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"Is there anything I can do to make myself Enlightened?"
"As little as you can do to make the sun rise in the morning."
"Then of what use are the spiritual exercises you prescribe?"
"To make sure you are not asleep when the sun begins to rise."
-Anthony de Mello, One Minute Wisdom
Spiritual practice alerts us to the Reality of Love. Central to this in the Christian faith is Grace. Grace is the energy of the Divine Spirit, an inspiration that awakens the intellect, or the divine capacity for spiritual insight arising from the spirit, to the meaning of Christ Jesus.
Imagine you could go to a University and get a Ph.D. in the theory of the Sun. Would you know the Sun? No. You would have a Ph.D. about the Sun, and you might well seek to impress persons with that knowledge, hang your degree in sight of visitors, write volumes on the Sun, and even defend the orthodoxy of your view of the Sun. But you would not know the Sun. Not in the sense of Scripture and the early Church Fathers, as well as Christian saints and contemplatives since.
Now, imagine a dear saint, living alone and in poverty, without any formal education. She has never read one word about the Sun. She walks out each morning and up a hill, through a path worn by her feet over many years, from her little hut in the wood. From this height she admires the Sun rise each morning over the vast valley below. Each evening the aged, little saint repeats this ritual, enjoying the Sun set in the West. She has fallen in Love with the Sun, and she knows the Sun.
The spiritual Journey for many is a descent from the head to the heart. Many of us can only fall in Love again with Christ by letting go of clinging to the theories of our faith.
Imaging with me that God is like an Infinite, Cosmic brain. In God is all knowledge. Then, how can we justify clinging to our ideas about God? Much better to be humble about our ideas and, like the dear saint who daily relished her time with the Sun, to fall in Love daily with Christ Himself.
*OneLife writings are offered by Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist pastor serving in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. Brian lives a vowed contemplative life with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, in North Florida. OneLife writings are for anyone seeking to live and share love, joy, and peace in the world and in devotion to God as she or he best understands God.
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