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Great Thinkers in the History of the Church (no. 12)
Sobriety is a guardian of the spirit. It stands on guard day and night at the gates of the heart, to sort out the thoughts that present themselves, to listen to their suggestions and to observe their intrigues.
—Hesychius of Sinai (d. after 450), Philocalia, I
Prayer
Spirit of Christ, sensitize me to your Presence, the Presence of your Father, the witness of the Holy Spirit in the world and my fellow creatures, brothers and sisters all in the One. May I serve your Church faithfully, being willing to suffer for truth and willing to be befriended for truth, and receive both foe and friend without attachment to either enmity or affection. Grant me freedom to forgive my enemies and forgive myself. May I live alert and discerning, rightly choosing thoughts and actions, guided by one intent, that of loving Jesus in all things and loving all things in the One. Amen.
Comments
The Quaker Douglas V. Steer, in his Foreword to Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer, shares a telling example that exemplifies the role of contemplation.
In an old-fashioned theater, there were often three or four fire curtains with lively scenes painted on them. At intervals before the play began, these painted curtains were lifted one after another. As a member of the audience, I was never quite sure whether it was still another painted curtain or the very play itself that was there before me. But finally the last fire curtain lifted and now there was nothing between me and the actors themselves.
Steer writes, “Real prayer may have many curtains that must rise before we are in living touch with the play itself….” He describes Merton as showing us “fire curtain after fire curtain until at last we are compelled to see it for what it is—a safety device that must go before the real play may begin!”
The Germans, Steer notes, spoke of Entlarvung. This refers to the “smoking out of the ‘bogus interiority,’ of the ‘communal woolgathering,’ of the ‘inert primitive infantile narcissism,’ of the attempts at an ‘unassailable narcissistic security,’ of the worshipping of idols of our own making, mental idols of a God that will not disturb us, …”
Today, I realize the main reason contemplation is not popular in the church, even though every Christian is called to contemplation. I realize why contemplatives resist faithfulness to the practice, even as I often struggle with such consistency. Most religious practice puts something between us and the Mystery called by many names. Contemplation takes away everything between us and the Mystery, even our ideas of and names for the Mystery, even who we think we are, and who we think others are, too.
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With contemplation I have discovered that I lose everything, even myself. With contemplation I lose my god. Everything but God, the Mystery, becomes relative. I am left with nothing, for I never had anything. I am left nothing, for I never in myself was anything. I find this death the most rewarding life I can choose. Without this life, what do I have? Without losing everything, how can I learn to be, not be someone or something, but to die to both so that I might live with Jesus and now in Life Eternal?
That is the call of Jesus to me, and the path is through loving Jesus. This love must be before my love for the church, for only then can I in Christ serve the church well. Otherwise, I serve the church in myself, not in Christ. Otherwise, I will simply call my brothers and sisters to gaze at fire curtains with me. I will get a paycheck and retirement monies for this. I may even be a success. But, this is not the way to true Faith. This is not the dignity of the calling that I am called to.
In this blissful death, this incomparable loss, I discover the truth of St. Paul and his experience with the resurrected Christ. I understand that only this process of contemplation, stripping me of everything “sacred” and “profane,” can usher me into living in Christ as a pastor and brother and sister to all creatures in the church. Then my idea of the church does not become another social organization; rather, in Christ I surrender my right to personal ideas and call everyone to God in Christ, through the Holy Spirit of Love, not because they are outside Love and I am inside Love, but because we are each hemmed in by Love and called to enjoy the Beloved together:
19For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; 20and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing. (Galatians 2, NRSV)
Spiritual Exercise
Look up some sites on contemplative prayer. Especially look at the sites for Contemplative Outreach (www.centeringprayer.com/ ) and The World Community for Christian Meditation (www.wccm.org/ ). What is your calling? How do you live that out?
Meditate on Galatians 2.19-21. What does the passage say to you about your being and living in Christ?
*First edition, August 3, 2006; Expanded edition, August 4, 2006
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