Black Psyche in a Translucent Pearl Window

Our psyches are such that mankind yearns for understanding. It would seem that for some at least part of that understanding can be accomplished through religion. A christian God provides many answers - most critically what happens to us after death. It is possibly human fear that responds most readily to the reassurance of a christian resurrection. This is what Man wants to hear whilst he is alive, that he will live forever, regardless of the cold facts of a desolate grave. His black psyche looks through a translucent pearl window where all is well, all illnesses vanquished, all pain dispelled.
Psychology is inextricably linked with organized religion. Being human makes creatures like us bring into being a Godhead, a Maker, a Divine Judge of mankind. It is almost a primal drive, a necessity for Man to have organized religion for various psychological reasons. It can combat fear, provide earthly comfort, give friendship and amity, even provide a wife. The church can fulfill so many human needs. And then of course there is the role of Goodness in life per se. Goodness is good for you. No one can dispute that. Man's black psyche would be dark indeed without the Light of Goodness. Spritual torpor, imaged by overpowering Darkness, is no paradise for Man. Man has a psychological need to be good. Society needs to be good to survive. If everyone turned to hate and murder mankind would soon perish. So religion then, has a significant role to play in society. The church is of no small importance because it is so closely associated and linked to the enduring survival of mankind.
In the time of Sodom and Gomorrah men were swept away to death and destruction by their own evil. It is a fable of much truth. If Man's black psyche turns to the beast fire and brimstone will destroy him. The church therefore in many ways is a psychological aid. It helps make sense of what it is to be human. The truth of the bible can generate moral and spiritual health. It can keep society sane. If a man were to become too evil he would be heading for a psychological hell. No man can be totally evil and stay sane. It is against all the principles of psychology. Evil means insanity, even death. Hence the significance of the church's teaching. It can help society remain moral, good and above all, healthy. A good person who is balanced is a sane and healthy person. Religion is all to do with psychology and balance. The reverse is also true; making someone too unrealistically good in a flawed world can only lead to disaster. The shibboleth here must be 'balance'. Healthy psychology depends on balance. Do not be a paragon of virtue, but certainly do not be as black as sin itself. Achieve a knowing balance in your life, let lines be drawn, over which you just cannot cross. Let your black psyche look through a translucent pearl window, for if you forget beauty you will be ugly indeed on the inside: a hollow shell, a sounding gong that is silent.
Beauty begets beauty. So many of the christian stories are poised on an axis of beauty. The virgin birth is an immaculate conception. The poverty of the nativity is beautiful and touching. Christ's healing of the lame and sick is uplifting and noble. All of these stories regardless of their actual or 'real' truth are full of beauty. Man's psychology needs to possess some kind of beauty for it to sustain itself. For if it has this beauty the blackness of the soul will inevitably whiten. The windows of the mind and the spirit inside us will look out on halcyon skies, verdant flower meadows of buttercup and gentian, sunny days that never end. This sort of idealism does not come to the spiritually dead, but to those with life, engendered by Truth, by Beauty, by Love.
If Man does have a black psyche how refreshing it is to know that through belief in Goodness he looks through a translucent pearl window, and on looking through this window sees rainbows, exotic birds and flowers, jewels of many colours, fragrances from heavy-dewed blossom and the beauty of Man and Woman producing the fruits of the earth, the Children of the Light, to go on into the next millennium refreshed by all the good things of the world.