|
I lifted the sacred chalice to my mouth
No priest, no altar, nothing but an Unseen Presence
Blood became the Water
Bread the Soil
A Tree of Life grew
Christ, one with all, saying,
"Forget all else, but Love"
Then, you will be One with me, forever
*Brian K. Wilcox, OneLife Ministries. Author An Ache for Union .
“The mystery of God hugs you in its all-encompassing arms."
No creature has meaning
without the Word of God.
God's Word is in all creation, visible and invisible.
The Word is living, being,
spirit, all verdant greening,
all creativity.
This Word flashes out in
every creature.
This is how the spirit is in
the flesh—the Word is indivisible from God.
*Hildegard of Bingen, "God's Word In All Creation."
Quote and poem from poetseers.org .
Some have Me in their mouths, but little in their hearts. There are others who, being enlightened in their understanding and purified in their affection, always breathe after things eternal, are unwilling to hear of earthly things, and grieve to be subject to the necessities of nature; and such as these perceive what the Spirit of Truth speaketh in them.
*Thomas a' Kempis. age-of-the-sage.org .
A direct, personal experience of God is what every mystic strives to attain. Christian mysticism is the process of coming into the experience of God at the center of one's being. A mystic meditates and prays and strives to be in close relationship with God throughout the day and throughout their life. Only through a direct experience can you say you know anything for certain.
*themysticpath.blogspot.com . "Christian Mysticism."
* * *
The following words define well the heart of Christian faith, as a mystical experience centered in Christ. The explanation, also, differentiates literalistic faith that denies the accessibility of the experience of the Christ Mystery for persons, and as a lively, felt, inner experience:
As with any religion, there are two types found within Christianity. The first is the tribal member. He or she favors a literal, concrete reading of Christianity, asserting that God is a judge with a rule book. Those who don’t play for “our team” are damned to eternity, and it can be our job to help them along the way to that end.
The second person is concerned not with knowing the rules and dogma, but with knowing the Mystery itself, which is to say living from within the experience of that Mystery. This is the search for and experience of that connection to and affirmation of God’s Presence on an ongoing basis. Here, the ideal is to live life from the very center of the Mystery, and to manifest into this world God’s compassion, love and mercy. It is to this group that Jesus of Nazareth belonged, and it is why, beneath the centuries of overlays in the name of scripture and tradition, we can still find at the heart Jesus to be of such central importance to our particular spiritual path.
Brian Robertson. What is a CM?. christianmystics.com. Emphasis added.
* * *
The premise of this writing is ...
Today, there is a widespread hunger for the mystical, or contemplative, in the Christian faith. Churches are, for the most part, failing awfully in meeting this need in us: we each have an innate desire and need for direct experience of the Christ Mystery. This movement is grounded in the laity, not the clergy and church hierarchy, or in academia. This movement is here to stay, and no longer are those in the church willing to leave the Church to share this experience.
The following words affirm this present movement in a true Christian spirituality that honors the mystical stream of Christian tradition:
We are at the beginning of the first sustained and practical interest in contemplative prayer since the 17th century. The word practical has to be stressed. The first half of this century [20th Century] saw a far-reaching renewal of mystical theology and the history of spirituality, but that was never translated into the widespread enthusiasm for the practice of contemplative prayer that we are seeing today. Old attitudes, prevalent in the 18th and 19th centuries, which said that contemplation was something dangerous and extraordinary and reserved for the saints with their visions and revelations, persisted even when this speculative renewal of mysticism was stressing how contemplation was the normal outcome of the Christian virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
*"Saint John of the Cross to Us." www.innerexplorations.com .
George Fox, in his Journal, experienced the truth that God, as a universal, mystical Being, lives within us each as His temple:
At another time it was opened in me that God, who made the world, did not dwell in temples made with hands. This at first seemed a strange word, ... But the Lord showed me clearly that He did not dwell in these temples which men had commanded and set up, but in people's hearts; for both Stephen and the apostle Paul bore testimony that He did not dwell in temples made with hands, not even in that which He had once commanded to be built, since He put an end to it; but that His people were His temple, and He dwelt in them.
Fox is placing his affirmation on one of the highest spiritual teachings in Scripture. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, spoke in Acts a message which led to his being stoned to death:
47But it was Solomon who built a house [temple] for him. 48Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses [temples] made by hands, as the prophet says,
49"'Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house [temple] will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
*Acts 7.47-49, ESV
Later, in Acts 17 we return to this same teaching of the Spiritual Indwelling. Paul speaks to the intellectual elite of Athens:
22So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28for
"'In him we live and move and have our being';
as even some of your own poets have said,
"'For we are indeed his offspring.'"
