The Big Book of Christian Mysticism: The Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality

by Carl McColman

  It's not easy to scale a mountain. If you want to climb Mount Everest, you need to be in great shape, capable of withstanding harsh weather conditions and high altitudes, and prepared to pay for guides and assorted other expenses. You also need companions; it's not a trip you can take by yourself.

  Christian mysticism works much the same way. You need to be spiritually fit to withstand the challenges of the mystical life. You must be prepared to withstand the harsh conditions of profound inner doubt, facing the pain and suffering of the world, and releasing your own sinfulness into the cleansing grace of God. You need to "pay" for your experience with a disciplined life grounded in faith. And as for Plotinus and his "flight of the alone to the Alone"? Although there may be an inherent solitude in the contemplative experience, it is a solitude that must be embedded in some form of communal experience. Every mountain climber needs a base camp; every pilot needs a ground crew; every mystic needs a spiritual director and a faith community.

  The mountain-climbing metaphor fails, however, at a certain point. It makes mysticism sound too much like some sort of grand hobby, available to anyone willing to pay the spiritual price. The point of the metaphor is not to reduce mysticism to some sort of extreme sport that affluent individuals can enjoy at their leisure. Rather, it is intended to show how spiritually arduous mysticism can be, to help explain why so few people choose to respond to the contemplative call. Thankfully, not every peak is as inaccessible as Everest, nor does everyone feel a compulsion to climb it. The mystics who devote their lives to scaling the highest peaks do so because they are called to it. And they will be the first to tell you that every single step of their spiritual lives would be impossible were it not for the grace that blesses them at each point along the way.

  For every person who is called to scale the highest spiritual peaks, there are countless others who are called to climb the foothills to accept unique spiritual tasks that may seem "lesser" than the highest summits but are demanding in their own way and still promise profound joy and meaning to those who accept the challenge. And even those who are not called to climb mountains can still discern within their hearts an inner stirring to retreat into the wilderness for a day or a weekend for rest and renewal.

  Here's yet another paradox of mysticism: There is only one path to follow, yet each of us must find our own way. We are all tellers of a unique tale, and yet all our stories are woven together by the Holy Spirit into one grand narrative. Ultimately, there is only one story, only one tale to tell. The worst thing you can do is to waste time trying to climb someone else's mountain, follow someone else's path, tell another person's tale. Hidden compulsions to be "someone else" can confound your spiritual life just as surely as they can complicate your career or your marriage.The path of the contemplative is at times dark and hidden in the cloud of unknowing; it requires tremendous trust and a profound willingness to be led by a Spirit who communicates with you in only the softest of whispers. This includes trusting in the singular beauty of your own path, no matter how unexceptional (or unfulfilling) it may seem, at times, to be.

  The mystical dimension of Christianity is founded on the infinite creativity of God. Every one of us is called to be intimate with God and worship and enjoy him in a way that is unique and personal and can never be repeated by anyone else. What this means, of course, is that no program of mystical development, no game plan for mastering contemplation, no step-by-step process for "becoming a mystic," can ever be written or implemented. While there are books like this one, designed to evoke a desire to embrace the mystical life, and while many of the writings of the great mystics are instructional in nature, there can never be a one-size-fits-all approach to the unfolding of the splendors of mystical Christianity in your life. You can read the instructional writings of Teresa of Avila or John of the Cross and, hopefully, their words will inspire you, challenge you, beguile you, call you to enter more fully and deeply into the mysteries of God. But no one can ever give you a fail-safe prescription for becoming a contemplative. Mystics are like angels; no two are the same.

  This points to personal mentoring (known in the Christian tradition as spiritual direction) as a valuable and perhaps essential component of the contemplative life. We are each unique; we each face different challenges and opportunities for our own individual journeys into the heart of God. Rather than making yourself miserable trying to conform your own walk with God to what you think you "ought" to be doing, open your heart (and your mind) and share your inner life with a loving and wise spiritual mentor so that the Holy Spirit can more easily guide you on your own personal path (see Chapter 9 for more about spiritual direction).

  The mountain climbing metaphor points to a main reason why Christian mysticism isn't discussed much in Sunday morning sermons. It's not that the clergy are necessarily hostile to it. It's just that most congregations simply are not interested in immersing themselves in the Christian mysteries on such a profound and life-changing level. Imagine your priest or minister preaching a sermon that charges his flock to embrace the mysteries of God and enter deeply into silence and unknowing, to seek profound inner transformation under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. For those who do not feel called to practice contemplative prayer, a sermon like that might seem troubling or perhaps even threatening. While every Christian is called to a relationship with God, many choose to limit their spirituality to something very gentle and simple. The radical potential of mystical spirituality is born out of silence and solitude, rather than preaching and public announcements.

