«I’M COMING, LORD » CONTEMPLATIVES IN RELATION
José Ignacio González Faus
1. CHRISTIAN CONTEMPLATION AND “RELIGIOUS CONTEMPLATION ” ...... 3 2. INITIATION INTO CONTEMPLATION AND MYSTERY ...... 9 3. PRACTICAL ORIENTATIONS ...... 15 CONCLUSION ...... 29 NOTES ...... 31 The companions of Ignatius Loyola used to say that he was a «contemplative in action ». This doesn’t ignore the fact that the saint spent hours in prayer. Rather it indicates the flow of contemplation: from pure inactivity to human action.
And the main arena of human action is precisely relations . Being busy with things and nature, with study and art, may require attention; but for a contemplative soul such activities easily open up windows onto the mystery of the “beyond”. By con - trast, interperso nal relations make such an opening much more difficult: not only because of selfishness –our own and that of others– but because of the mystery, the complexity, and differences we find in human beings. Also because of the fast paced, casual nature of many of our relations.
The following considerations make an earnest attempt to extend the Ignatian motto (contemplatives in action) toward the further summit of being “contemplatives in relation”, so that there we may hope to find the greatest treasures of a life shaped by faith and the following of Jesus Christ.
José I. González Faus, s.j. is in charge of the Theological Department of Cristianisme i Justícia .
CRISTIANISME I JUSTÍCIA Edition, Roger de Llúria, 13 - 08010 Barcelona Tel. 93 317 23 38 - Fax: 93 317 10 94 - [email protected] - www.cristianismeijusticia.net Printed by: Edicions Rondas S.L. - Dipòsit Legal: B-4.229-2012 - ISBN: 978-84-9730-288-3 ISSN: 2014-6566 - ISSN (virtual edition): 2014-6574 - June 2012 Translated by Joseph Owens - Cover illustration: Roger Torres Printed on ecological paper and recycled cardboard
The Fundació Lluís Espinal lets it be known that its data are registered in a file under the name BDGACIJ, legal title of the Fundació Lluís Espinal. These are used only for providing the services we render you and for keeping you informed of our activities. You may exercise your rights of access, rectification, cancelation or opposition by writing to the Fundació in Barcelona, c/Roger de Llúria, 13. 1. CHRISTIAN CONTEMPLATION AND “RELIGIOUS CONTEMPLATION”
Putting contemplation at the heart of interpersonal relations is some - thing very particular to Christianity. This is too often forgotten we make wholehearted attempts to reconcile Christian faith with the general human tendency to be religious and to make our faith emerge from that. The fact that something is very particularly Christian certainly doesn’t mean that it is any less human. Rather, the reverse is true: it is what is most profoundly human (and therefore observable also from outside Christianity). But it does have the meaning that Dietrich Bonhoeffer often repeated in his letters from prison: «the God who reveals himself in Jesus Christ turns upside down everything that “religious” people might expect of God ».
1.1. Theological foundation little about God and a great deal about God’s Reign and that he did not talk For that very reason, our statement about «seeking God first» but about regarding the particularity of Christian «seeking first the Reign of God and his contemplation requires that we demon- justice». Jesus did not urge people to be strate this from the Christian texts converted to God, but rather told them themselves, and so we will begin with to prepare themselves to enter the them. Let us take note, then, of the fol- Kingdom of God (or to be converted so lowing characteristics, all pointing in as to be able to enter it). These aspects the same direction. of Jesus’ preaching are nowadays un- a) Myriad modern theologians have questioned and could be developed fur - repeated endlessly that Jesus spoke very ther. 3 b) The truth is that Jesus does not for this is that, while natural beauty can give lessons in theology or spirituality. suggest God, only history manifests the He does not reveal the attributes of will of God. And history is the weaving God’s being (calling God Abba does together of all our human relations. not reveal a divine attribute but a way This teaching of the Nazarene is of relating to God). Plain and simply, made magnificently explicit after his Jesus announces God’s incredible love Resurrection, which the scriptures see for human beings, so that Luke (chapter as the recapitulation of the whole uni - 15) even compares it with what money verse (Ephesians 1,14). Let us look at is for human beings: God truly rejoices some examples of that. when “a single one” of the lost sheep is d) Chapter three of the letter to the found again (just as the rich man feels Ephesians contains a song expressing greater joy about recovering the million the author’s total amazement. The song he lost than he does about the nine mil- seems to reflect the profound personal lion that were never in danger). Accord- experience of Paul, 2 who is astonished ingly, Jesus is positively thrilled when by the revelation that that all human he sees that those who are despised by being are children of one great family: human societies understand the mys- all without exception. He realizes that teries of God better than the wise and this is simply the consequence of the powerful do. Mystery that has been revealed, the Mys- c) Jesus marvels at nature: he points tery that sustains everything and sur - to the beauty of the lilies and the free - passes everything, the Mystery that is dom of the birds, he knows about the active in all creation and constitutes tender care required by a grape vine or “the most exalted wisdom”, namely, a fig tree, and he is amazed by the vital the love of God made visible in Jesus power which makes a seed grow by Christ. With that revelation, all human itself while the laborer sleeps. Still, relations are transformed: they are when inviting us to pray, Jesus does not “Christified”, divinized. Since that tell us to give thanks or to become transformation necessarily affects our absorbed in the mystery of the universe way of viewing relations, our call to be (although this, of course, may also be «contemplatives in relation» runs paral- the case). The prayer Jesus teaches us lel to our «understanding of the mys- invites us to ask for the coming of tery of Christ» (Eph 3,4). God’s Reign, which means the triumph e) For the same reason, the first of what is fully human: sufficient food Christian communities created the for all and reconciliation among those formula “in Christ” or “in the Lord”, estranged. In a word, justice and peace. which served to characterize all human Like Jesus, Augustine was highly relations (couples, relatives, master/ sensitive to the beauty of nature but slave, etc.). All human relations are when he sought God in the glories of inserted into a sort of new atmosphere nature he heard a voice telling him: that transforms them: «there are broth- «Seek what is above us» 1. The reason ers, sisters, sons, daughters, inspectors, 4 and friends in the Lord; there are gree - reader should understand that what we tings, well-wishes, exhortations … in are saying is not “reductionist” (unless the Lord, and the mutual belonging of we want to accuse the Master himself man and woman is in the Lord» 3. That of being a reductionist); rather, it is a way of living or being “in Christ” is much more difficult path than the more what grounds our contemplation on common religious one. One might sus - human relations. pect that the accusation of reductionism f) We can therefore understand is an excuse fabricated by those who better the anecdote recounted in early are trying to escape the approach to Christian tradition about the apostle God through what Jesus called «the John: when he was almost a hundred narrow gate». They seem not to have years old, the last living witness