*Acts 17.22-28, ESV
Recall, these scriptures reflect a breakthrough in the early Church, one from the materialism of literalistic faith to a spiritual experience of Divine Immanence. Such a message aroused opposition. Today, we still tend to resist the spirituality of the Jesus Way: simply put, many Christians prefer the "idols" of religious materiality rather than the mysteries of Christic spirituality.
Fox continued, noting the Spirit revealed to him that one, even Jesus Christ, could speak directly to his spiritual need. Then, he wrote:
My desire after the Lord grew stronger, and zeal in the pure knowledge of God, and of Christ alone, without the help of any man, book, or writing. For though I read the Scriptures that spoke of Christ and of God, yet I knew Him not, but by revelation, as He who hath the key did open, and as the Father of Life drew me to His Son by His Spirit. Then the Lord gently led me along, and let me see His love, which was endless and eternal, surpassing all the knowledge that men have in the natural state, or can obtain from history or books; and that love let me see myself, as I was without Him.
Again, Fox is reflecting the New Testament truth that we cannot by natural logic ascertain Truth. We can come to affirm truths, but only by inward revelation do we come to know the Truth:
12I have much more to say to you, but right now it would be more than you could understand. 13The Spirit shows what is true and will come and guide you into the full truth. The Spirit doesn't speak on his own. He will tell you only what he has heard from me, and he will let you know what is going to happen. 14The Spirit will bring glory to me by taking my message and telling it to you.
*John 16.12-14, CEV
This passage arises in the mystic Gospel, the Gospel of John. Jesus affirms the Spirit as personal means of revelation, within us. The Spirit "shows," or reveals, spiritual truth. This Spirit is personal and immediate in communicating to our inward person: "will come and guide you." This Spirit will "tell you ... what he has heard." This Spirit will "let you know what is going to happen."
Fox, revealing a tendency in mysticism, failed, I conclude, to appreciate rightly the earthly organizational and structural aspects of the Christ Mystery. That is, he went to an opposite extreme. Fox committed, I submit, a counter-materialism.
Certainly, if universal Spirit is everywhere, there is no place, including temples, churches, chapels, sanctuaries, ... where Spirit is absent. Yet, Spirit is not consciously, or experientially, present in all places.
Materiality is a visible, sacramental passage for the Unseen Presence. Sacraments are visible means, the Church teaches, for the unseen Grace.
A problem of sacramental faith is when we locate only a certain number of church rites as sacramental means, and, then, diverse branches of Christianity do not agree on the "correct" number of sacraments. Such is the limitations of such faith, when we need to focus on the Unseen Presence and the sacramental Nature of Sacredness Itself.
We can discover a middle way between the extremes of religious literalism, in the forms of over-materialized religiousness and ungrounded metaphysics.
Jesus had respect for the Jerusalem Temple as a dwelling of Sacredness. He responds to the abuse of the Temple:
17 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.
*Mark 11.17, NLT
Jesus is drawing off the Jewish appreciation for the physical as a means of Spirit. Jesus was certainly a mystic, yet, he was a mystic grounded in matter and tradition. He honored the Temple, yet he was a Spirit Person.
What is a Christian mystic? A Christian mystic is a person who principally experiences the Christ-as-Personal-Mystery in and through the forms of this world, including the physicality of place and body - human, and otherwise. A Christian mystic sees Nature as a portal from and to the Sacred. A Christian mystic, like all true mystics, is one who knows how he or she refers to the Mystery is only one among other ways to do so, for language is a means and not the Reality of Love.
* * *
1) Why do you believe many persons are afraid of admitting there is a Christian mysticism?
2) What are forces inside churches encouraging the experience of the mystical in faith? Forces discouraging openess to that experience?
3) What material forms do you find communicate to you a sense of the Presence of God?
4) How may language itself be sacramental?
5) What aspects of worship do you find aids you in experiencing the mystery of Christ?
6) What are some scriptures or stories in the Bible that signify the Mystery of God?
7) Do you sense Christian clergy, generally speaking, or prepared to embody and train persons in the mystical of the Christian faith? Explain.
8) Do you engage practice specifically intended to lead you into the mystical experience of God? If so, what.
* * *
*Charitable contributions would be appreciated to assist Brian in the continuance of his work of ministry. For contributions, contact Brian at barukhattah@embarqmail.com .
*Brian's book of spiritual love poetry, An Ache for Union: Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major booksellers, or through the Cokesbury on-line store, at www.cokesbury.com .
*Brian K. Wilcox lives in Punta Gorda, FL, and Clearwater, FL, with his wife, step-son, and two beloved dogs. Brian has an independent writing, workshop, and retreat ministry focused on Christians living as spiritual disciples of Jesus Christ in everyday life. He serves the Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL. Brian is vowed at Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in South Georgia. He lives a vowed, contemplative life and inspires others to experience a more intimate relationship with God-in-Christ. Brian advocates for a spiritually-focused, experiential Christianity and renewal of the focus of the Church on addressing the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons.
|
