Saturday, October 29, 2022
           (click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
 Everyday mystic
Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Can you say that? Can I say that? It’s a beautiful sentiment, but much more than that, it’s part of the Big Truth, which transcends emotion and experience. God is at the absolute center of things. Christ lives within me and will live in me “whether by life or by death.”
Ruth Burrows, a Carmelite who writes wonderful books, says that a mystical moment happens when we see ourselves and the world with crystal clarity, at a level “deeper than words, thoughts, imagination and feeling.” Paul’s vision of Christ within his life as a servant and his death as a child of God certainly counts as a mystical moment. Ron Rolheiser continues to describe this experience:
For that moment we are centered, and can sense, beyond words and imagination, in some unconscious, and inchoate way, what mystics call the indelible memory of God’s kiss on our soul, the primordial memory of once having experienced perfect love inside God’s womb before birth. Henri Nouwen calls this a dark memory of “first love”, of once having been caressed by far gentler hands than we have ever met in this life.
Beautiful metaphors, and I stretch out my arms, open myself to receive that kiss. Harry Potter avoided the kiss of the dementors; we crave the kiss of our Creator, our Father, the one who is with us in life and in death.
And the great thing is that this clarity is not reserved for special saints; it’s there for you and me, in the mysticism of everyday life. How do I do that? Getting there is like showing up for every sunset, nurturing hope and faith and wonder in your childlike soul. Then just do your life, physical, spiritual, relational. Rolheiser write about how that looks:
You can be a practicing mystic by journaling, doing spiritual reading, taking spiritual direction, doing various spiritual exercises such as the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, and by prayer of any kind.
But there is so much more:
In terms of centering and steadying your soul you can be a practicing mystic by more consciously and more deliberately giving yourself over to the biblical practice of Sabbath and by doing other soul-centering things like gardening, taking long walks, listening to good music, sharing wine and conversation with family and friends, making love with your spouse, holding a baby, visiting a person who is ill, or even just taking up a hobby that healthily breaks the obsession of your daily concerns.
This is what Paul did, and this is what I can do too. When I step away from entertainment and whatever daily concerns I’m obsessed with, this is what remains. This is how to live the Christian life, which is the mystical life, which is the life lived in imitation of Christ.
As the deer longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. Where shall I go and behold the face of God?
My friend Chris ends his prayers with the words, “All glory and honor to you, O Lord.” And then he does his best to go out and live those words.
(Philippians 1, Psalm 42, Matthew 11, Luke 14)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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