new church life:
j u ly / au g u s t 2 0 1 5
It is similar regarding the Word revealed for the New Church. Some spirits
once told Swedenborg that his words were so “rude and gross” that there
couldn’t possibly be any spiritual wisdom in them. Swedenborg perceived that
it was so, that his words, like those of the prophets of old, were indeed “roughly
framed.” But “it was given me to reply that my words are only vessels in which
purer, better and interior things can be infused . . . ” (Spiritual Experiences
2185)
Like all the best art, the books of revelation “suggest something beyond
themselves,” and it is that something that gives them their inner beauty.
The 137th Psalm is a good example. It begins with a beautiful, poetic
expression of human sadness and longing for home: “By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.” But then at the
end, referring to their enemy, the Babylonians who conquered them and sent
them away into exile, it says: “Happy shall he be who repays you as you have
served us! Happy shall he be who takes and dashes your little ones against the
rock.” Outwardly, it is an ugly cry of hatred and desire for cruel vengeance.
Inwardly, though, in the spiritual sense, there is a noble truth.
“Babylon” represents evil, especially the selfish desire to dominate others
and make them submit to your will. The terrible image of killing the “little
ones” of Babylon by dashing them against a rock represents the necessity of
resisting and getting rid of that evil love of dominating others when we first see
it in ourselves, before it has a chance to grow and captivate our whole mind. It
is this vital spiritual principle, this “something beyond” the roughness of the
words in which it is couched, that gives the Psalm its beauty and nobility.
“It is the Spirit that gives life. . . . The words that I speak to you are spirit,
and they are life.” (John 6:63)
The Meaning of Meaning
When we say something has a deeper or higher meaning, we are referring to a
spiritual quality which is beyond the thing itself but which is subtly suggested
by it or reflected in it. This mysterious quality shines through but cannot be
fully revealed by natural language or objects – just as the soul appears in a
person’s face, but is still veiled.
The soul is prior to and distinct from the body. It dwells in the physical
body of a person for a time, but it does not belong to the body; the body
belongs to it. The body cannot live without the soul, but the soul can and does
continue to live after the physical body dies – still in a body, similar to the one
it had in this world, only composed of spiritual substances, and freed from the
limitations and imperfections imposed by nature.
The soul gives the body “meaning,” that is, a significance beyond the body’s
material existence. The body exists to serve the soul, but the soul is eternal
368