  Some Christians, particularly those from evangelical or fundamentalist backgrounds, may think that mysticism is somehow at odds with the gospel. When mysticism is perceived as being more about subjective feelings than objective experiences and the shared values of the faith, some believers naturally see it in a negative light. Others may assume that mysticism has more to do with Eastern or occult spirituality than with historic Christianity. Although this is a misunderstanding, it will nevertheless dissuade many devout churchgoers from exploring how mysticism can bring blessings to their faith. As I pointed out in Chapter 7, contemplative spirituality and mysticism often appeal to Christians who also feel called to learn from the wisdom of other faiths. Such interfaith exploration does not make a person less of a Christian; but to those who feel uncomfortable with any kind of religious belief other than their own, this kind of work will seem dangerous. Unfortunately, in the minds of many of its critics, Christian mysticism appears to be basically equivalent to interfaith spirituality and equally to be avoided.

  Of course, while some Christians (both clergy and lay) are hostile to mysticism, many others are either indifferent to the topic, or perhaps are curious about it, even if they have difficulty expressing that curiosity using the language of their church-based spirituality. All in all, it's a mistake to assume that mysticism and the church are somehow fundamentally at odds, and an even bigger blunder to assume that mysticism is good, and organized religion bad.

  MYSTICISM VERSUS SPIRITUALITY

  Many followers of Jesus equate spirituality with efforts to live a moral life, or with Bible study, or with the use of formal or memorized devotions like the Catholic Rosary, or with participation in charismatic prayer groups or evangelical revivals, or simply with regular attendance at Sunday worship services. All of these are valid and much-loved expressions of Christian spirituality, and none of them are necessarily opposed to mysticism. Indeed, all of these can be portals into a deep appreciation of the Christian mysteries. But what separates the mystical element from all the other variations of Christian spirituality is that it explicitly embraces the profound mystery that can be encountered at the heart of religious experience and that can be apprehended only through the grace of God.

  Some forms of spirituality can subtly reinforce experiences, not of God, but of the ego. Mysticism, on the other hand, concerns the more daunting task of surrendering the ego before the cross of Christ. It's about immersing your self-identity into the cloud of
unknowing and the dark night of the soul. It is the hidden or "negative" path where, ultimately, all is stripped away before the awesome presence of God.

  Many sincere and dedicated churchgoers seem to neither want nor need such a profound encounter with mystery. Perhaps they have not yet been called to go deeper or higher into the darkness of unknowing. Perhaps they are called to keep things simple, at least for now. Whatever the reason, for many Christians, their spiritual path simply does not presently entail an encounter with the mystery that is at the heart of mysticism. Moreover, those who are called to mystical spirituality need to refrain from judging or criticizing those who apparently are not. Everyone's path is unique, and the community of faith is large enough to encompass both those who are drawn to contemplation and those who aren't (or aren't yet). Remember Karl Rahner's prophetic words: "The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he will not exist at all." Perhaps the Spirit will raise up more and more people interested in mysticism for the purpose of transforming the entire Body of Christ into a more truly mystical community but such a revolution will take place one person at a time.

  Christian mysticism remains hidden in plain sight, even in the Christian churches where Jesus is worshipped and love is proclaimed. It's encoded in the Bible; it swirls around such universal practices as baptism and communion; it is potentially a part of the inner life of anyone who bothers to pray or who feels a longing to be quiet in the presence of God. It is only by the grace of God that anyone is called to the contemplative life. But no one is going to hand the mysteries to you (or anyone else) on a silver platter. It may not be hard to find, but it requires that you go looking for it.

  PART II

  The Contemplative Life

  Be still, and know that I am God!

  PSALM 46:Io

  It is not what you are nor what you have been that God sees with his all-merciful eyes, but what you desire to be.

  THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING'

  CHAPTER 9

  The Mystical Body

  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

  I JOHN 4: 1 2

  The Christian is not merely "alone with theAlone"in the Neoplatonic sense, but he is one with all his "brothers in Christ." His inner self is, in fact, inseparable from Christ and hence it is in a mysterious and unique way inseparablefrom all the other`I's"who live in Christ, so that they all form one `Mystical Person,"which is "Christ."

  THOMAS MERTON'S

  Exploring Christian mysticism is like learning to drive. It's one thing to take a class on automobile safety and traffic laws.You've got to master the rules of the road before you can hope to survive behind the wheel. But you'll never be able to get your license until you sit in the driver's seat and learn how to steer, and accelerate, and brake, and become familiar enough with the experience of operating an automobile to safely and confidently take one out into traffic. No matter how good a student you may be, you eventually have to translate all of the important theory of driving into the practice of driving safely. In the first part of this book, we were engaged in the "classroom" phase of learning about mysticism. Now it's time to get behind the wheel.

