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

by Carl McColman

  A wonderful Greek word helps to illuminate the splendor of the Trinity: perichoresis, which literally means "mutual indwelling," suggesting that each person of theTrinity gracefully abides with and in each other. It comes from the roots peri- meaning "around" and chorein meaning "to move." On a poetic level, perichoresis evokes a lovely image of a circle dance (think of similar words like "perimeter" and "choreography"). The Trinity is an eternal, joyful, radiant manifestation of love, loving, and being loved. Three dancers join together in one eternal dance. The love that flows between and in and among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the very love that creates, sustains, and keeps the universe. It is the love by which you live, and to which you will return when you die. Becoming intimate with God means you participate in the dance.

  THE DYNAMICS OF THE CIRCLE

  Remember the message encoded in Ephesians 3: God is in us, because we are in Christ. As members of the mystical body, Christians actually partake in the divine nature of the Trinity. We do not merely watch the dance, we dance the dance. We join hands with Christ and the Spirit flows through us and between us and our feet move always in the loving embrace of the Father. In that we are members of the mystical body of Christ, we see the joyful love of the Father through the eyes of the Son. And with every breath, we breathe the Holy Spirit.

  Christian mysticism emerges out of the ineffable truth that God and Christ are one, and that the community of Christ's followers are one with him. But just as the doctrine of the Trinity reminds us that Christ's unity with the Father does not erase their personal distinctions, so will our unique identities as lovers /followers of Christ never be erased, no matter how fully we enter into the dance. When we open our hearts to the Christ of faith, we are opening ourselves up to the endless delight of the perichoresis. Through the self-emptying of kenosis whereby we replace pride with humility, fear with love, and self-absorption with self-emptying, we create the space within us where the dance may occur. God comes to dwell in us because we abide in Christ. It all makes perfect sense, and yet it is beyond the mind to grasp. The dance illuminates our hearts, and to enter into it means to embrace a profound darkness marked by unknowing and paradox.

  Keep in mind as you reflect on the promise of joy at the heart of the Trinitarian dance, that one of the dancers has wounds on his hands. Christ is the victorious God-man, but he is also the crucified victim. He died to remove our sins understood mystically, this means he died to empty us of everything within us that resists the love of God, anything and everything that we cannot remove by our own efforts. The crucifixion marks the climax of Christ's own kenosis and through this the dynamics of the circle changed forever. In Christ's emptiness, you will find the grace to receive love, but also the call to embrace your own suffering as you give that love away. Although everyone's path is different, eventually everyone comes to a place of loss and suffering. With Christ as your guide, you can enter into the pain that comes to you, not in a masochistic way, but with confidence and trust viewing your own "cross" as the means by which you will undergo your own resurrection. You cannot do this by yourself; only by the grace of God is it possible. Because God comes to you as the self-emptied Christ, you need not be afraid of him and you may follow his own life-giving example. As part of the body of Christ, you will carry your own cross. But the path leads not just to death, but also to the resurrection. And the dancers will accompany you every step of the way.

  CHAPTER 11

  The Path of Holiness

  As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

  COLOSSIANS 3: 12

  Do not think to found holiness upon doing; holiness must be founded upon being. Works do not make us holy It is we who must make works holy. For no matter how holy works may be, they do not make us holy because we do them, but in so far as we within ourselves are as we should be, we make holy all that we do, whether it he eating, or sleeping, or working, or what it may.

  MEISTER ECKHART34

  When I first became interested in the Christian mystical life, I began to read as many of the writings of the great mystics as I could find Brother Lawrence, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Julian of Norwich, Walter Hilton, and others. I had a naive notion that these ancient writings were basically self-help manuals that would "clue me in" to the secrets of mystical spirituality, with foolproof instructions on how to quickly experience ecstatic union with God. Needless to say, I was very promptly disappointed. What I found again and again was that many of the great contemplatives in the Christian tradition wrote about holiness far more than they wrote about their mystical experiences. Although modern interpreters of Christian mysticism like Evelyn Underhill and Bernard McGinn recommended all these historical writers, it seemed as if everywhere I turned I found discussions of repentance, obedience, humility, purification, and virtue, rather than of mysticism as I defined it.

  I learned that the classical model for the Christian mystical life consisted of three stages: purgation, illumination, and union. But it seemed to me as if all the mystics were so focused on the "purgative" stage that they never got around to talking about illumination or union. However, the more I explored mysticism the more I struggled with my own faltering and mediocre efforts at trying to live a life of `joyful penitence" the more I began to see why the teachings of mysticism are so heavily weighted toward the purgative way.

  MYSTICISM AND HOLINESS

  "Not everyone is called to be a mystic," says a monk I know, "but everyone is called to holiness." Mysticism is often equated with extraordinary or supernatural phenomena and, certainly, in its most dramatic forms, it is both extraordinary and supernatural. But only a very small number of Christians are destined for such a dramatic experience as the presence of God, just as only a few musicians can be as great as Mozart or John Coltrane, and only a few athletes reach the pinnacle of achievement as Olympic gold medalists.

