Sermon on The Correspondence of Mind and Body

Rev. J. Hugh Odhner 
November 1, 2009

"A person who is in correspondence, that is, who is in love to the Lord and in charity toward the neighbor, and thence in faith, is as to his spirit in heaven, and as to his body in the world; and because he thus acts as one with the angels, he is also an image of heaven; and as there is an influx of all, or a general influx into the particulars or parts, as before said, he is also a little heaven under a human form; for it is from good and truth that a person is human and is distinguished from brute animals. " (Arcana Coelestia 3634)

Our mind and body are kept in connection by two forces acting in correspondence with each other. The one force is external; the other is a corresponding internal. Correspondence is a cause and effect re¬lationship in which what is prior or first is the cause and what is second is the effect. The effect is representative of its cause, if the cause and effect are in agreement. In relation to the two forces, the external force is a representative of the internal force when the two forces are in correspondence. If, however, the external is not in agreement with the internal, then the external still may represent an internal, but it does not represent that internal from which it has its external existence. For example, the worship of the early Israelites was purely representative. Their worship represented spiritual and celestial things, and the heavens were affected by this representative worship. However, the Israelites themselves did not know what the things of their worship meant. Their worship, while representating spiritual things, did not correspond to their internal state. Likewise, with hypocrites, the good they may do does not correspond to their internal affections, thus to its cause within them, but still the good that is done does represent an affection.

As to its origin, the Word of the Lord is representative and correspondential. The letter of the Word was inspired and dictated by the Lord Himself. Thus, every expression in the letter corresponds to and represents the Lord and His kingdom. The Lord is the cause, and the letter of the Word is the effect. Their correspondence is such that it is said in John that "the Word was with God, and God was the Word."

While the letter of the Word as to its origin is in perfect correspondence to the Divine and is a perfect representative of the Divine, this truth does not by itself do a person much good. This is because the letter of the Word has no real existence with us unless it has a place within us. As to their origin, the books of the Word correspond perfectly with and represent the Lord and His kingdom. But if we do not read or hear and live by the things contained in those books, there is nothing of the Word in us. The existence of the Word must come to be within our mind, or to put it another way, the Word has its existence with us when it is present within our mind.

When we read or hear the Word several things happen. First, what we are reading or hearing is impressed upon our memory, thus it becomes a part of our storehouse of knowledge. Second, we are affected in some way by what we are reading or hearing. Just how we are affected depends upon our state. For example, our state determines to what degree the Word is felt or perceived to be the Word. The Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 77 states that, "the Word is the Word according to the understanding of it with a person, that is, as it is understood. If it is not understood, the Word is indeed called the Word, but with the person it is not the Word."

Many people have read parts of the Third Testament. Some have been affected by what they have read and have seen truth in it, while others have been affected in an opposite way and have not seen any truth in it. This does not mean that those who see the Third Testament as true and are affected by that truth are better than those who do not, in this world, see truths in it.

Let us consider those in the Church, perhaps ourselves. In the earliest states of our regeneration and prior to it, we may read or hear the Word and be affected by the truths we see in what we are reading or hearing. With us, the letter of the Word is felt to be Divine Doctrine, for by it we are affected, taught, and led. We are affected by and feel the Divine that is within the letter. With us in this state the Lord is present with us but there is not yet conjunc¬tion. It is this presence of the Divine that so strongly affects us. And we may feel great delight and joy in this. But there is no real conjunction yet because evils in our will and falsities in our understanding prevent such conjunction. The truths we feel with such delight are first in our memory, but not yet in our life.

In these beginning states the Word with us is representative and the state of the Church with us is thus representative. The Lord is present but not yet fully and directly conjoined. The Lord is seen in the Word by means of representative words and ideas in the sense of the letter of the Word. The person does not yet see the Lord in His Divine Human but rather sees the Divine represented in human ideas and things in nature. For example, all teachings regarding the Glorification of the Lord are only understood by us to the degree that we can see them in relation to our own regeneration or spiritual growth. We understand the Lord’s states by relating them and comparing them to our own states, with which we are familiar. In reality it is the opposite -- regeneration can only be truly under¬stood when the Glorification of the Lord is understood, for regeneration is according to the order of the Glorification.

Many in the Church may feel that what is said concerning the Lord and His Glorification is relatively obscure and undelightful or too doctrinal to be useful, while what is said concerning regenera¬tion, charity, providence, and other things, is much more delightful because we can see the application of these things to ourselves. We see the things of the Lord in terms of our own human, but not yet in relation to the Lord's Human.

With respect to the two forces mentioned earlier, the external force is the sense of the letter of the Word in our memory. The internal force is the internal of the Word which is present in every person’s faculties of the understanding and the will. We all have these two faculties, for without them we would not be human. Yet, the presence of the internal of the Word, that is, the presence of the Lord, in these two faculties does not mean that the internal and the external of a person are in correspondence. Before regeneration, the operation of the internal upon the external is not in correspondence. To the degree that evils and falsities are present, the internal of the Word in a person is not able to come into correspondence with its external. With a person prior to regeneration and in the first states of regeneration, the external of the Word with him is not in correspondence with its internal. Still that external is a representative, and the person may be affected by the interior presence of the internal of the Word.

It is said in Arcana Coelestia 3628 that in the midst of the external and internal forces is that which is kept in connection and form. With us, what is in the midst of the two forces is the understanding of the Word. In our under¬standing the external and the internal of the Word meet and these give form to the understanding. For a person to have a true understanding these two forces need to be present and in correspon¬dence. If a person were, somehow, to be in the internal of the Word without its external, that internal would not be able to be perceived and seen for it would have no basis and containant in the conscious mind. So also, if a person is in the external of the Word without its internal, those things in the external are only disconnected facts which may be even used to confirm falsities and evils. The internal of the Word without its external is like a house without a foundation, which cannot stand; while the external without its internal is like a foundation without the house. Such a foundation is in itself of little use, and may even be used to support the building of some¬thing evil and false rather than what is good and true.

The state of the Church with us changes as our understanding of the Word changes, because the state of the Church is according to the under¬standing of the Word. As a person puts away evils and falsities, goods and truths replace the former evils and falsities as they are removed. As this is done, the internal state of a person is gradually prepared and then the internal of the Word is more and more able to be conjoined with and be seen in the external of the Word. When the internal is able to correspond to the external, then the external is enlightened. It is the internal of the Word that enlightens the external. This is “the light (that)shines in the darkness,” and this is possible only to the degree that we are in love and faith in the Lord.

The internal and external of the Word, thus the two forms, are present and exist within us. In the Arcana Coelestia 10703 we read this:

"It is said light in the external of the Word from its internal, but there it is meant light in the external of a person from his internal, when he reads it; for the Word does not shine out of itself unless before a person who is in light from the internal. Without this, the Word is only the letter."

The law that there must be two forces in order that anything may be held in connection and form applies to a person’s spirit. The form of a person’s spirit is according to the nature and degree of agreement between the external of the Word in a person and the internal of the Word in that person.

“A person who is in correspondence, that is, who is in love to the Lord and in charity toward the neighbor, and thence in faith, is as to his spirit in heaven, and as to his body in the world; and because he thus acts as one with the angels, he is also an image of heaven”

Amen.