of the grasped the profound “theologal” trans - earthly Jesus, John did little more than formation of human relations in repeat: love one another, love one an- Christianity, as we explained it in the other… When people complained that previous section. he kept saying the same thing and We can understand, then, this diary asked him to tell them something new, entries of Egide van Broeckhoven (a the apostle John replied: « It’s all there , Belgian Jesuit worker priest who died and that’s enough». This is a great truth, in a workplace accident at age 34): for there we find faith-hope-charity; «There’s a false contemplative prayer, there we find God, Christ, the Church, which happens on the edges of life, and and the best of what is human. there’s a true contemplative prayer which dominates life»; «God is found when everything is given up for the 1.2. Consequences sake of this world »4. All these considerations, then, indicate Such “Christian transformation” a different way of conceiving our faith should affect our way of focusing on commitment (our relation to God). We human relations, precisely because it is are talking about something different a revelation which clashes with the most from a general religious practice or elemental experience we have: the ar- from a type of Christianity which fol- duous, very difficult task of relating lows Jesus because he is believed to be humanly to one another. Well known is the Revelation of God. Our approach the kind comment of John of the Cross, also indicates that Christianity differs upon his return to Castilla from Jaén, basically from other forms of religion when he was gathering chickpeas in the in the way it conceives of prayer and field: «Handling these dead creatures is contemplation. For Christianity, frater - more agreeable than being manhandled nal love and relations with other per - by living ones» 5. We might well add sons cannot be separated from the rela - that today we are living in a historical tion with God. For that reason, they epoch when human relations seem to cannot be separated from Christian have deteriorated and when conflicts prayer and contemplation either. The are constant in all parts: racism and
5 exclusive nationalism thrive, class paid, one that could be seen clearly warfare revives, cultures prefer to clash only with the decline of the culture then rather than to dialogue, marriages fail, adopted by the faith. gender violence increases, and political We hear stories, for example, of parties see themselves as totalities and desert fathers who went about «so not just “parts” of the whole. The cultu- absorbed in God» that they didn’t even ral autism that we inhale daily encour- respond to those who greeted them on ages us to see others as mere objects or the road. In a later century Thomas à entities, not as subjects with absolute Kempis, in a great classic of Catholic dignity. spirituality which has much undenia- Whether believers or non-believers, ble value, wrote his famous dictum: all of us must try to grease the friction «Whenever I went out among men, I points in our social networks. Otherwis e returned less a man» (no. 147). The we run the risk of sliding down a slip - problem with this saying (which some pery slope and ending up in an unprece- say comes not from Kempis but from dented catastrophe –as if all the catas - Seneca) is not what it states, but that it trophes we have already provoked in states just that and nothing more. the course of history were not enough. This booklet, especially the first sec - 1.3.1. A more Christian anthropology tions, is addressed mainly to Christians, but it also aspires, at least in the latter By contrast, the scriptures and the man part, to be of some use to those who do Jesus never speak this way, even though not have the enormous, unmerited they are fully conscious of the count- benefit of faith and to those searchers less dangers involved in human rela - Pascal has in mind when he says, «You tions. Despite the risks, they teach us would not seek me if you had not (and here faith plays a much larger part already found me». than rational arguments) that human beings and their relations to one an- other (free and fraternal) are precisely 1.3. Need to recover the best of what God loves most, even to the point Christianity where he gave them «his very own In the course of history the Christian Son». They also teach us that all great message has often been obscured, even goals are reached by steep paths or though it has never lost sight of the through very narrow gateways. importance of what the New Testament The Neo-Platonism which envel- surprisingly calls the « new command - ope d Christianity tended to see only ment». There is no doubt that the Hel- the negative side of human beings; it lenization of Christianity played a role sought human perfection in fleeing in the distortion of its message. Such a from people. Jesus, however, taught process was necessary and was indeed that even the “impure” can be an image an amazing feat, but like all types of of God that should not be rejected but inculturation, there was a price to be restored. The sick person should not be 6 left by the wayside but should be rein - that God is “Absolute Communion” tegrated into the community. Even a and not just “the absolute being”. If harsh exploiter like Zaccheus should be such is the case, then being submerged given a chance. We will take up these in God, as a privileged form of contem - figures again in the third part, but for plation, does not mean simply drown- now suffice it to say that the relation- ing in metaphysical mystery; rather it avoidance advice from the ascetical tra - means being lifted up into an atmos - ditions displays more the influence of phere of relation, into an interpersonal Stoicism than the presence of Jesus. mystery, where the person is defined as In contrast, our determination to relation: as donation and union. seek Christian contemplation in human All this transforms the task of being relations themselves is much more in human into a “relational” one. Psycho- keeping with modern anthropology, analysis teaches us that we are “sepa- which insists that human beings (and rate beings” from the moment of our beings in general) are better defined as birth. Our being separate, which comes relation than as mere substance. The about as soon as the umbilical cord is evolutionary vision of the world –in cut, is the root of our infinite capacity biology, and in the philosophy and for desire, which transforms us into theology that flow from it– conceives desiring beings who search for a total of «reality as a process that is interde - fusion which can overcome our sepa- pendent and relational». All reality is ration. We search for it first at our ontologically relational, and naturally mother’s breast, then in everything we much more so personal reality, which is can put in our mouth, later still in our a pale reflection of the being of God, in jealousies, our possessiveness, our long- whom the person is defined as relation. 6 in g for complete sexual union –«always The «image and likeness of God» seeking wholeness in the fog», to para- which defines humanity (Gen 1,26 ff.) phrase a verse from Machado. In the refers, among other things, to the con - end, hopefully, we learn that the com - sistency and density of the relational pleteness we yearn for is impossible and that our growth as persons consists aspect in the definition of the person. instead in seeking the Other and learn- ing to relate to the Other. 7 1.3.2. A more Christian theology Having thus established the central- This conception is more in keeping not ity and the theoretical importance of only with anthropology, but also with our subject, we will now attempt to ap- theology, for one of the most basic proach it through a sort of guided expe - meanings of the dogma of the Trinity is rience (mystagogy).