  If mysticism involves only extraordinary, singular, and rare experiences of God's supernatural activity, then any kind of desire to obtain such mystical experiences paradoxically suggests a lack of humility. Jesus made it clear that becoming humble, "like a child," is the path to heaven (Matthew 18:4). Given this mandate to be humble, how can we square that with an ambition (no matter how "spiritual") to have the most extraordinary experiences of God experiences that most Christians, indeed most people, never will enjoy? "Humility goes before honor," insists the Book of Proverbs, which seems to confirm that the honor of enjoying mystical experiences can only truly be given to us after we have chosen the path of humility. This implies that true mysticism can occur only in the lives of those who couldn't care less if they are mystics or not.

  If mysticism, understood as consisting of supernatural or ecstatic encounters with God, is only for the chosen few, however, holiness is for everyone. Moreover, it is proper, indeed necessary, for all Christians to seek the grace of holiness in their lives. But mysticism can also be understood in an egalitarian and inclusive way. By this understanding, you don't have to have supernatural experiences in order to be a mystic; therefore, everyone is called, if not to a life of extraordinary phenomena, then at least to the "ordinary mysticism" of the contemplative life. However, if you don't bother with the demands of holiness, but focus your energy on "being a mystic," you are likely to end up like the hapless person in Jesus' parable who built a house on sand. The first storm (i.e., the first challenge to your so-called spirituality that comes your way) will probably cause your spiritual house to topple.

  So if you have a "high" view of mysticism and believe it is something supernatural that is given to only a chosen few, it makes sense to focus your efforts on living a holy life. Indeed, the quest for holiness is the best way to offer yourself to God, leaving it entirely up to him whether you are graced with mystical experience. On the other hand, if your view of mysticism, like mine, is more egalitarian, it only makes sense to consider that a slow, undramatic, unspectacular process of joyful t
ransformation into the selfforgetful, God-centered life of holiness may be the only sure way to anchor your contemplative aspirations on a rock-solid foundation. It is the altar on which you humbly offer yourself to God. To seek the mystical life, you must seek a holy life.

  Whichever way you approach mysticism, it appears that the great mystics of the Christian tradition got it right. All three dimensions of the mystical life purgation, illumination, and union are driven by grace. But of the three, it is through purgation that you are called to cooperate most actively with God's grace. Purgation is the area of the contemplative life that is the most dependent on your choices and actions. That's why the great teachers of the tradition emphasize it so much in their teaching. As John Ruusbroec said: "You are as holy as you want to be."3s

  We live in an age when holiness, like many other core elements of Christian spirituality, has become both marginalized and controversial, even within the church itself. On the one hand, many Christians seem upset with what they believe is a lack of emphasis on righteousness in today's church. Others, both inside and outside the church, feel that holiness has too often been used to put down those who don't fit the institutional mold. Some might argue that the call to holiness has not been particularly useful at inspiring the average person to embody the Christian "fruits of the Spirit," like love, joy, peace, kindness, and goodness. While we can't resolve or even fully examine these arguments here, we can acknowledge the place holiness holds in the wisdom of the great mystics, and use that as our starting point in exploring how mystical wisdom (including the mandate to be holy) can make a difference for Christians today especially for those who seek to enter the divine mystery through the path of contemplation.

  UNDERSTANDING HOLINESS

  What does it mean to live a holy life? This is not a question we often hear, not even in many churches. For good or for ill, holiness has fallen out of favor. While some may applaud this as evidence that our society has moved beyond superstitious religious repression, and others may decry it as evidence that our culture has become lost in a miasma of narcissism and selfindulgence, I think it may have to do with a profound sense of doubt and even anxiety that arises from our attempts to integrate the spiritual/religious worldview we inherited from our ancestors with the new, emerging perspectives of our age, shaped by globalism, new communication technologies, science, and postmodern philosophy.

  Part of the challenge we face as we try to understand holiness today is the fact that so many different approaches to questions of ethics, morality, and goodness have become part of our cultural landscape. While everyone may still agree that murder and theft are bad and helping others and showing deference to the elderly and handicapped are good, in many other ways, our society simply has no unified, consensual understanding of what constitutes holiness at least in a comprehensive sense of the word. Does "being holy" entail heroic acts of virtue, like the years MotherTeresa spent serving the poorest of the poor in Calcutta? Is it possible to be holy and yet still struggle with serious imperfections, addictive behaviors, and besetting sins the kinds of mistakes we make over and over no matter how hard we try (and pray) to do better? Is holiness just something that "great" people embody, or is it something that can be found in the little old lady who sits quiet and unnoticed at the back of the church every Sunday?

