The distortion of reality

I mentioned in my last post that there is a distorted reality that often overcomes me from my depression. What is the first distortion of reality? The spiritual and the mental often times overlap because the psyche is the soul. Psyche which is the root of the words "psychiatry" and "psychology" is a Greek word that refers to the soul. The Hebrews called this the lev. The word lev refers to the heart. While the lev is a part of the nephesh and the neshema, the latter two are found in other animals but the lev is unique to the human being. It gives the human being a rational thought and an inclination for the Divine that is lacking in the animal nature. Man alone was created in the image of God. While all of creation testifies of the ability of God and praises Him in some way or form and they will partake in the redemption of the New Creation, Man alone is made for a Divine Communion with God. Man alone has an inheritance to partake in the Divine Nature.

When Man was created in the Garden of Eden, he was created to dwell in perfection and immortality. God had gifted Man with His own perfect likeness. They could eat of all the fruit in the Garden save for the one that grew from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The serpent slithered along its belly and told the woman that the reason why God had told them not to eat of that tree was because Man would become exactly like God. This was not what God taught them nor was it what the Church teaches. God had already made Man in His own likeness. There was no benefit from eating the tree in becoming like God because Man was already like God! But the serpent insisted that Man was not like God, that they needed the tree to become like God. The serpent had already begun distorting reality by denying that Man was created in the image of God.

From the first sin onward, Man threw his entire relationship with God into discontinuity and distortion. Creation became disordered and suffers until its final redemption. Yes, creation shall be redeemed when the world is made anew (Rom. 8:19-23). When Man is brought back into harmony with his Creator, so will creation be brought back into harmony. The consequences of the first sin, the acceptance of a distorted reality that never was, threw creation and Man into a drastic imbalance. We see this imbalance at play in the mental health impact upon the world. Because the psyche is the one aspect of Man that is so directly and intimately connected to God, the imbalance caused by the first sin is shown forth in the negative impact of mental health. This is why Man experiences things such as boredom, depression, anxiety, anger. We are impacted by our ancestors' first sin and thrown into confusion and imbalance, the despair of being severed from the communion with our Creator which is what was intended from the beginning.

Striving to reconnect with our Creator, we go about with all these different sorts of distorted realities, influenced by the lie of the serpent, thinking we can reach Him entirely of our own willpower and volition. But we need Him to free us and free us He does for His offer of grace is free to us. We are already intimately connected to Him because we possess the image and likeness of God but we are severed from Him by our participation in and acceptance of a distortion and a lie. We are thrown into confusion by the Devil's forked snake-tongue. We give into the unreality. Our hearts know that it is True what He offers to us but our weakened psyche often times forces us into accepting this distorted reality, giving into the passions of the flesh, because we are both spiritual and physical beings, meant for communion with God, but bound to accept the adversities of the flesh. As St. Paul himself states, "the evil that I do not want is what I do" (Rom. 7:19).

This entire fleshly life is a trial for the psyche. It is not that the flesh is not a good, for the flesh is an earthly vessel for the psyche and it is the Temple that God intended to House the psyche in. But the flesh has suffered from the corruption of the Fall. It is bound to death and destruction, crying out to its Creator to be resurrected back to Life in glory and there is the Hope of the Resurrection (1 Cor. 15:42-49). We are not bound to sufferings, but we are bound to trials and adversities. We live in a distortion of the image of God, but we live in the hope that the image of God will be restored in immortality for Christ Himself was raised from the dead to prove this! As I mentioned in my first post in this series, when experiencing an episode of depression, I find myself in a distorted reality. The sun may be shining but the motivation to do anything is gone, non-existent, and it seems to be raining all around. The sin that has bound Man to this distortion of his spirit and flesh is based on a distortion of reality. A denial that Man was made in the image of God and the promotion of the lie that something other than God could give this gift to Man. Man turned himself over to Satan in the Garden of Eden. Man turned himself over to a liar. And from this, we live in the consequences until we participate in the ultimate healing in the Resurrection of Our Lord.