7
2. INITIATION INTO CONTEMPLATION AND MYSTERY
As we have just seen, Christian faith takes very seriously the belief that human beings are images or reflections of God, much more so than the beauty of nature, the immensity of sea and desert, the mysteries of the starry sky, or all those other “sparks” that seem to speak to us about God. The seriousness of that belief is not diminished but is even in- creased, and that, despite our Christian hymns about «Your image en- shrouded with guilt» or sometimes, more than enshrouded, destroyed or shattered. This obscuring of the divine image can cause difficulties for our proposed project, butJ
2.1. Human mystery and divine decisive factor in the way we treat each mystery and every person. Since that belief is at the heart of our Only on this basis can we reach faith, Christians should become ever down into the unique, matchless depths more accustomed to seeing each person of each person, beyond all the condi- whom they come across in life as a tioning of culture, social class, family, member of Christ and a child of God, medical history, or personal develop- someone “just like me”. This way of ment. If I remember well, Jacques seeing people should be true not only Leclerq years ago wrote this about with regard to friends, but also when human love: «the person who truly says dealing with strangers, beggars, bankers, “I love you” says something completely terrorists, relatives, monarchs, enemies, new , even though millions of others atheists, or bishops. Being Christian have already said the same thing means viewing every thus consistently previously» 8. In contrast, in mating with and then converting that vision into a a female, the male animal is not doing
9 anything new or original. The perennial relations become enriched and reor- novelty of the human person, which is dered; though at first they may appear the source of the person’s sacred dignity contradictory, they are capable of being as mentioned earlier, holds true for all harmonized as people mature. men and women, not just for those of We can see this exemplified in the one’s own family, nation, race, or reli- surprising duality between the two gion. But it is not at all easy for us to forms of human relating that are at once reach this point, to attain this vision and the most beautiful and the most spon- maintain this posture: it is like a horizon taneously contemplative: friendship and that we can move toward but never quite love. Love always longs for greater reach. Still, even though the horizon is union and realizes that its longing is never attained, walking in that direction never quite fulfilled. On the other hand, carries human life into surprising, un- in friendship even the “poorest” and known territories. The true object of simplest gesture opens up a tremendous 9 what tradition called “asceticism” is the prospect of union. We see, then, that love training of the will and human sen- and friendship, the two peaks of every sibility for precisely that type of seeing human relation, are not simply opposed: and that way of being in the world. rather, both are partial and have their Christian asceticism is not a project of proper spheres and moments as regards cosmetic surgery. Rather it is training the material aspect of the relation. At that helps us discover the unsuspected the same time, as regards the formal riches and hidden treasures involved element of the relation, they are comple- in human relations. Our relations travel mentary: they add rather than subtract. along that path in a kind of unending Both types of relation can therefore marathon, progressing from “man (or speak of God and can refer us to him. woman) as object” to “man (or woman) That is why nothing that we are as mystery”. Thus we understand better saying here should be understood to the observation of Egide van Broeck- mean that being a «contemplative in hoven: «The deepest detachment makes relation» does not require times of sense only as a stage toward the deepest 10 solitude and personal contemplation. attachment». The only point we make is that such Christians undertake this ascetical personal prayer should in large measure effort out of a profound conviction and be a school and a way of preparing for experience of their own helplessness, this other contemplation, which is more but always trusting that whatever little difficult and does not burst forth sponta- effort they make, directed by what neously. Other persons should often Christian faith calls «the Breath (Spirit) be the subject matter of our prayer, in of God», can carry them to unsuspected accord with the teaching of an old goals, for which they are most grateful. master of the spirit: praying is not In this trusting effort they will find that looking at God but «looking at the many of the dimensions present in all world with the eyes of God».
10 2.2. From the God glimpsed from the “seek above” which Augustine to the God revealed thought he heard, the particularity of Christian eros is rather to “seek below”. In human life there are experiences This transformation of religious eros is which suggest transcendence or which imperative for Christians. We can cite at least invite us to enter into them to here a pertinent phrase from the Ignatian search for something more. Such are the tradition: «the divine is that which experience of beauty or gratuitous kind- cannot be bound by what is greatest and ness, the experience of immensity in the yet is contained in what is smallest» 13 . desert or before the sea, the experience This perspective also helps us to of majesty in mountain peaks, or the understand the saying that summed up experiences of human relationships, the faith experience of Etty Hillesum: of plenitude and peace (in music), or of «helping God» 14 . We are invited to help love (a pleasant sensation of fusion). God not to die (when we receive him in In reality, all these experiences his disfigured aspect) and to be born or spring from an intimate closeness to to grow (or be reborn) in others. being and from an awareness of being That is the surprising Christian as something both real and incredible. paradox: adoring God becomes helping The Jorge Guillén expresses it in a suc- God , and helping our fellow human cinct, trinitarian form: «Amazement at 11 becomes adoration of God. Besides being: sing!» There is the threefold Etty Hillesum, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and reality: being itself, the amazed con- other Christian witnesses of the last sciousness of being (the Logos), and the 12 century testified to this paradox in a bliss of being (the song). thousand different ways. They help us All these glimpses of transcendence make sense of what Jesus recommended give rise to a variety of religious atti- to the Samaritan woman: we are to tudes, and often there is talk of an adore God, not in this place or that, but “oceanic feeling” as the basis of the «in spirit and in truth … because God is search for God –a concept much more spirit, and those who worship him must appropriate than fear, which only knows worship in spirit and truth» (Jn 4,23). how to forge idols. Interestingly, these same witnesses So then, what is specific to Chris- testify that this attitude ends up tianity at the level of attitudes (as becoming something that might be opposed to contents ) is to be found in called “experience of resurrection”. In the invitation to listen, since God is the testimonies of worker priests and responsive to those glimpses of tran- many missionaries (sometimes martyrs) scendence: «what you glimpse is more of the third and fourth worlds, this within your reach than you think, but it experience of resurrection in death is is there where you least expect it: in the frequent. It is what Archbishop Romero poor and the sick…, where all seems alluded to in an interview: «If they kill emptied out and extinguished». Thus, if me, I will rise again in my people». He the particularity of religious eros arises had no intention of denying the future
11 resurrection, but rather was anticipating help us seek out practical ways and it, for he saw that the resurrection of criteria for growth and action in this Christ takes place, as if sacramentally, program of being contemplatives in whenever men and women who are relation. As I mentioned already, this oppressed, maltreated, or negated be- final section may be also be useful for come truly liberated and humanized. non-believers who, despite what they Accordingly, a true mysticism for think is their lack of faith, may discern “contemplatives in relation” would do something of truth and beauty in what well to recall that Christianity is not a we have so far explained and may also religion of death, nor is it a religion be searching for a certain mystique of of resurrection. Christianity is a faith of human relations. resurrection in death. In this process Nevertheless, in this final part of our death is not properly sought; it is sur- booklet, the author should gradually passed, as happened with Jesus. Simi- disappear, lowering his voice and be- larly, resurrection is not sought but is coming ever more invisible. The reason given freely and (in any case) hoped for. for this is that there are no prefabricated So it happened also with Jesus. recipes. Each of us has to work toward Finally, in this movement from God mastering our own life, learning by glimpsed to God revealed, human ourselves, and finding our own unique beings end up discovering their own im- path. A discourse which addresses a potence. And it is that discovery which wide audience can only suggest, not helps them relate differently to God, affirm; it can only orient us, not dictate who despite being infinite and beyond to us. It cannot expound theological all manipulation, never ceases to be their systems and constructions; it can only Rock, their Fortress, and their Refuge, as condense or process human experiences. the psalms intone countless times over. That is what we will make a modest attempt to do in the next part, but before that, for lack of concrete recipes, we will 2.3. From the God revealed to try to smooth the transition by offering rebellious reality a reflection on love, which seems to be In keeping with the Christian paradox, the prototype of all human relations it is precisely this total reference to God and the peak to which all of them point. that makes believers use every human means within their reach (analysis, discernment, training, and patience) in 2.4. From reality to the love order to receive the help of God «who “which is of God” enriches us by his poverty», makes us We can define love in general terms as grow with his weakness, and is with 15 the gift of oneself, made with complete us in his abandonment. and absolute freedom, for the growth of In light of this, we need to add to the other. That would be the summit these reflections a third part, which will of the whole general process of “de-