  Even within the Christian faith community, there are significant differences of belief that contribute to sometimes radical differences of opinion. I heard a popular young Christian author asked, at a recent appearance on a college campus, to express his opinion about a controversial moral issue. I was impressed by his carefully considered response. He paused a moment (I suspect he was praying), and then talked about the differences of opinion concerning this particular issue within the church. Without revealing his own stance, he noted: "We Christians have to learn how to disagree well." He then went on to state that he felt it was our job as Christians to love other people, not to judge or convict them. When he finished speaking, the audience applauded.

  I know not everyone was happy with this author's response to this hot-button question. Some may have wanted him to speak more definitively about it; perhaps half the audience wanted him to make a declaration on one side of the issue, while the others equally desired to hear a statement in support of the opposing side. But instead of taking sides, the speaker acknowledged the controversy, and then spoke eloquently about how love and compassion and understanding can help transform even our conflicts and disagreements. And there are plenty of conflicts and disagreements over the many divisive questions facing the Christian community today. Questions about sexual morality, about how Christians should relate to the environment, how they should relate to persons of other faiths, what our responsibilities are to those who are economically deprived or politically oppressed, and what constitutes a Christian understanding of bioethics, medical ethics, and other concerns where moral decision making must be applied to the ever-evolving and increasingly complex world of science and technology are just a few of the challenging issues faced by the faithful today. Unfortunately, it is so easy to become caught up in these contentious issues that Christians can lose sight of the many distinctive and unifying ways that the wisdom of Jesus can lead all people to holiness. A commitment to contemplative spirituality includes a call to holiness that goes beyond merely finding the "right" side of contemporary conflicts. Rather, it calls us to seek a higher perspective where even bitter disagreements might find resolution by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

  Many of the conflicts at the heart of Christianity (including most of the ones I listed in the preceding paragraph) arise out of the evolving and uncertain relationship between Christian ethics and scientific knowledge. Those who seek the splendors of mysticism, however, would be wise to avoid the hard extremes that can be found at either end of this ideological spectrum those who reject all scientific knowledge and non-Christian wisdom out of hand, as well as those who dismiss all Christian perspectives. Both of these perspectives can be rigid, unyielding, and, frankly, self-righteous. Whether we like it or not, ours is an age in which our collective spiritual wisdom must be forged in a great and grand conversation between traditional Christian values and the vast pool of human knowledge and insight that exists in the scientific community and, for that matter, in the wisdom traditions of other faiths and philosophies. In the midst of that grand conversation, we must ask: What does it mean to embrace and to seek -a holy life?

  There is no simple formula for achieving holiness, other than to seek God's grace as you grapple with the big questions of life and with your own personal process of surrendering sin and cultivating virtue. There are, however, certain steps you can take to help you determine the unique way that holiness will characterize your own contemplative walk.

  THE FIRST STEP

  The Hebrew word for holy is qodesh, which means "set apart" or "consecrated." The Greek counterpart is hagios, which has a connotation of "religious awe." From these words, we can recognize the first and most fundamental truth about holiness: only God is truly holy. Only God is fully set apart from the messiness and brokenness and corruption that infects human life the stuff that leads inevitably to suffering, pain, and ultimately death. But God's holiness is more than just a type of purity. For while God is indeed set apart from the messiness of mortal existence, he also in the person of Jesus Christ chose to become immersed in our decidedly not-very-holy world. So holiness is paradoxical. It has a quality of being set apart, consecrated, great enough to inspire awe, and yet it continually gives itself away, undermining its own set-apart-ness and immersing itself in the very mess above which it stands. The Holy One entered the less-than-holy world in the physical life of Jesus Christ, and does so perpetually through the ongoing action of the Holy Spirit.

  I believe that aspiring contemplatives can embrace the universal call to holiness by taking on a more holistic, inclusive, and comprehensive approach to holiness, gently holding on to this paradox between holiness as being set apart and
the Holy One's immersion in the non-holy world. Jesus identified the two dimensions of holiness in two great commandments:

  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

  and

  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

  "On these two commandments," he insists, "hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:35-40).

  Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, he tells us (other versions add "strength"). This is the call to be set apart, to immerse yourself in God and his love, seeking purity that can come only as a gift from God. You cannot, by your own efforts, make yourself pure, any more than you can, by your own efforts, prevent the inevitable march of old age and death. Whatever purity you may have whether moral rectitude or an innocent ability to live in love and joy and all the other fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-3) you enjoy it, not by dint of your own efforts, but through the grace of God.Your "effort" to become holy consists primarily in getting out of your own way, cultivating in yourself a spirit of willingness, allowing God the freedom within you to give you the transforming power of his grace.

  Then follows the second commandment: to love your neighbors as yourself. Notice that the standard for loving others is how well you love yourself. Jesus isn't saying, however, that if you hate yourself you have permission to hate others! Rather, encoded in this commandment about loving others is a subtle directive to love yourself as well. The implication is that you ought to love yourself and others with the same pure love that God has for you.