There is something funny about transcendence. Those who do not sense spiritual transcendence likely do not believe it is for modern man, if for any age. Those who experience it are encouraged in faith toward God, and tend to feel sympathy for persons never touched by exquisite experience. In a scientific world it may be difficult to persuade skeptics about its genuineness. They believe it is made up or conjured by imaginative persons. Such experience, they presume, is not the conduct of an educated person with a furnished mind. Epiphenomenalism is brain conjuring.
That there are experiences of genuine wonder is not to be denied. Some mothers and fathers have noted wonder at the moments of the births of their children. Persons have gasped at the first sight of the Taj Mahal. Massive natural wonders like the Grand Canyon or great waterfalls strike some persons temporarily speechless. Astronauts have waxed poetic about the earth and moon while whirling through space at 18,000 miles per hour. These are moments that suggest man may be competent to receive epiphanies. Stories of human epiphanies are many.
There are simple verifiable experiences of ecstasy such as orgasmic sexual response so forceful that it is sought by many persons who by their preoccupation may disregard morals, health and propriety. The taste of food and drink arouses above normal pleasure for many, so that they risk their health and betray life-preserving moderation to habit. The drug culture is supported by achievement of ecstasy, nirvana, or other worldly animation even knowing that the ensuing fall from drug induced heights may lead to tragedy. The Church is faced with explaining stigmata, the appearance of the wounds of Christ in persons, most commonly found in women, during centuries since Christ. The birth of a child and the death of a loved person have inspired epiphany.
We presume to venture forward to spiritual sublimity, not that sought by human origins. There was unassisted sublimity in the lives of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Isaiah, Mary, Peter, Paul, John and many others. It came in a dream, or an angelic voice, or silence, or in some other epiphany experience. That it may occur on only one occasion in the life of a person is not a meaningful social statistic. One genuine experience of the kingdom of God is sufficient to verify the personal involvement of God in a life – perhaps also for others who know that person. One world may be a single transcendent creation. God need not create another inhabited planet to demonstrate his power of creative gesture. Although guided faith is sufficient for all our needs for connecting with God, a transcendent moment is motivational, useful, arresting. The newborn Church at Pentecost gained entrancing truth, opening congregations in ensuing centuries to the embrace of the Holy Spirit. Experiences of transcendence continue as possibility, but unlikely in fields of doubters. Like Moses we may seek what follows after the glory of God. With Jacob one may dream a ladder of angels; with Moses a shining face; with David the Psalms rising in music; or, with Isaiah found prostrate, face to the ground. Mary was so moved she, a peasant girl, spoke the reverie of the Magnificat. John, on Patmos, received the Revelation. Transcendence! One may never experience transcendence, but the invitation beckons. Genuine transcendence belongs to the individual. Our skepticism can reduce or deny its beauty and meaning. Those not sensing transcendence are sometimes offended by descriptions of the experience. Artists often refer to human transcendence, and may attach some to God. Transcendence is to be taken as a gift, to be enjoyed, to affirm something beyond natural phenomenon. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020