12 siring the good of the other”, which cul- simply mean freely desiring his/her minates in more particularized forms growth. Such desire may well require (such as the love of couples and friend- certain levels or gestures of giving, or it ship) with the added note of mutual gift. may be limited, depending on circum- Using this definition, we are better able stances, to observing attitudes of pro- to point out the deficiencies or deforma- found respect. tions of love, which are frequent and In any case, if we prescind for now interminable among us and which we from the many ways of expressing love will find in many other relationships as practically, this last mentioned form of well. love ( disinterestedly desiring the good a) We begin with the second charac- of the other ) provides us a base for the teristic of love, the freedom of the gift. contemplative focus of relation. That Often the gift is not made “with the base coincides with the classical formu- fullest freedom”, but for reasons of de- la of some mystics: «loving God in all ceit, seduction, pretended need, etc. and all in God». Freedom can be falsified in many ways Loving God in one’s neighbors by humans, but this doesn’t mean that means loving what is best in them, we must give up hope of true freedom. whether that is patent or latent; it means Rather we must seek it in ever truer loving in them the presence of God’s forms. Spirit, that which is most intimate to b) The lack of true freedom in the them and most profoundly theirs. Lov- gift can disfigure the goal of freedom, ing others in God means loving them as which is the good of the other. One may God loves them: helping them make the give oneself, not for the sake of the best of themselves so that they yield other’s growth, but to make the other good returns on their divine adoption, yield to one’s wishes. Or one may give synonym of freedom and fraternity. oneself, but then later send a bill for the gift, calculate the return, etc. c) These two detours con contribute 2.4.1. Possible objection to a distortion of the noun which defines In this way we overcome a false dilem- love: gift. If the source and the goal of ma which we sometimes hear expressed: the gift are falsified, the gift may be «If you love your neighbor for God, simulated, calculated, short of the just then you don’t love him for himself, so measure, etc. I speak expressly of the that the love is cheapened». Those who “just measure” because naturally we argue this way continue to think of God cannot expect a full and absolute gift of and human beings as being in competi- self in every human relation –such tion, instead of being in a relation which would be impossible. Only in certain «impels and enables» (X. Zubiri). We relations (couples, family, or intimate must understand that loving others for friendship) is it possible for the gift of God is the most intense manner of self to aspire to forms of plenitude. In loving them for themselves, because many other cases, love of neighbor will there is nothing more profoundly and
13 preciously theirs than God’s presence in despite all the traits we have in common them.As opposed to what happens in our with other persons , they constitute for (less perfect) experience of human love, us an immense kaleidoscope of shifting loving others in God and loving them tones which we can never pin down or for themselves are not related in inverse totally categorize. For that reason the proportion; rather, both of them grow apprenticeship of love requires of us together. When this does not happen discipline and analysis, for the respon- (such as when God is really the only sibility of love in human beings is great factor in our relation with the other), indeed. Fine sentiments and good will then we may suspect that we have not are vitally necessary, but they are not yet attained to genuine loving, but only enough. Love implies a personal giving to “enduring” (or maybe pardoning) the of self. As human persons we are more other. This does not happen infrequently than will and sentiments: we are also in our relations with one another. intelligence and so are able to grasp Actually, what we have tried to what is real. Passion and discipline are describe is more a model than a reality, most fruitful when paired together; they but even a tiny dose of insight will make can be dangerous when they’re di- us see how far we are even from the vorced. model. Just think of that saying of Jesus: We therefore feel the need to draw «Be merciful 16 as your heavenly Father up a little catalogue which analyzes is merciful». Thus , if we want to be the proper attitudes to be sought and the contemplatives in relation, an indispen- human types we might find. These will sable starting point is to pray constantly lead us to ask how God sees the persons for something that is so easy to say and we deal with, so that we can then ask so apparently close at hand, but often so ourselves: how should we see those far from us: «Teach me to love. Let me persons and how should we treat them? learn to love as you love». We can We can proceed, then, to the third hardly conceive a form of Christian life part of our essay, remembering what where this kind of prayer is not offered we’ve already said: mechanical recipes daily and relentlessly. are no use here; only orientations can Each one of us possesses an impres- help us. And all of us need to carry out sive variety of registers and keys, and these analyses for ourselves.
14 3. PRACTICAL ORIENTATIONS
At the level of faith, we have already noted that the attitude we should seek in human relations is the one described by Saint Ignatius: «loving God in all and all in God».
It will be difficult for us to attain that Rather than a simple interlocutor, attitude, however, if we do not cultivate God is more like the sea or the atmos- a way of looking at the whole of reality. phere. Nevertheless, we can and should Such a way of looking encompasses a address him as a conversation partner, profound dialectical theology. recalling the axiom we cited earlier: God a) Our proposal involves a clear cannot be bound by what is greatest, yet “pan-en-theism”: this word, which he is contained in what is smallest. should not be confused with pantheism, This general manner of relating to means that all things exist and subsist in the world should be cultivated in per- God . They therefore do not include God, sonal prayer, thus overcoming the but neither is God a simple conversation notion of God as a particular individual partner or interlocutor, as privileged a (and therefore limited despite his great- one as we may imagine him to be. ness). Even though we can and should b) At the same time, this way of call on God, he is not a particular inter- looking involves, if I’m allowed the locutor but an oceanic one –he is an expression, a clear “theo-en-pasism”, ocean to which we can relate personal- which means God in all things (Greek: ly. “Theos en pasi”). This is often forgotten when mention is made of panentheism. God is in the depths of all things, even 3.1. Background attitudes the tiniest ones. That is why he can Such a global vision of reality unfolds become a privileged interlocutor for when we draw close to other human personal beings. beings, adopting other attitudes such as
