St. Paul’s mind and words—his attention and intention—were so focused on God that all sound became God’s name. He said “in him we live and move and have our being” because his prayer had become so all-consuming that everything echoed it back to him. This is that space the mystics spoke of when they said “the mantra prays itself and I listen.”
We say we pray “in the name of Jesus,” but our mouths (just momenst ago) were talking about groceries and anxiety and manipulations of all sorts. We do not experience the name of Jesus because we have yet to pray it so constantly that all the earth echoes it back to us. Inside ourselves, we must ask “is resentment, as an emotional baseline, manageable? Is my host of worries serving me well? Have either of those helped me to change the things I can?” If not, we must admit what those who chant the name have always known: “mantra was the one thing I could do to help myself. My job was to pay attention to the sound of the name, and to come back when I get distracted.”
This is apostolic teaching, verifiable by experience: withdraw attention and intention from everything that isn’t the name of Jesus, pronounce the name of Jesus continuously, and eventually, everything will echo it back. Peter said “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk.” Miracles will always be God’s, but metanoia is for all, always: when separate selves have ceased to be, when all bodies and identities are simply echo chambers for the word, when there is no longer a you or an I at all, then Christ will be all, and in all—we’ll be “in the name of Jesus” because, after all, there is nowhere else we could be.
If, when a part of the body is mentioned in scripture, we would put our own attention on that part of our own body, we would learn a great deal. Indeed, all scripture is useful for growth in bodily awareness. Romans says “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead you will be saved.” That asks us to pay attention to our mouth, and to the center of our chest, as we are praying. Even the subtlest shifts in sensation verify growth in awareness. Note also: the use of the future tense (“you will be saved”) verifies the time and practice required–as well as the divine source of the change.
Remember: “if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” You can, in fact, confess with your lips that Jesus Christ is Lord without moving your mouth. It is as simple as “think about the prayer instead of your anxieties.” (This is a tall order, as the mind is relentlessly cranky, but it improves with practice.) Believing in the heart is an act of the will that moves energy from the hips to the chest. Installing the words “Jesus Christ is Lord” into your silence is better than stewing on your resentment. Installing “belief“ into hips and lower abdomen, watching the energy move up into the center of the chest, this is a better use of energy than stewing on work, or on the vocational, relational crisis du jour. There will be times, sure, when we are too exhausted to direct our minds and wills to high purpose. But if we have yet to log hours in the attempt, it’s doubtful that time is now.
Wisdom says, “you are on the hook to provide yourself with sensations and thoughts that aren’t anxiety and vice” that’s true: the skittish and insecure aftereffects of vice verify it. Mystics can confirm: neither seeing Jesus nor levitating are as important as doing the dishes. Hippies can confirm: throwing sex or drugs at your vulnerabilities, in quantity and without careful integration, is dangerous. The cleanest, slowest form of ego dissolution is the one the Apostles talked about–losing self in the feeling of sound by concentrated return to the feeling of sound, and the name of Jesus. We who have died will be alive with him when self is entirely awash with the sound of the name. He is before all else that is, the first born of the dead. Let us also go and die with him!
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