It’s not supposed to be like this. Anyone can see that the very fact of mortality is in conflict with something that calls to us and draws us to better things. Something about our human existence is seriously broken.
Take at look at my so-called “three pillars” of Christian Mysticism.
1. Commitment to Truth: Truth is defined as divine revelation. It’s the sum total of everything God intends for us to know about Him, and thus about His Creation and our place in it. Thus, the definition of sin is arguing with God. There is no truth outside of God; truth is an aspect of His Person. It’s the sum of all we could possibly know about God. To whatever degree possible, we intend to live the truth in this world.
2. Empathy: Never mind the dictionary definition of the word “empathy” — we define it as the activation of the heart as a sensory organ. Your heart knits you to Creation; can experience empathy for all of Creation. You can empathize with the misery of Creation having to live without the divine guidance humans were created to provide, and suffering the ministrations of fallen humans who have no clue. When you can remember what it’s like to live without the Presence of the Holy Spirit, then your empathy for other humans is likely to be pretty strong. It’s the ability to care.
3. Disentanglement: We could justly say this is almost the same thing as otherworldliness. We should never forget that this world is doomed, slated for destruction. Nothing of this world can be saved or made substantially better. We can sense the eagerness of Creation to be set free, restored to what we had in Eden. The only good thing in this world is a firm connection outside of it. We want that everything we think, do and say should point to the Spirit Realm. That’s the only escape from the misery of this world. Don’t take this life too seriously.
As always, these three have nothing to do with seeking to establish an orthodoxy. Anyone can come up with a neat little list like that and it would be just as valid. The issue here is to point at something that is so very difficult to put into words: The answer to this world’s problems is rooted outside of it. It’s obvious we have a mandate to do something about it, but that “something” we should do is not what would seem to be obvious. The solution is indirect. The solution starts with recognizing that this isn’t our native state.
But the fault for this bad situation is our own. Nobody did this to us; we did it to ourselves. The only way out is to reach for help from some force far greater than ourselves. Whatever we can come up with on our own is simply more of what got us into this mess. That’s not working; it has never worked and it never will.
We need the very thing we pushed aside that got us here. Christian Mysticism is seeking to restore what we once had and lost. It’s mysticism that solves the mystery.
I like to think of the fallen nature of being human as a state of being, which involves “having” an earthly body. Per Lewis, we are souls in possession of a body, not the inverse. What we are is something different entirely…much more than the body, but currently including it as part of our “inventory” of existing.