15 respect, welcoming, fraternal equality, does not allow me to remain just a sub- and willingness to listen. ject but which summons me to be an in- terlocutor and a brother. 18 The face 3.1.1. Respect contains a kind of “infinitude” which prevents me from trying to capture it and Foremost is the profound respect that which destroys my pretensions of “to- the sacred character of every person tality”. Therefore contemplation of the should inspire in us. It is a way of open- face transcends the simple recognition ing ourselves up to others which in- provided by sight and becomes a call cludes all our subsequent reactions. which asks to be listened to: «If today When we enter a church for reasons you hear his voice, harden not your other than curiosity or tourism, we are heart », prayed the psalmist. 19 predisposed to be respectful in the quiet, This is the basic truth of our rela- peaceful ambiance which encourages us tional universe, which we should recall to pray. Well, that same simple attitude and set in motion every morning, much which we have so often adopted me- as one turns on a cell phone when chanically should blossom with each getting up. We should ask God to grant person we meet up with, for each one is us that attitude of almost religious a true “temple of God”. John Chrysos- respect toward every “image of God” tom and other Church fathers sometimes we meet in the course of the day. chided the faithful with this argument: And this fountain of respect for you worry about covering the walls of every face we meet will develop in two the church with fine fabrics or images directions. of Christ. Then, when you go outside, you find a true temple and an image of the Living Christ who is naked in the 3.1.2. Welcoming street… and you walk right by him. If previously we spoke of the “face” as But it is not only the Church fathers the expression of the other person’s who say this. E. Levinas became famous appeal, now we can add that the smile for his profound reflections on “the is how the face welcomes and expresses face”: of all the realities that affect our the best of human encounter. senses, the face is the only one that is The encounter with each person we not a mere “phenomenon” (a simple meet in the course of the day is an 17 object). More than that, it is an appeal , encounter with Christ or a «vicar of a call to respect, to sustenance, to Christ »20 . As an encounter with some- communion. The face is what is most one we love, it should produce in us distinctive about the person. smiles of joy. The gift of the smile It may be that in practice that appeal reveals a magnanimous frame of mind. is deceitful (and so love is obliged to be We have all experienced how much intelligent), but that possible dishonesty magnanimity facilitates human rela- does not invalidate the sublime quality tions, how much a kindly smile can of the face: it is the only object which change us, how much generous disposi- 16 tions bring out the best of us in our have «the same mind as was in Christ dealings with others. Years ago I talked Jesus ». about the smile as possibly being a mod- If that counsel appears excessive, it ern form of holiness . Of course, we are will help to reflect that, if we manage to not talking about all those false, insin- see other as better than ourselves, then cere smiles, practiced before a thousand we will have a hard time seeing them as mirrors and aimed simply at selling equals! It’s like the bullet in the joke, some product or taking advantage of which the corporal explained need to be another person. All that is tragic, but it aimed a little above the target since the is also proof of the power of the smile. law of gravity would lower its trajectory The contemplative in relation should (but then he explained that, even if there strive to be someone who welcomes were no law of gravity, the bullet would others with smiling magnanimity. That still tend to fall «by its own weight»). is why the daily prayer of Christians can Perhaps it’s our own gravity-bound never forget to make a twofold petition: weight that Saint Paul had before his for an attitude of respect before the eyes when he offered this advice. Our temples of the Spirit I meet this day, and neglect of this Pauline counsel perhaps for a disposition which welcomes with explains the failure or the meager a smile the Christs whom I encounter. realization of two of modernity’s ideals Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, for many (equality and fraternity). Our reluctance years the porter at the Jesuit college in to practice these ideals has helped to Mallorca, is renowned for the exclama- falsify, sometimes monstrously, the tion he customarily made whenever he third: the cry of liberty. heard someone knocking at the gate: With the help of this Pauline counsel «I’m coming, Lord! ». Such was his re- and a bit of Freudian jargon we might sponse, even when he had to drag say that other persons constitute our himself with difficulty toward the “super-ego”, not in the psychoanalytic gateway, feeble with age and loaded sense of self-regarding conscience, but down with heavy keys. in the sense of response to the invitation Besides respect and a welcoming of another’s face. We might also say that attitude, a third petition should perme- God becomes the supreme “Id” (capi- talized), again not in the Freudian sense ate Christian prayer and contemplation: of something external to our ego, but in an attitude of fraternal closeness to all the sense of total objectivity, the “true those brothers and sisters (children of All” as opposed to our partial, miniscule God) who cross our path each day. subjectivities, all of which are false. Profound respect, welcoming smile, 3.1.3. Fraternal equality and egalitarian fraternity should all be Briefly, almost in passing, Saint Paul the first steps in our openness to inter- counseled his Christians «to count human relations. Such a global attitude, others as better than yourselves » (Phil fully Christian and fully human, should 2,3), adding that by doing so they would then be molded and woven in quite
17 diverse ways, according to the endless our sense of security, when fear makes variety of persons, psychologies, and us cover our ears and makes us unable to situations –and according to what we pay attention. I often say that our need said earlier about the need for analysis to feel secure is one of the greatest temp- and intelligence, even for love. tations against faith; it can turn faith into Achieving a contemplative view of pure superstition or fundamentalism. our human relations involves a twofold Years ago R. Bultmann wrote, «Christian faith consists in finding security there conviction: the total immanence of God 21 in his transcendence, but also the auton- where security is nowhere in sight » . omy of reality , which requires that these There are times in any person’s life global attitudes become “inculturated” when the need for security can be such in each individual person and in each that for its sake we sacrifice our concrete relation. The people we meet intelligence, our ability to reason, and are not persons in general; they are our ability to listen. In the face of what particular Toms or Sallys or Marys. might threaten us we have ready-made While some persons will be disarmed by answers, taken from a manual or a cate- a smile and so won over to a good rela- chism; we put them forth impulsively, tionship, others will be more sullen and without taking time to understand the irascible (as most of us are sometimes); other person. We give prefabricated they may be irritated by a smile and will answers to every question, without perhaps look down on our simplicity. allowing ourselves to be invaded by the question, and much less by what the question reveals to us about the true 3.1.4. Ability to listen situation of our interlocutor. This is a These three attitudes give birth to a characteristic of all groups or move- fourth, which seems to me basic for re- ments that are closed in on themselves lations that are founded on contempla- and tending to sectarianism. tion: the ability to listen. By this term I A graphic example of the point I’m do not mean listening to someone who making is the Bosnian movie, In the needs us and comes looking for counsel Road . Since it treats of Islamic rather or orientation. Doing this may be easier, than Christian fundamentalism, we can even though sometimes the interlocutor perhaps view it more objectively and is difficult to deal with. But what I am not feel threatened by its message. The referring to now is the ability to hear the director of the movie, however, has person who disarms us , the one who made it clear that her aim is not to removes our securities. This can some- criticize Islam but to say something times be the “work of the evil spirit” (as about human psychology and religion in the spiritual classics warn us), but at general. What she wants to say is this: other times it can be God knocking at the protagonist of the film, emerging our door in search of us. from the catastrophe of war, has lost a When is the latter the case? Precise- sense of meaning in life. As a result he ly when our listening seems to shatter turns to alcohol and ends up losing his
