CAPAX DEI (Come Join With Us Part VI)

[This is part VI of the Come Join With Us Series that starts here]

There is a phrase used by early Christian mystics: “CAPAX DEI”—it means creating capacity for God.  The premise for this is that all our religiosity and spiritual striving—in the Mormon world, that long list of ACTIONS—is simply the act of creating a space for God—to enter in, change us, and make us whole and one with Him. 

These early Christians used the analogy of the sailboat, that in our religious practice we set our sails, essentially tuning them to the wind of the Divine.  But it is God that fills them and moves us.  Without Him, all the sail-setting will come to naught and we won’t move an inch. 

We are all called upon to open up ourselves for God and allow Him to work in us.  As Ezra Taft Benson said, he makes more of us than we can make of ourselves.  We must cooperate with Him, we must clear out our baggage and get out of the way.  Prepare ye the way of the Lord into your heart.

We are wise to search ourselves to discover what other things are filling the places that God is ready fill.

Consider the lamp of the ten virgins—these are Church members—what are the lamps? Testimonies, knowledge, actions, but they represent outward performances.  Yet half of them neglect to notice there is no oil in them?

LAMP +      ?      = LIGHT

Do we spend our time polishing our empty lamp, our religiousness—a tidy, clean vessel for the world to see?  Could it be that we imagine that somehow having the vessel of ACTION is sufficient, and we need no light now, here, in this dark world, we will simply be judged at the end on how nicely we cared for our lamp? What comfort is treasuring an empty lamp? Why not allow God to fill us and have light now?

It’s human tendency to mistake the symbol for the thing itself.  It’s like eating a picture of a pineapple in lieu of the fruit itself, or holding a map instead of going to the actual place. 

But the best analogy for this Capax Dei vessel is simply our heart—the scriptures say so much about this.  The beautiful empty lamp is our lips that draw near while the heart wanders far from Him.

So again, what is in my vessel that takes room that could be filled with God—filled with his Spirit? 

I’ll tell you—Pain.  I hold on to my pain like a prized ribbon (or a germy teddy bear)—same with my sorrow, anger, self-pity, disappointment, regret.  I can let go of them and let God fill those aching places, but I can’t will my clenched fists to let my noble story of suffering go.

A long time ago I asked God to make me His.  Repeatedly this prayer has been answered by a broken heart.  I have always wondered why my loving Savior asks this of us.  I’m starting to see that this is simply part of the work of Capax Dei: as I have requested, He is simply breaking up my will to make space for His. 

A beautiful thing here is that His will for any of us can be carried out perfectly in any circumstance imaginable, in any place in the world, and at any time, with any person—it simply requires us to allow ourselves to be filled by him.  To look for His light.  (Remember--the eye is the light of the body, look and live.)

So, what does all of this have to do with going to Church?  

I went back and analyzed the list of Uchtdorf’s promised blessings for those who “Join With Us.”  I sorted them into like categories and saw they fell neatly into four areas:

·         DIVINE COMFORT & HEALING

·         REDEMPTION

·         KNOWLEDGE

·         DISCIPLESHIP

I then saw that these four areas fell neatly into a sort of yin and yang of God/Man, Spirit/Body, Oil/Lamp.  In the blessings he lists, there is a clear division between things we can ACT on and do for ourselves (works/external actions) and things God must do for us (sanctification/saving/grace), back to my aunt’s original comment of finding out what was God’s job and what was my job.  Of course we will feel empty if we have one without the other, yet a large portion we cannot earn or force or create for ourselves.  If we want to be independent on this, we will never be finished.

Our ACTIONS, our works, are where we simply create a space for Him to come in.  Capax Dei.  We then simply look, ask, trust and believe that he will do the rest—we allow him to do His work in us. 

Just as we personally can mistakenly look to an empty lamp for light, perhaps I have been looking for the outward commitments of my Church observance to deliver the healing, and was sorrowing that I wasn’t finding them. 

The Church can symbolize the healing, ritualize the healing in ordinance, teach us about the healing, persuade us toward the healing—but only Christ can do the healing. 

As Uchtdorf said, this is a church with a Divine mission carried out by a group of flawed mortal humans.  It’s very apt that people suggest you “stay in the boat” when testimonies waver—as the Church is just that—a vessel being created to complete a destiny.

The Church is Capax Dei—it is setting the sails for Christ to fill and carry us to the finish of His work here—to prepare the earth and build Zion for Christ to enter.     

But the capacity of the Church to be filled with God begins with the hearts of the members.

“It is deeply damaging to the church and its members to suppose that we can transform the world if we are unwilling to be transformed personally.”  (Marjorie Thompson)

Capax Dei—making a place for God to enter—it’s our hearts, our homes, our meetings, any place or group we inhabit, but especially our Church as a whole.   Capax without Dei is emptiness.  Everything is an opportunity to open our eyes and hearts to the direction of Divine wind, to see the gifts, to trust that He will fill us. 

“What could happen if an entire congregation or community became a faithful doorway into God’s living presence?”  (Marjorie Thompson)

Think on that.  We have an exciting road before us as a Church. I hope to get out of my pity party and join with you for it.

So the variable in this divine algebra—solve for X: the wind in the sails, the oil in the lamp, the only thing our hearts are really designed to hold, the essential extra ingredient required to fill the emptiness and attain the promised blessings: THE LOVE OF GOD.

 1 NEPHI 11

21 And the angel said unto me: Behold the ^aLamb of God, yea, even the ^bSon of the Eternal ^cFather! Knowest thou the meaning of the ^dtree which thy father saw?

 22 And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the ^alove of God, which ^bsheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the ^cmost desirable above all things.

 23 And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most ^ajoyous to the soul.

There's that joy again.

Those first two great commandments that everything hangs upon and boils down to—receiving and reflecting the Love of God—that is what will save us, our Church and this world.  It is what has saved me and is saving me.

Because I have felt that love I see now how Jesus Christ is mighty to save—He has felt everything I ever have felt or will feel.  He understands me, and understands you, with a perfect and patient empathy.  He is your personal and intimate advocate, He is never your accuser.  He has already paid all of your debts from your birth to your death.  I have felt His saving power and witness that he can transfigure pain and suffering and sin and brokenness and darkness, even all of it in this whole crazy world, into light.

And even better, He can do it now.  Not just in the end, but every day.  We do not have to wait until this life is over or put in a certain number of actions or hours to feel the cleansing and transcendent power of the Love of God.  It is right here, right now, and ready to be felt at any moment if we simply look for the light.  

A Savior doesn’t watch you drown here only to save you in heaven after death.  Our beloved, dear Savior can and will save us—you—HERE.  

NOW.  

Simply look to Him—and live.   

Not sure how?  Here's the practice I started with that helped me to start to see God's hand in my life. 

Post by Valerie Wise Christensen.

PART I
PART II: THE MISSING FACTOR
PART III: THE DARKNESS
PART IV: THE LIGHT
PART V: THE WIND & THE WAVES
PART VI: CAPAX DEI