Aurora Magazine 2020

Aurora

incarnate?

Such a bifurcation of Mary’s meditation misunderstands the nature of the revelation afforded to her in the final moments of her life. In reflecting on the sounds of the universe, in the movement of “in” and “out” (the inspiration and expiration of all creation), and in the heightened sensory awareness that marked her last days on this earth, we can detect the breath of God that fills all of his creatures. She is wholly of this world and yet, offered an awareness of “another dimension of life” beyond the veil. She is, like the mustard seed mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 13:31-32, a minuscule vessel that contains the entire universe. She is present on this planet and at this time, and yet, she contains within her the essence of all of those who have been presented with a vision of their place amid the constant flow of God’s revelation within the universe. In such a vision, Sophia’s infinite receptivity to all that is creation, in her “great capacity for love and life,” the nurturing, tolerant, and endlessly forgiving feminine aspect of God was expressed through my mother, as it can be through all of us, once we surrender to the creator of all things. This was the Mary who, in the few days remaining to her, became present to us. She was transformed into a condition of pure transparency and joy. Every moment that she spent with us and with others, every gesture of her body, was an invocation to and of God’s presence within and around us. People who saw Mary spoke of her interstitial state of existence, as if she was a vibrating membrane between the mundane and the eternal, this world and the next, the conditional and the absolute. It was as if she was connected to the divine to the fullest extent that we humans can tolerate without leaving our bodies permanently. The radiance that illuminated her was of a love that filled her up to overflowing; a love bestowed unreservedly and without end. I understand that it’s hard to comprehend just quite how she manifested that state of being. Those who’ve undergone near-death experiences or achieved illumination during meditation have likewise found it difficult to communicate just what it is they encountered. I’m also very aware, as a daughter, that Mary was reckless to assume that she had no need to see a doctor, following her fall off the stage—a legacy, as she admits in this book, of her wariness with the medical profession. On the other hand, having seen her in those last days and worried as any daughter would be about her mother’s health, it’s hard

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