18 job. Soon after that he falls into the them. A more contemplative type of re- hands of a Muslim group, and the faith lation would lead them to value con- of these companions restores to him a fidence in God above their own security sense of peace, security, and confi- and not to confuse the one with the dence… and also frees him from alco- other. Instead, their fear makes them hol. Even though this new situation incapable of relating to others; it cuts requires him to accept certain customs short the growth they would experience he would previously have disregarded if they invested the talents of their (such as women covering their faces, security instead of burying them. Like etc.), such concessions mean little to the apostle Peter, they sink when they him in view of his regained security. In realize that they are walking on water the end, this obstinate pursuit of security because the realization makes them feel makes him incapable of listening to and insecure. And they merit the same understanding his girlfriend, with whom reproach that Peter received from Jesus, at the beginning of the film he had a «O you of little faith ». good relationship. For each argument If instead they carefully invested their she gives he has a prepared rebuttal, talent, they would reap one of the most which he takes out of some doctrinal rare and valuable of human qualities: repository and repeats mechanically. He the ability to combine great fidelity to ends up feeling satisfied, but she is on one’s own convictions with a commit- the edge of despair –until the relation ment to fraternal equality, the ability to breaks off. That is the price of not embrace what is different. knowing how to listen, an inability that Having examined these four general results from his walling himself off attitudes, we now finally undertake an from others for the sake of security. analysis of the variety of human Of course, we can see immediately relations. We do so diffidently, as I’ve that is not true only of the Muslim world. said already, taking note only of certain In the Catholic sphere also we find examples, without pretending to be (sometimes among bishops) painful exhaustive. We make it clear that, types of fundamentalism which sacri- although we may be speaking of others fice all genuine understanding of the (thus objectifying them), the main surrounding world to the idol of securi- difficulty lies rather in the different ty. Goaded by such idolatry, fundamen- reactions and responses that occur in us talism leads either to a sectarian ghetto with respect to each type of person. or to aggressive violence which seeks to eliminate those who are “other”. Per- sons who react this way never consider 3.2. Variety of persons that that troublesome interlocutor is also a creature loved by God, someone who 3.2.1. «He is with you and you do not also has questions and desires; not recognize him.» The victims realizing this, they become incapable of The quoted text is from a hymn that listening to others or understanding Christians have been singing for a long 19 time, and it is sad but significant that the hands”), but they do not think the same hymn no longer has a prominent place when a child of God is maltreated or in our liturgies. The hymn describes a killed. Fortunately that mentality has contemplative attitude with respect to been changing in recent years. The atti- those who are victims of the human tude being proposed here has caught on, system: it challenges us to see in them or at least is catching on. But there is the Christ who «calls to us through the still the danger that the change is taking mouths of the hungry » or through place only at a theoretical level. We hear the bodies of those who are imprisoned, only generic statements about people infirm, or naked »; it summons us to hear who are “starving, impoverished, and and feel in them the cry of God himself. sickly”; the words remain abstract. The Here we have an inversion of the power of contemplation and the mean- initial revelation of the Bible story ( «I ing of the hymn we quoted are intensi- have heard the cry of my people, and fied and radicalized when those abstract I have come down to deliver them »: Ex terms take on a visible face and a 3,7.8). Now it is we who are being asked specific name, when they cease to be to hear the cry of our God and to make just “a poor woman” or “an unemployed haste to deliver him. That inversion is youth” and become instead “poor the fruit of all the work of God in his- Susan” or “jobless Samuel”. tory, a result of the «recapitulation of all Though there is still much more to things in Christ, who is his Word » (Eph be said, let us grant this point about 1,14) and of the «pouring out of his society’s victims (the poor, the sick, for- Spirit on all flesh » (Acts 2,17). Thus, eigners, antagonists…, who are perhaps when Ignacio Ellacuría views the op- unknown to us but whose reality is pressed masses of El Salvador as the immense and undeniable), and let us pass present-day embodiment of the Servant on to other examples: acquaintances, of Yahweh of Isaiah 53, or when he de- friends, teachers, lovers, saints… What fines them as a “crucified people”, or are we to see in each one of them and when the bishops assembled in Puebla how? Let us analyze a few examples. speak of the “faces of Christ” to desig- nate the victims of our society (women, 3.2.2. «Neither this man sinned, nor unemployed youth, migrants, etc.), they did his parents.» (Jn 9,3) The sick are urging us to relate to those who are If I truly contemplate a sick person, I marginalized with a truly contemplative will pay more attention to his real attitude. suffering than I will to any possible There is something comprehensible defects of his that would save me from about the fact that many people who call responding to his pain. When encoun- themselves Christians believe that God tering the sick, we should put aside all is being persecuted when a religious judgment. It’s undoubtedly true that in building is burned down or an ecclesias- our eyes there are good and bad patients, tical institution is criticized (both of and that sickness can make people self- which of course are the “work of human ish and erratic. But it is also true, chris- 20 tologically speaking, that their sickness deserved or acquired, but as profound gives them certain rights when dealing experiences of gratuitousness. Every with us healthy people: they have the gratifying relation is a gift for which we right not be judged or condemned. Even should give thanks. It obliges us to give though, for their own good, they may at more because we have received more. times need to be compelled, it must When these splendid relations are always be done as gently as possible. experienced as gratuitous gifts rather Moreover, it is edifying to contem- than something we deserve, then they plate the tenderness and patience that turn out to be infinitely more gratifying sick people, because of their helpless- and less threatened. And they open us ness, sometimes inspire in the nurses, up to those countless people whom life doctors, and others who care for them. has denied even the most elementary These caretakers often display for them love and affection. their greatest personal treasures, and they Here we need to evoke the mystery do so almost effortlessly, without any of sexual attraction, along with all it need to refer explicitly to Christ or God. means in terms of experience of other- Just as «it is the poor who evangelize us », ness, promise, and surprise (cf. Gen so it is possible that our immersion in the 2,23ff). Experiencing it in this way world of the sick can in the course of time engenders respect, amazement, and a help us to change many of the distorted sensation of unworthiness. I am speak- ways we have of seeing things. We begin ing of global sexual attraction, not just to ask the true contemplative question, of bodily attraction (inseparable from «Why him and not me? », which inverts the other but still different from it). The the spontaneous reaction of our ego: latter can lead us to reduce sexuality to «What have I done to deserve this? » the genital; because of its impulsive nature, it can obscure sexuality and turn 3.2.3. «With a smile you have spoken communion into possession, otherness my name.» Gratifying relations into domination, and the mystery of otherness into an object to be con- It is surely true that the greatest happi- 22 sumed. What is most gratifying in ness that can be had in this world is sexual attraction results perhaps from rooted in human relations which unite its being a pale reflection of God him- us in genuine companionship. But pre- self, whose being consists of giving of cisely for that reason, we may obses- self (Father), losing oneself in this giv- sively pursue that goal to the point of ing (Word), and recovering the fullness killing the «goose that lays the golden of one’s being in the same giving eggs ». We may become selfish and (Spirit). destroy the relationship. Therefore, when life grants us these gifts, we must learn to relish all the 3.2.4. «Why do you strike me?» gratifying aspects of our relationships of (Jn 18,22) Ill treatment. love and friendship. We should cherish All of us experience moments of hu- such relationships not as something miliation or ill treatment in our lives. It 21 is not always possible to calculate how scoundrels who populate the planet, much of it is really meant as offense. All or at least some of their works. This is of us tend to judge the intention of the a topic about which it is impossible to other person by the reaction it provokes make general statements, because it is in us, but such judgment is mistaken in something like cancer: in each instance most cases. For that reason many spir- it must be determined whether the itual guides recommend that we not cancer cells are simply benign, whether respond to the disgraces we suffer, even the tumor is malignant, how big it is, if we thin that we are responding «only and whether there is metastasis. to defend the truth » and not to justify Here I will limit myself to explain- ourselves. Over the long run many ing the ideal process, using the story of people have learned that the refusal to Zaccheus as narrated by Luke. Zac- justify oneself can bring about a sense cheus is a perfect scoundrel who has of peace, which accepts the other person become extremely rich, and he benefits and refers us to the ultimate mystery of from a pyramidal structure which chan- a God who is semper maior (always nels people’s anger more toward his greater). subordinates than toward him. Is this We can then also understand why not a pattern that is repeated countless Ignatius Loyola recommended that we times in human history? There still ask in prayer for «humiliations and remains in this man, nonetheless, a tiny offenses ». This is not a sick sort of opening through which he can be masochism which takes delight in one’s reached. It is perhaps the only case wounds –Ignatius himself strove to recounted in the gospels where one of justify what he saw as the truth when the Jesus’ enemies approaches him out greater good of the Church of the gospel of curiosity rather than aggressivity. was at stake. Rather it is a difficult road Usually Jesus’ adversaries attempt to toward tremendous interior freedom, «entrap him in his own words » (Mt following the dialectic of John of the 22,15), but in Zaccheus there is that Cross: «To come to have everything, small opening, which becomes his you have to go to where you have salvation. nothing ». We also have the example and The behavior of Jesus toward him is the fate of Jesus, whom we follow as our that of a contemplative in relation. He sustainer and our strength in these hard knows that «this man is also a child of times. Abraham » and that the «the Son of Man has come to save what was lost » (Lk 19,9.10). Zaccheus thus finds himself 3.2.5. «How can we sing the Lord’s welcomed in a way he never would have song in a strange land?» Evil people suspected, and that welcome changes Despite all we’ve said, bad people exist. him and makes him do things that would Evil is like a “genetic” threat which have been unthinkable for anyone else affects all of us. At some point in our of his kind. For God suffers also in the life we may come across some of the wicked, and in a certain sense more
22 even than in the victim. That is why God These are the most problematic «does not want the death of the sinner cases for our argument. We will have a but that he be converted and live » (Ez hard time reacting to them in a contem- 33,11). plative manner if we have not thought This is an ideal case which does not about them before the Lord. We might represent all of them, but it helps to reflect on such considerations as the orient them. This case opens up a broad following: a) certainly the harm they do perspective which illuminates many themselves by acting thus is greater than aspects of human justice. For example, any harm they can do to me (and the less our striving for justice often has to do they realize how insufferable they are, with our seeking the punishment of the the more they suffer); b) if something offender, but such an attitude makes bad affects me much worse than it does justice too much like vengeance. Pun- others, it is a sign that my own spiritual ishment should not be for our own health is not all that good; c) we are satisfaction but should seek to protect unaware of the secret struggle that many people from possible dangers. Further- human beings wage with themselves, more, true and complete justice consists and if we were aware of it, we would not so much in the punishment as in the understand them better. In any case, as transformation and rehabilitation of difficult as they may be, they are also the criminal. That is the great difference persons from whom may emerge a between human justice and the justice small work of art, even if this is not of God, as Karl Barth explained in his made of fine marble but of cheap stone. commentary on Romans. This is also what has been proposed in many theo- 3.2.7. «Receive one another as Christ retical declarations about our prisons, received you.» (Rom 15,7) which because of inertia and indiffer- Our daily contacts ence are little heeded. The previous examples are intense, extreme sketches: either black or white. 3.2.6. «The weakness of our neighbor» Most of our contacts, however, are more In our ordinary relations, most of the like the palette of a painter with an people we meet are far from evil, but infinite range of grays. These are the they can be difficult. We know persons ordinary people we meet every day, who speak only of themselves and their sometimes in passing, sometimes for little battles or their triumphs; we deal longer periods, but in relations that are with bad-tempered folks who abuse and generally not intense or crucial. insult others under the guise of “telling In my opinion, those who view the truth” (confusing the truth with their every human being in accord with the own adrenaline); and we reckon with Pauline command at the head of this authority figures who treat others with section will achieve two things. First, arrogance (thinking their harshness a they will inspire confidence in others type of responsibility). and not come across as competitors or
23 dominators. Second, they will not call justify themselves. This need for recog- attention to the defects of others (as a nition often leads them to interrupt way of feeling superior) nor to their others or to be antagonistic when they weak points (so as to take advantage of feel others have invaded “their” space them). Rather they will look on their (always it’s the “me too”: «I saw that neighbor as a package of possibilities, also»; «I was there too…»). Human some already being tapped, others half- relations solidify much better when we activated, and still others perhaps almost take care to say what may be useful or untouched. It is through these that God agreeable to the other person, and not works and wants to work –with my just what reassures our own ego. But let help. us be clear: what is spoken has value The effort to be contemplatives in only when it is spoken spontaneously, relation will help us to avoid the “origi- not out of some false legal or moral nal sin” which we tend to introduce into norm which might render us mute or all our relations with others: looking make us sound phony. Such spontaneity only at the good traits of the other can be attained only by changing our person, so that we end up “falling in interior registers. love” with a being that does not exist Nothing we say here means we in reality but is only a fiction we have should be naïve. Jesus said quite clearly created for ourselves. Or else we look that, besides being as simple as doves, only at the defects of others, filtering out we should be as wily as serpents. This their positive aspects, and so deny our counsel is all the more important in a support to those who are perhaps only perverse economic system, built on the sad souls like ourselves. This kind of categorical imperative of maximum “original sin” sterilizes from the start profit, which motivates people to de- many of our relationships because we ceive and exploit others and tries to link look at others not “with the eyes of our economic welfare with our need for God” but with our own unacknowl- affection, probably the worst path for at- edged myopia. taining it. Trying to be contemplatives in re- lation will also help us, not only to build the relation on truth, but also to develop 3.2.8. In conclusion relations that are smooth and gentle. «Whoever does not want the ‘our’ does True contemplation is that which takes not want the ‘Father’ » (St John of Ávila, us out of our ego. Applying this to commenting on the Our Father). everyday human relations, we are led We could give other examples, but to refrain from speaking too much they would be endless. To sum up, let us and monopolizing the conversation, and say simply that we should enter every when we talk, we avoid talking exces- human relation with questions of this sively about ourselves. Consciously or type: what is it in the other person that unconsciously, 90% of the times that is God’s gift for me? what does God people speak about themselves, it is to hope for from the other? how can I
24 empathize with him (with his pain, with combination of particles, like the shapes his love,…)? what can I forgive and of clouds in the sky which are con- what do I need to be forgiven? We stantly changing? Every human being should carry questions of this sort to our wants to know, and needs to know, prayer or our meditation every day. that his life is something more than that. In a word, when in the presence of Psychologists tell us how difficult it others, we should ask ourselves how is for neglected individuals, those who God would treat them so that we can feel from early on that no one is in- treat them in the same way. But besides terested in them, to mature as persons that, we should desire that they reflect and become capable of human relations. as much as possible the image of God Precisely for that reason, the expres- which makes them what they are, sion «son of a bitch» [in Spanish, «son but which at the same time is obscured of a whore»] has become the worst, in them, as in all of us. most offensive insult that we can inflict We have traced here a series of atti- on another person; it is nastiest invec- tudes which can be summed up in two tive we can use when we feel the need phrases: seeking God in others (such for vengeance. It’s like telling the other that God is more an appeal than an person that his life is not worth anything to anybody, that no one ever really “object”) and seeing others from God’s 23 point of view (as a field of open possi- wanted him to exist. Every human bilities rather than a circumscribed being may be tempted to feel this way, object). That is what it means to be a that their lives are due to mere chance contemplative in relation. We can now and do not correspond to anybody’s proceed to describe some sources (or express desire that they exist. Well, the terrains) that will help these attitudes Good News of Christian faith denies to grow. categorically that our existence is meaningless and affirms unreservedly that someone did indeed love us into 3.3. Calling on God as mother existence. Calling on God