According to James Ebner FSC.: “Transformation follows death to our fearful, calculating, closed-up self.” It means “expansiveness, openness, freedom, community.”
He continued: “In the New Testament, we are temples of the Spirit. The kingdom of God is already here, among and within. Mystery is present. God is love. To our Father we are so important that even the hairs of our head are numbered. Especially in the transformation of the dead Jesus we can understand who we are and what we amount to.”
In the book of Ebner, a professional psychologist in the person of Carl Rogers said: “In my experience, in psychotherapy … this forward thrust, this directional tendency toward wholesome growth, is the most profound truth about man.”
In the same book, Allport reinforces Carl Rogers thus: “The truest statement that can be made of a normal person, is that he never feels that he can love or be loved enough.”
Ebner continued: “If we claim to follow what the New Testament represents of Jesus and the first Christians, we will sum up the moral law under love of God and neighbor and self.”
If we look to the psychologists for cues, we will be invited to a healthy openness to the mysticism by men like Maslow.
The eternal question ‘ Why are we here?’ will be dealt with in terms of universal brotherhood by men like Fromm.
The full answer lies in the achievement of interpersonal union.
