St John says that God has never been seen. In other words, God can never be an object outside of ourselves. It is the mind that is always creating objects. The mind is always creating an external reality. We do this continually, which is why in our prayer we need to go deeper than the mind, to that level of our being – the heart, the spirit – where there is no thing outside of us. Where we understand that we are in relationship, in communion, in the dance of being, with everything that is, in God. And this is what each of us is called to, each of us is capable of. That’s why in our meditation, we surrender God. We surrender all ideas or images of God as being an object that can be seen, or a thing that can be thought, some thing outside of ourselves. God has never been seen, but dwells in us if we love one another. That is the whole structure of Christian life. God cannot be seen but dwells in us, if we love one another. Love is then “brought to perfection”, St John says.
( Aspects of Love 3 by Laurence Freeman OSB )
