April 30, 2020

The Very Being of Life

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Of nothing can Am or Is be predicated except of Love. From this Love - because in Love, or of Love itself - is the very Being [Esse] of all life, that is, Life itself. And because Jehovah alone is Being of life, or Life itself, as He alone is Love, each and all things have thence their being and their life; nor can anyone be and live of himself except Jehovah alone, that is, the Lord alone; and as no one can be and live of himself except the Lord alone. It is a fallacy of sense that men seem to themselves to live of themselves.

The angels plainly perceive that they do not live of themselves, but from the Lord, since they live in the very Being of the Lord's life, because in His love. But yet to them above all others there is given the appearance as of living from themselves, together with ineffable happiness. This therefore is to live in the Lord, which is never possible unless we live in His love, that is, in charity toward the neighbor.
(Arcana Cœlestia 1735)