Jesus is Calling You
to Become a Mystic
by:
Deacon Paul Rooney
I suspect that most
people think that the mystical life is for “those other folks,” I.e., that
amorphous group of holy people that our imaginations connect with a halo, a
starry far-off look, and perhaps a prie-dieu. I also think that it would surprise those
very same “most people” to discover that everyone
is called to the mystical life.
I have been
meditating on these words of Jesus: “Unless
you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of
heaven” (Matthew 18:3, NRSV;
Wednesday, 19th Ord. “B”). Certainly he is talking about both the
physical life and the spiritual life.
Jesus is calling us first to convert from our life of selfish
inclinations, and abandon ourselves to Him.
It is a path to eternal life easy to describe; but it is also difficult
to persevere on such a path. Yet that is
precisely what the spiritual life is all about: seeking and surrendering to the
God who dwells within us. Thus the
advice of Jesus translates simply into conversion and new life (cf. CCC 2784-5).
I desire to
share with you in this short article some pertinent words and thoughts about
this mystical life. They really
originate from the great Italian mystic, St. Paul of the Cross (d. 1775), as well as members of his religious
order (the Passionist Fathers). They resonated
with me too much to keep them for myself.
We all know that
birth comes before death. Nevertheless,
in the life of the spirit, it is just the opposite: mystical death comes before
mystical life! You will remember that
even the Martyrs are remembered on the anniversary of their physical death, not
birth. For St. Paul of the Cross, death
is not an end, but a beginning. Mystical death was the fullness of
detachment, from all that is created, all that is not God. Mystical life is the new life that begins
after our death to self-gratification.
Then comes the
logical question: aren’t we supposed to love everyone, as Jesus taught us, and
love the world that God created, and take care of it so that it will serve the
needs of all? Mystical language tries to
describe what is experienced, and
does not always use terms that are explained for everyone’s understanding. Mystics like Paul of the Cross speak of the
goal of living in the uncreated Good, God himself. When we abandon ourselves, totally detached
from the contentment found in things of the world, we are in the area of pure
faith. We seek His divine pleasure, not
our own contentment. As you can see,
Paul of the Cross focuses on true detachment: not so much from creatures or
people, but from our own satisfaction from them, from our own instinctive
self-seeking.
Paul of the
Cross connects both mystical death and this new mystical life with the concept
of spiritual childhood (Matt. 18:3 cited above). He asks each of us to choose to surrender ourself to the divine will,
abandoning ourself like a baby on the loving bosom of God. What a wonderful image: becoming a baby! Babies are docile: they let themselves be
carried everywhere by their mother. They
also have total freedom from care; they know and expect that the mother will
take care of absolutely everything they need.
Such is our God!
Then comes the
surprise: Paul connects spiritual childhood with the Passion of Jesus; he says
that we can understand the Passion only if we are childlike. Non-Christians think the cross is folly (1 Cor 1:21-24);
but a childlike spirit “catches the message of love and doesn’t look for any
other reasons” than love. So Paul urges
us to become like trusting little children.
God will “nourish us with the milk and most sweet wine of holy love,
which inebriates” us with a “holy drunkenness.”
How can I react
to such love? I can respond to God’s
invitation to become a mystic. I must
willingly die to the selfish satisfactions that I seek every day, become like a
little child, and drink the milk and wine of His love. I can also pray daily to the Holy Spirit that
He transform me into the image of Jesus, an image and reality that is also one
of a childlike mystic. That prayer is in
accord with His will, and therefore it will be answered!
Deacon Paul Rooney with his lovely wife Patricia
Check out his website "The Deacon's World" at:
Thank you, Deacon Paul. The greatest of Sufi mystic poets, Jalalludin Rumi, wrote,
ReplyDelete"I died as mineral and became a plant
I died as a plant and rose to animal
I died as an animal and I was a man
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?"
In St. Paul's kenosis hymn in his letter to the Philippians(2:5-11), he describes Jesus's emptying and humbling of himself, and how his descent even unto death brought him to the realm of dominion and glory. And Paul call's us to be of that same mind, to do what Jesus did.
If I understand mysticism at all, I take it to mean that our faith must be more than intellectual assent to creedal statements and doctrine.I am also called into a trust in the generosity and abundance of God's love for me, and a willingness to "fall into God", "to live and move and have [my] being"(Acts17:28) in him.
I can never be certain about what I think I may know about God. I expect that I'm not even close.Maybe accepting the limitations of my intellect is what the prophet Micah was referring when he told us,"to walk humbly with our God".(Micah6:8) But I believe that when I open my heart to Him, and stop comparing, clinging,judging and measuring, and simply let myself "be", I am the beloved of the Beloved.
Thanks, Bob. The word that best describes (for me) our willingness to "accept," "walk humbly," "be open," and simply "be" would seem to me to be "surrender" - at least from A Catholic viewpoint.
ReplyDelete-Blessings, Paul