"Quick, Chris! Take a picture!"
For my European readers,
an international conference on Henri Nouwen will be held in his home country of
The Netherlands, November 28-30, 2016. Details may be found at: https://www.drietour.nl/georganiseerde-reizen/europa/nederland/conferentie-henri-nouwen
If you like this, please
share the link with your Facebook friends and groups and/or other social media
by clicking on the appropriate logo at the bottom of this post. Thank you!
Henri
Nouwen often reads sad, lonely, and anguished. But that belies the fact that,
in real life, he was also a lot of fun.
When
I tell personal stories about him or show videotapes of his presentations,
participants in my Nouwen seminars and retreats are delighted to be in touch
with his playful side. Even his most heartfelt presentations were filled with
humor and buoyancy, as he danced around, arms waving and hands gesturing
wildly, eyes protruding and neck stretching to make a point, straining with
every fiber of his being to reach an audience with spiritually profound insights.
When
I first studied with him at Yale Divinity School in 1973, he arranged a
Jesuit-turned-clown to serve as an artist-in-residence for two weeks. The mime
interrupted our class one session, and Henri grinned, amused like a kid and
puzzled, “Oh, so you’d like to take over the lecture?” The mime took Henri’s
place at the lectern, and without saying a word, imitated his body language and
gestures and facial expressions with such accuracy and detail that we laughed
aloud and had fun at Henri’s expense.
In
his book, Clowning in Rome, Henri
described spiritual leaders as the bumbling, stumbling clowns of the circus,
hoping to teach others by our own awkward fumbling in the spiritual life. We
are not the “virtuosi” he wrote, not the masters of the trapeze or the lion
tamers or the skilled riders of horses, zebras, and elephants.
“They
are like us,” we say of circus clowns as we witness their very human antics.
Henri
felt that ministers (by which he meant every
Christian) serve best when we offer our vulnerabilities, our own woundedness, to
others, as in another early work in which he depicts the minister as The Wounded Healer.
I
describe Henri’s books as a series of “wounds with a view,” sometimes raw
expositions of his own pain, challenges, loneliness, and yearning for the
spiritual life. That’s why he touches his readers so deeply.
And
that’s why he was drawn to the poor and marginalized of the world, whether
those living in poverty in Latin America, people with disabilities of the
L’Arche community, individuals living with HIV/AIDS, or spiritually
impoverished seminarians and churchgoers. All of these had something to teach
Henri—and us—about the spiritual life. Each group also had something to teach
Henri about play and simple pleasures.
The
spiritual mentor who once wrote of ministers as clowns rather than virtuosi
came full circle toward the end of his life when he met and travelled briefly
with The Flying Rodleighs, trapeze artists in a European circus. In the video, Angels over the Net, Henri is clearly having fun gazing in wonder as they
perform double and triple jumps high above their net. He himself skips toward
the circus with a child with Down syndrome, and together they playfully bounce
on the circus net.
When
he tried to explain his newfound wish to be a trapeze artist, his Dutch accent
and his earlier extended stays at a Trappist monastery prompted hearers to
think he wanted to become a Trappist rather than a trapeze performer!
Though
Henri taught at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard, he found his final home with
people with developmental disabilities, who had little idea of his
accomplishments but who loved him just for being with them. They brought out his playful side, the fun of
living in the moment.
And
for Henri, living in the moment was touching eternal life here and now.
Click here for all posts
that reference Henri Nouwen and scroll down.
You may support this
blog ministry by clicking here and scrolling down to the donate link below its description or by mailing to MCC, P.O. Box 50488, Sarasota FL 34232 USA,
designating “Progressive Christian Reflections” in the memo area of your check
or money order. Thank you!
Copyright © 2016 by Chris R. Glaser.
Permission granted for non-profit use with attribution of author and blogsite.
Other rights reserved.
