity to grace: to savour, to cherish the life-giving sap rising within us, as fruit thusenabled to respond to the warmth of sunlight. Only through this life-giving sap's confluence with our own life-desire will the 'taut' buds of potentiality be enlivened. How tender are the buds and blossoms of our springtime that express the 'meaning of earth's' potency - individually, but not independently of the sap that brings them to life; and each bud, in its growing perfection will one day be combined to fill the 'bowers' of heaven with the wine, 'as spirit', each grape being known and valued, taking regard for its origin (its life circumstance) - its region, its 'hillside', its 'year', describing within itself where planted and with what oppportunity for growth, each flavour unique. No flavour will be lost in this admixture, indeed the very combination of the varying grapes of 'the whole world' together, in fermentation 'dissolving' all sadness at the degree of ripening, difference of growth potential and opportunity, will be 'resurrected'  into the most perfect wine for the 'Lamb's marriage feast'. His final thought, for me, is of the salvation of all who respond regardless of their different 'landscape of origin' to that sunlight that invites receptivity. So great a harvest has he conceived! how greatly to be celebrated!

I will next delight in ordering the book - and the further one you showed me (I need, hunger for that deep confluence of thoughts). Then I shall put Google through its paces in the hunt for the 'Imitation' in such an edition as your own gem!

Thank you, most truly, for everything that you have given and shared with me through your kindness and your friendship. It was wonderful for me to be with you again!

With my love in Our Lord,

William

BY SENTENCE:

Why do you rush on to deed and achievement?

I am the vine; it is I who achieve.

What is your deed if it is not to ripen? ....