The Mark of a Mystic

ADJUSTING OUR EYE & EAR GATES TO SWING BOTH WAYS

Francis Thompson, in that beautiful poem, “Any Saint”, describes man as a

Swinging-wicket, set Between The Unseen and Seen

Man, that is, is the child both of the natural and the spiritual worlds. He is placed on the borderland; through him, there is a certain communication between them.

We do not notice a general tendency in average men and women to swing out vigorously towards the Unseen, or even a marked desire to do so. The hinges of the wicket-gate seem to be differently adjusted in people of different types.

In many, it swings so widely and persistently open towards the visible side that nothing from the Unseen squeezes through. It is not noticed, and it is not missed. Those are the people that are commonly regarded as practical and sensible men.

In some people, the wicket seems beautifully balanced. They take up and use together both sides of our wonderful human inheritance, moving to and fro between the temporal world and the eternal world, between communion with God and communion with their fellow men, as Christ did during his life on earth.

In a few however, the hinges are so adjust that, left to themselves, they always tend to swing out towards the Unseen. There they find, though they may not be able to describe it, the object of their love, and the whole meaning of their life. Those are the mystics. ~ Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill

Father, help us to adjust our gate today as we learn how to swing into both worlds. Holy Spirit, oil the hinges of our gates that we might swing and glide with ease between the two worlds. Jesus, thank you that you are The Gate and I’m the little gate with in The Gate in the Borderlands of life.