Richard Rohr: Unitive Seeing
Mystics like Francis and Clare lived from a place of conscious, chosen, and loving union with God. Such union was realized by surrendering to it, not by achieving it. Surrender to Another, participation with Another, and divine union are finally the same thing. Once we have achieved this union, we look out at reality from a much fuller Reality that now has eyes larger than our own.This is precisely what it means to “live in Christ” (en Christo), to pray “through Christ our Lord, Amen.” Note the important preposition here: we do not pray to Christ; we pray through Christ!
..This utterly transformed sense of self, living in objective union with God, no longer needs to live in shame or denial of its weakness, but rejoices because it does not need to pretend that it is any more than it actually is—which it now realizes is more than it ever hoped for! “When I am weak, I am strong,” Paul says (2 Corinthians 12:10). The loss of our small self, which initially feels like weakness and losing, becomes strength and winning. This is the great paradox enjoyed by every true believer.