The life of the spiritual person is characterized by being beyond the visible; for the things which are seen are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal, as St. Paul the Apostle says (2 Cor 4:18). So we ought to look at the things that are not seen.
Live in the world, and do not let the world live in you.
What then are these visible things which a spiritual person ought not look at ?
1- Material things :
These are visible and temporal. If we do not part them, they will part us. Therefore God said to the foolish rich man, “This night your soul will be require of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided.” (Lk 12 : 20).
A spiritual person feels happy when he treasures in heaven, for the visible things on earth are transformed into invisible things in heaven, the corruptible into the incorruptible, the temporal into the eternal, as we say in the Prayer for the Oblations. Who treasures on the earth, will have his eyes and his heart clinging on his treasure, as the Lord says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt 6 : 21).
A spiritual person has his heart with God Who is unseen (Jn 1:18), so his treasure is God Himself.
2- The world :
The world is visible, perceptible, and temporary. So, the Lord said in the Sermon on the Mount, “heaven and earth pass away.” (Mt 5:18) St. John the Visionary likewise said, “ I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.” (Rev 21:1) That is why the Church says in every Mass :
“Do not love the world or the things in the world … the world is passing away, and the best of it.” (1 Jn 2:15,17)
The holy fathers began their spiritual life with death to the world. They spent their life on the earth as strangers who desired a better homeland; a heavenly country (Heb 11:13,16), not looking at the visible things.
Some would ask how they could practice that, how to part the world and the material things while living them!
St. Paul says to them: “those who use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this word is passing away.” (1 Cor 7 : 31). So, live in the world, but not let the world live in you.
Posses the material things, but let them not possess you.
Do not let the world enter into your heart, mind, or emotions. Use the material things of the world, but be free within from them and from their love and domination. Do not be sorry for anything you lose, because nothing of the world will accompany you on the Last Day. Do not lust for possessions, especially if such possessions may make you lose part of your spirituality or your eternity. But remember always the words of the Lord.
”For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Mt 16 : 26).
We should not look at the things that are seen, that is , not look at the things that are seen, that is, not to care about any of the worldly or materialistic matters, for the mind ought to be occupied with spiritual things that are invisible. That is why the apostle says, “I want you to be without care.” ( 1 Cor 7 : 32) Actually a person who does not care about the visible things undoubtedly lives happily and is free from lust and fear. Therefore St. Augustine said:
I sat on the top of the world when I felt within me that I desire nothing and fear nothing.
The spiritual person who rises above the material and visible things is an inaccessible fortress that cannot be destroyed. He is above the world and above the flesh.
3- The material body is among the temporal things that are subject to senses .
Time will come when we are released from the body when we put it off and put on another spiritual body that is incorruptible. The glorious body of the resurrection; “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality,” “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” (1 Cor 15 : 53, 54) The material visible body will be eaten up by warms and turn into dust. When it rises, it will be a spiritual body, free from the domination, requirements, and weaknesses of material.
You are in God’s image and likeness, and since God is Spirit (Jn 4:24), you ought to live in the Spirit.
The spirit is among the invisible things :
In the spiritual live we get rid of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 Jn 2 : 16), and we hold to the things that will continue with us in eternity. We ought not care about visible things or allow them to dominate on us .
The Lord, on the Mount, was with the father, occupied with the invisible things, so the temptation by Satan was an attempt to attract Him to the visible world .
Satan wanted to attract the Lord Christ to the visible things of the world to the stones that will be turned to bread for the body, to the scenes that enchant the senses, to the earth and its glory. But the Lord held to the invisible things, to the spirit that feeds on every word coming from God’s mouth, to God who alone should be worshipped (Mt). The Lord rejected all materialist and visible things.
Our first parents were tempted with these visible things.
The temptation began with the tree and the fruit that seemed to them good for food and pleasant to the eyes (Gen 3 : 6). 1:11 PMhe same happened to Lot, for he saw the land of Sodom well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt (Gen 13:10).
Joseph the Righteous and Potiphar’s wife :
The woman was looking at the visible things, at the body and its lust, but Joseph looked at the Lord, not to sin to Him (Gen 39 : 9), rather than at the visible and temporary things. So, Joseph was saved, and the woman fell.
The same applies to Solomon and his fall.
The catastrophe of his fall may be briefed in his words “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.” (Eccl 2 : 10) wealth, pleasure, and women made him fall in many lusts and deviate away from God ( 1 kgs 11).
He at last discovered that all was vanity and grasping fro the wind (Eccl 2 : 11). But that was very late after his fall in spite of his wisdom!
That was the problem of many rich people.
The rich young man, through he had kept the commandments from his youth and sought eternal life, yet he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions (Mt 19:22).
However, some rich people kept their love to God rather than to possessions. They sold everything and gave to the poor, as St. Anthony and St. Milania did, and also as Job the righteous used to do in his care to the orphans and widows.
The possessions are not to be blamed, but the love of possessions, the reliance on wealth, and the pride because of it.
What then are the invisible things? These include.
• Eternity :
A spiritual person cares about his eternity but cannot see it by his eyes, for St. Paul describes it, saying, “ Eye has not seen, not ear heard, not have entered into the heart of man …” (1 Cor 2 : 9 ) Who seeks his eternity and puts it before him with not care about the present world but rather renounce it.
• For eternity we will see God by the spirit.
No one has ever seen God. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him (Jn 1 : 18). Enjoying God is imperceptible, so it is eternal, it is joy inexpressible and full of glory (1 Pet 1 : 8), which no one will take from us (Jn 16:22).
The Lord in our midst.
He knocks at our doors. He says, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age,” “ Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am these in the midst of them.” (Mt 28 : 20; 18 : 20) Here we do not see Him but we feel His presence, but in eternity we will see Him face to face (1 Cor 13: 12).
We will see Him and His angels and the spirits of His saints.
The angels of the Lord surround those who fear Him, and save them. They fill the church, for they all are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation (Heb 1 : 14). We cannot see them by our eyes, but we will see them in eternity However we see them here in the spirit and in faith, and we feel ashamed before them when we sin.
The spirit is invisible, but the body is visible.
A spiritual person who loves God does not care about the body and its requirements, but to the spirit and its spiritual food, eternity, and whatever attaches it to God.
• Whoever looks at the invisible will care about immaterial things, faith, and good.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb 11 : 1 ). So, who lives in faith looks always at the things that are not seen; for we walk by faith, not by sight.(2 Cor 5 : 7)
In the spirit we live the immaterial things that are not seen, the peace which we feel but do not see, the good which we follow but do not see, and all the other invisible virtues.
• In all our affairs we ought to look at God’s power which is invisible but working in us .
We ought not look at our apparent weakness and the hardships we face, but at God’s help. So, Elisha the Prophet prayed for his servant Gihazi that the Lord may open his eyes that he may see that those who were with them are more than those against them
( 2 kgs 6 : 16, 17).
What avails is God’s power which we see by faith, and in which we rejoice and sing with the apostle.
“ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4 : 13)