  Many people who are called to union with Christ take their first steps on the journey long before they ever run across words like "mysticism" or "contemplation" or "meditation."You may find, as you read the pages to come, that much of what I say seems rather basic to you. Perhaps through your own life experience, you've already begun to learn the principles of faith, prayer, growth in holiness, and other elements of Christian mysticism. Likewise, although you may never have been part of a Christian faith community, you may have picked up a general knowledge of mysticism through exposure to other wisdom and spiritual traditions. Some, however, may come to the adventure of Christian mysticism with little more than an unexplained desire in their hearts and an intuitive sense that the Christian mysteries speak to them. For them, even the "basics" of Christian spirituality represent new beginnings.

  No one can reduce the mystery of the contemplative life to an easyto-follow sequence, although many people, including some of the greatest Christian mystics, have been trying to do that since the days of the New Testament. Mysticism cannot be reduced to any kind of system. It flows among countless streams. But just because it's impossible to reduce the mystical experience to one particular sequence doesn't mean that it can't be approached or explored in a step-by-step manner. All I ask is that you keep in mind that the exploration of Christian mysticism in this book represents only one possible approach to entering the mysteries.

  With this in mind, I've arranged the chapters in this part of the book in a sequential order. It makes sense to read them in the order presented, since I introduce concepts in the earlier chapters that are intended to support the subsequent material. But since the mystical life, being a dance with God, can manifest in many forms, your particular journey along the mystic way may look nothing like the sequence I present here. That doesn't make either of us wrong. It's just a testament to how rich and unique the life journey of each person who embraces the mystical adventure can be. You may have noticed that I've used words like "contemplation" and "the contemplative life" almost as synonyms for Christian mysticism. In the pages to come, I talk less and less about mysticism and more about contemplation and the contemplative life. This is simply an acknowledgment that contemplation (also known, in Christian terms, as contemplative prayer) is the heart of the spiritual practices by which we open ourselves to the mystery of Jesus Christ. To truly embrace the possibility of moving deeper and deeper into the adventure of Christian mysticism requires spiritual practice and discipline and of all the spiritual exercises associated with mysticism, contemplation is the summit. We'll take a closer look at contemplation in Chapter 15. For now, I just want to mention that those serious about Christian mysticism not as a hobby or a fad, but as a sustainable, transformational way of life, will find in contemplation the contemplative life the heart of their exploration.

  THE POWER OF PRACTICE

  If the mystical life is a journey, then where does it begin? For Christians, the quest commences in a way that, paradoxically, appears on the surface to have nothing to do with experiential inner spirituality at all. A person could conceivably be the most advanced mystic in the world, enjoying supernatural phenomena, breathtaking visions, glorious and unimaginable experiences of heightened consciousness, and spiritual bliss. But in Christian terms, this "spiritual master" could be nothing more than the simplest of novices. Christian mysticism the journey to union with God in Christ begins in an entirely down-to-earth and mundane way.

  Christianity is an incarnational faith. In its fullest and truest form, it proclaims the joyful, healing, and transformational presence of God right here, right now, in the physical world the world of flesh and bones. Another word for "incarnational" is "enfleshed."As Christians see it, you don't have to escape the world to find God. You don't have to reject your body or your physical nature to embrace spirituality. You don't have to deny the earth to embrace heaven. On the contrary, Christianity makes the bold claim that, since God in Christ became a human being, the nexus in all the universe where humanity meets divinity is right here, right now, in our mundane physical world.

  This beautiful message has several practical implications. The earth and the human body are good enough for God to inhabit whether we're talking about Christ living in a human body 2,000 years ago or the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts today. This means that the earth and the body are good enough for us to love, honor, cherish, and nurture. Likewise, if you want to reach out for God, seeking and yearning for his presence in your life, then you must begin right here and right now, by seeking that presence in your own heart, your own body and in others. And this is where the importance of community comes in.

  Remember the paradoxes of mysticism. No matter how spiritual Christian mysticism gets, it's also embedded in our materialist, earthy world. It is enfleshed in the way w
e organize our lives and relate to one another. It manifests in the social and institutional tools we have created to support one another spiritually.

  In other words, the mysticism of Jesus Christ is embedded in the Christian faith. Just as Christian mysticism is concerned with making the hidden mysteries of God known, so is the wisdom of mysticism itself hidden within the most commonplace elements of the Christian religion.

  Even churches that claim to be opposed to mysticism contain within their teaching and worship the seeds of the mysteries that lead to the lifechanging presence of God. Christianity teaches that you don't have to climb a mountain to find God. You can find him in the open hands of a homeless beggar on the street, or in the haunting eyes of a frail old woman, lonely and ravaged by dementia, at a nursing home just up the street from where you live. And you can even find God in the church on the corner.

  Luke 17:21 provides the key to understanding how the mystery is embedded in Christian community. In this verse, Jesus says one of two things, depending on the translation:

  The kingdom of God is within you.

  or

  The kingdom of God is among you.

  For those who are drawn to mysticism and contemplation, the idea of the kingdom of God (in other words, heaven) being found within us is particularly appealing. It suggests that the key to true spirituality is found by going within by interior reflection, meditation, and contemplation. And indeed, all of these practices are essential to the contemplative life.