Most
readers know Christian writers’ penchant for trinitarian points, but that’s not
why I am following “Be Still!” and “Listen Up!” with “Be Careful!” Rather, I am
making the point that it’s not enough to practice silence and mindfulness in
the spiritual life. The practice of love is required. “Love is the spiritual life,” Thomas Merton summed
up in The Wisdom of the Desert.
“Now
faith, hope, and love abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love,”
the apostle Paul wrote of the spiritual life to the Corinthians. “Love your
neighbor as yourself,” Jesus quoted Hebrew scriptures. And he told us to “love
your enemies.” All of this takes practice.
My
mom seldom let us leave the house without her admonition “Be careful!” But here
I am not using it as simple self-preservation, though it also means care of the
self, care of one’s own soul. The spiritual life means being “full of care,”
care for others, care for our community, care for our environment. That
requires stillness and listening and practice.
Stillness
so we don’t project our own needs, anxieties, and desires onto others.
Listening so we are better able to discern what is truly needed in a given
situation. Practice so we remember “one size does not fit all,” in other words,
one solution does not fit every circumstance. And, I would add, we are not the
solution to every problem. Better yet to consider ourselves only a part of
every solution.
I’m
aware how common-sensical the foregoing is, but spiritual direction is often
the practice of common sense.
I
felt compelled to add this post about care because too many Christians view the
contemplative life as a form of self-absorption, little better than the
me-me-me narcissism too prevalent in our time. The opposite is the case. Christian
contemplation is about one-ing oneself with God, with Jesus, to open their
floodgates of love and compassion into the world. It affects how we view the
migrant, the homeless, the sick, the indebted, the marginalized, and more. It
prompts our help and directs how we vote.
Intimacy
with the God of all means intimacy with all those from whom we might want to
keep a safe distance. Being full of care in many ways is the opposite of being
careful.
To
conclude with Benedictine John Main’s description of a meditator’s spiritual
growth in Letters from the Heart, p
20:
When people would ask how they could tell if they
were making progress in meditation, since they were not supposed to analyze or
assess their actual periods of meditation, the answer would usually be self-evident.
A greater rootedness in self, a deeper emotional stability, a greater capacity
to center in others and away from self were the signs of spiritual growth. To
the Christian this could be expressed more simply as becoming more loving and
more aware of love as the essential energy of life.
I
took the above photo of a caution sign we passed while entering a mill in South
Africa last summer. Think of all the places a sign like this could come in
handy!
I will again be co-leading
a 5-day contemplative retreat: April 27-May 1, 2020 in Cullman, Alabama,
through the Spiritual Formation Program of Columbia Theological Seminary. It is
open to the public.
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