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Prayer
God is with me, but more, God is within me.
Let me dwell for a moment on God's life-giving presence
in my body, in my mind, in my heart,
as I sit here, right now.
www.sacredspace.ie, site of Irish Jesuits
Quote
“So therefore let us pray to God that we may be free of ‘God’” (Essential Sermons,
Trans. Colledge and McGinn).
Story
Once a man wanted to walk on water. A holy man wrote the name of God on a leaf, tied it inside the man’s sash, and spoke, “Don’t be afraid. Trust and you will walk on water. However, one thing: the moment you lose trust, you will sink.” The man began walking across the water, on top of the water. Miles beyond shore, he began to wonder what the holy man had placed inside the sash. He removed his garment and found a leaf with the word RAMA, one of the names of God in Hinduism, written on it. The man thought, “What is this? Just a name for God.” Immediately, the man began sinking.
Comments
This “just” is a danger in the spiritual life with regard to words and images. The man could have said, “This is God’s name,” and that would have been fine. But, he said, “Just a name for God.”
The apophatic way, often called the negative way, is often defined as the way of negating all that we can say about God. That is only partly true. The negative way of mysticism is, actually, neither purely negative nor positive. The negations of all we can say in human terms of God would simply lead us to another extreme, a dualism without integration. Therefore, negation does not undo the power and importance of images and words to convey to us energy for trust and devotion.
What is the integration that leads beyond either “this is God” and “this is not God”? The integration is to transcend the dualism of “this” and “that” altogether.
God is neither this nor neither not this. God is more that can be neither spoken truly in negation or affirmation. Thus, Christian contemplation leads to loving detachment from absolute identification or abdication of language and images.
Reflection
Look up apophatic and kataphatic, or cataphatic? What do these terms mean? How do they apply to theology and the spiritual life?
What is dualism? Nondualism? How do these differ from monism?
Spiritual Exercise
Keep spending at least twenty to thirty minutes daily in Silence, resting in the Lord of Love.
Explore the website www.sacredspace.ie offered by the Irish Jesuits and do some of the meditation exercises offered at the site.
Consider, if you are not already, sponsoring a child through Compassion International. You can find out more about Compassion International by going to www.compassion.net to read about sponsoring, in the name of Jesus, children living in poverty. Thanks! Brian K. Wilcox
To contact Brian, write briankwilcox@comcast.net .
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