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Mysticism and Spirituality The Published Articles of Ernest E. Larkin, O.Carm. Mysticism and Spirituality Mysticism and Spirituality Mysticism and spirituality are similar times adumbrations of the divine presence as but not identical terms. Mysticism refers to found, for example, in limit experiences of the experience of God, whereas spirituality is loneliness or peak experiences on the the whole process of growth from mountaintop. inauthenticity into full relationship with God A variant of this form is the experience and the possession of one’s truth as imago of the Holy Spirit in the charismatic gifts. The Dei. Spirituality is the more inclusive term. gifts are the phenomena of glossolalia, This article addresses the relationship between healings, revelations, visions, and locutions the two topics from a Christian perspective. and the like. These sensible manifestations The adjective mystical in patristic contain within themselves the transcendent usage described the mysterious, objective experience of God described above. The content of word and sacrament, such as the distinctive feature here is an exuberant deep meaning of Scripture as the Word of God enthusiasm that detects the immediate or the real presence in the Eucharist. Thus presence and action of God. This feeling of “the mystical body of Christ” referred to immediacy, however, is exaggerated (Rahner Eucharist rather than the church. Pseudo- called it “naive”), because the closeness Dionysius added the element of experience, comes more from the enthusiasm than the and over the centuries, especially in modern depth and purity of faith, which alone are the times, the personal, subjective emphasis has measure of true presence to God. Charismatic become the primary meaning. immediacy is not the same as the immediacy Mysticism is sometimes a sweeping associated with classic infused contemplation. category for a variety of esoteric religious This latter quality identifies the third experiences. At other times it is restricted to extraordinary form, which is indeed an higher forms of the experience of God found immediate and direct encounter with the living in the saints. In this article we follow Karl God, such as found in the prayer of union of Rahner and define mystical experience as the Teresa of Avila or unitive contemplation in same one experience of the Holy Spirit, given John of the Cross. This is the full flowering of and received in faith and love, and present as the transcendent experience in faith. Rahner the transcendent reality within all morally calls it extraordinary mysticism, not because it good human activity. This graced orientation is a special charism or miraculous gift, but to God is the unthematic, ordinarily because it is rare and belongs to very holy anonymous experience of the self- people. While its theological explanation is communication of God. It has multiple grace come to term, the psychological aspects manifestations that differ only in degree from depend on psychic structure. The relationship one another. These experiences are also between mysticism and spirituality varies called contemplation and all of them by according to these three modes of mystical definition are infused. experience. One form is the latent and implicit contemplation in everyday activities. This Everyday Mysticism seedling form of mystical experience has only Everyday mysticism is faith-filled hints or signals of the divine transcendence. activity and belongs in most reckonings to the The person is explicitly aware of the thematic ascetical life of ordinary active prayer and the or categorical contours of the act, with at Page 211 The Published Articles of Ernest E. Larkin, O.Carm. Mysticism and Spirituality fulfillment of the duties of one’s life. The is more frequent and accessible than the strict transcendental method has uncovered and mystical experience of the saints. It moves on identified this experience of God. Today’s the lesser level of imagination and feeling, widespread desire for spiritual experience which are fed by the Pentecostal gifts. Its finds resonance in this teaching. Far from appeal is its passive and empirical quality; it being novel, it is the biblical truth that the way happens spontaneously, often without to God is a good life (e.g. Micah 6:8). warning, and it presupposes only an open and The experiential grace in ordinary expectant heart. Its lasting value, of course, is faith-life bridges the gap between asceticism the faith-experience that is nourished by these and mysticism or between meditation and gifts. contemplation. The two areas are not The gifted experiences are hermetically sealed off from each other. St combinations of charism, psychic causes and John of the Cross himself connects them by cultural conditioning. The gift generally identifying the fruit of meditation and of the builds on a natural substratum and does not charismatic gifts as “morsels of spirituality,’’ fall full-blown from heaven. It is incorrect to which are in fact camouflaged, hidden consider charismatic mysticism more mystical contemplation (e.g. Ascent of Mount Carmel in the essential sense than sober, less 2.17.8). emotional piety, since the one measure for Mysticism is thus part of every both is the faith-filled spirit within. Christian life. The spiritual life is radically Charismatic phenomena are accidental mystical, essentially personal and relational as and unusual graces that are useful, but not opposed to any reductionist system of law or necessary for sanctity. They can be morality or institutional piety. Impersonal immensely helpful, especially in beginnings, religion is insufficient today, according to the but they also can be dangerous if the often quoted dictum of Karl Rahner: “the experiences create an inflated, superficial devout Christian of the future will either be a spirituality. Good spiritual direction is mystic, one who has experienced something, essential. In times of great enthusiasm, as in or he will cease to be anything at all.” Spain of the 16th century, the spiritual masters (Theological Investigations 7(1971) 15) like St John of the Cross discourage the gifts. Ascetical practice creates the pure In rationalistic, agnostic times like our own heart that is the measure for the outpouring of they can play an important role in spiritual the divine Gift. This is the purgative way and renewal, as the recent history of the it leads into the overt contemplation of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements illuminative and unitive ways. The whole shows. journey is thus mystical from beginning to end, from the single-hearted choices for God Classical Mysticism in beginnings, through the passive purification Extraordinary mysticism is the climax of the dark nights, which themselves are of spiritual development. Is this direct contemplative experiences of the presence of encounter with the living God a necessary and God in absence, and into the highest union. normal component of high sanctity? Or is True mysticism has no room for quietism and strict, classical “infused contemplation” a it engages all the aspects of the Christian life. special but unnecessary component of high Charismatic Mysticism spirituality? These questions were much disputed in recent scholastic mystical This “mysticism of the masses,” as theology. The Rahnerian and typical answer Rahner called it, is a numinous experience that today is affirmative for the first question and Page 212 The Published Articles of Ernest E. Larkin, O.Carm. Mysticism and Spirituality negative for the second, with the proviso that For Joseph de Guibert this experience goes psychic factors determine the psychological beyond the normal evolution of grace and is a aspects of the experience. special condition that is not necessary for The responses of the past depended as sanctity. De Guibert postulated a state of much on the definition of terms as theological “acquired contemplation,’’ which is within the principles. Two basic schools of thought reach of all dedicated Christians, as necessary emerged. The Thomist position — taught by and sufficient for sanctity. August Saudreau, the Dominicans under the Contemporary Catholic writers have leadership of Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, moved away from these scholastic debates. and by Jacques Maritain — defined infused They favor an experiential quality as part of contemplation as infused knowledge and love mature spirituality, thus leaning to the and explained it through the theology of the Dominican perspective, but without gifts of the Holy Spirit of John of St Thomas necessarily embracing the special theology of This school saw infused contemplation as the gifts that underpins this view and without normal and necessary for the unitive way. necessarily interpreting the psychic The other school, largely Jesuit, based their phenomena of the classical mystical response on the highly stylized description of experience as coming from grace rather than mystical experience uncovered in the positive psychic structure. The experience of God is a study of the mystics by August Poulain, S.J.’s fact in contemporary spirituality, not only as Graces of Prayer. In this view mystical the crown of the spiritual journey but as a key experience is a special divine touching, a ongoing feature along the way. Mysticism in sense of being lost in God, so that there is no other words is at the heart of genuine shadow of a doubt that God is within and the Christian spirituality. soul is in God (e.g. Teresa of Avila, Life 10.1). Bibliography: Karl Rahner, The Experience of the Holy Spirit. Page 213 .
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