as mother, then, expresses the grateful confidence Addressing God as feminine can give we have in the embrace we have felt those of us who are males easy access even before we came into being. Such to God’s otherness. But there is some- confidence strengthens and dignifies thing even more profound in God’s our consciousness of being and makes maternity. us capable of relationship. Indeed, one of the deepest needs we Furthermore, our recourse to God as human beings have (given our need for mother opens our eyes to a God who recognition) is being able to say that our (like the mother in a family) is the pro- lives have been desired and loved by totype of reconciliation and the model somebody, that they are not the result of of a more contemplative way of viewing mere accident. We torture ourselves all the family’s members. In family with the question: are we only a chance relations the mother is the one who 25 promotes peace, eases tense relations one decisive factor which could be a (“consider your brother…”; “remember dim analogy of our relation with God: your father..”, etc.). Calling on God as being indebted to him for our being. For mother can therefore be a simple way of that reason also the feminine more predisposing ourselves for more con- easily brings together and unifies all ciliatory relations. The phrase of John of human beings as brothers and sisters. Ávila we just cited ( «if there is no our, When we come face to face with all the then there is no Father ») gains in inten- different character types described in the sity if we are convinced that, unless God earlier section, our viewing each of them is the mother of all, then she is not my as born of the same Mother as ourselves mother either. will help us change our attitude toward From this perspective, I would like them if a change is needed. to express my dismay at the assurance with which J. Ratzinger in his book on Jesus denies that we can address God 3.4. Treasuring in the heart as Mother. (I take advantage of the fact But such attitudes are not improvised. that in the book he claims to be speaking We have to keep warming ourselves not as pope but as a theologian willing every day in the “ baño de María ” to have his colleagues dispute him). [double boiler] of our prayer. We use Ratzinger argues that in the Bible the expression baño de María intention- «Mother is never a title of God », that ally because it allows us to make a sur- the biblical authors invoke God only as prising lyric leap. Father, and that the maternal references are found only in descriptive images. 24 With a certain simplicity, John I fear that Ratzinger has here taken Henry Newman wrote, in his essay on the biblical language out of context, the development of dogma, that Mary falling into an error which Xavier of Nazareth should be the model for Alegre ingeniously describes thus: «a theologians, because almost the only text without context becomes a pre- thing the gospel tells us about her is that text ». The Bible avoids addressing God «she treasured up all these things, as feminine because in that historical pondering in her heart what they might ambiance the “goddesses” were wor- mean». According to Newman, that shipped in a context either of sacred should be the attitude of the theologian, prostitution or of fertility cults. 25 Natu- and I believe it should be the attitude rally neither of these contexts was of every Christian at the moment of admissible for monotheistic Jews who forging relations with one’s brothers considered God transcendent. Nowa- and sisters. days, however, those contexts do not We might well add that the evan- apply. gelist Luke applies this phrase to Mary In summary, the feminine epito- in two contrasting moments (Lk 2.19, mizes what it is to be human much more 2.51). The first is a moment of joy and than the masculine does, especially in celebration, when the shepherds visit
26 the manger in the middle of the night. death not as defeat but as goal, not as The second moment is one of sadness parting but as birth, not as motive of and distress, when the child Jesus is lost grief but as reason for trust. As Leopol- (though there is also the positive side of do Panero put it in his intuitive verse: the teachers’ reaction to this extraordi- «I look at you and I think about things / nary lad). This ability to treasure mys- that never come to an end / because God teries and ponder their meaning seems has watched them / and cannot forget to me to be an indispensable part of them… / One night we will shut / our becoming a contemplative in relation. eyes. The rest / belongs to wind and It involves assimilating and making part foam / but love will live on.» 26 of our own being whatever is most Since this is true, we are well promising and positive in every relation; advised not to lose our relations with our it means processing and eliminating departed loved ones, or our conscious- whatever is negative, without making it ness of their presence in absence. We into the only (sometimes obsessive) should trust that they have not been feature of our memories. left at the wayside of history but have already arrived at the goal, where they await us. We should recall the inspiring 3.5. Thinking peacefully about examples they were to us in their lives. death every day We may imagine having dialogues with In our times there is a great deal written, them, we may present them flowers and spoken, and advertised about happiness, other things they do not need, or we may as we will see in the conclusion.And the visit cemeteries where they are not to be truth is that our happiness seems to have found and where we might rather hear a lot to do with the quality of our human the voice of the angel in the gospels: relations. This reveals to us a new para- «Why do you seek the living among dox, namely, that thinking frequently the dead? » Instead of all these vain and tranquilly about death helps us not attempts, we should evoke them as our to lose or squander the little happiness intercessors before the mystery of God, available to us here (those experiences and we should trust in the possibility of peace and meaning we already spoke –for believers, the certainty– of being of). This is so for several reasons. First, transformed in our re-encounter with because such reflection can prevent us them some day. Thus it will not be the from doing stupid things that will only sad story of those times «which passed makes us miserable. Even if that saying in joy and will not return», but the of Nietzsche’s Zarathustra were true, reverse: they will return, but freed of all «Every pleasure seeks eternity», it is that was false in them and loaded down good to know that we cannot ask him with all the love we were able to bestow for it. Second, because it shows us how on them. best to invest the capital of life which That hope-filled love allows us to remains in our account. But thirdly and imagine our departed loved ones above all, because it helps us think of (spouse, parents, brothers, sisters,
27 friends,…) in that “portion of God” (as fullness of the “divine image and like- it were) where they now live and where ness” . That goal, which is our truth, must they become for us (like God) a “pres- even today illuminate all our relations ence in absence”. We realize that even in the creaturely dimension, changing now they are what Saint Irenaeus in the them into small sacraments or signs of second century called «resplendent our being all together in God (in tech- flesh», surpassing the opaqueness of our nical theological language: of our “cir- earthly flesh. Their flesh is resplendent cumincession” in God). In this way we like the Father because it is «possessed open ourselves in silent surprise before by the Spirit of God», which shapes it the final mystery of Christianity, which into the Word of God. For that reason is the mystery of the “communion of they are that «flesh forgetful of itself» saints” (or better: “the communion which becomes «resplendent» 27 . of what is Holy”). Our departed loved ones have come Living in this way facilitates greatly to form part of the divine Trinity which, the relations we are forging with those at the end of time, ceases to be Trinity who are still alive. It can help us avoid and becomes «divine multiplicity» in what so often happens: when someone that sort of biblical pantheism where we love dies, we often feel regret that «God becomes all in all». At that we failed to treat her better or recog- moment, the relation that started out nized her gifts while she was still with with our being “separate entities” us. Instead, we will be encouraged to becomes a “subsistent” relation, like the view and to treat all persons as we divine persons, so that the trajectory of would wish we had treated them before our creaturehood culminates in the they died –or before we do.
28 CONCLUSION
To sum up rapidly, let us say that we have seen the roots of what in the Christian sources is presented as the call to be «contemplatives in rela - tion». We have situated the results in the context of traditional religio - sity and a generalized idea of God, and these have been “turned upside down” by the results. From the start of my theological reflections, I have been arguing that Christianity is founded not on the substitution of God by humans but on the sustenance of humans by God. We have also discovered how humanly rich our theme is: it contains a wealth that is accessible to everyone, even though it originates from Christian roots, that is, from our understanding of human beings as “images of God” who are “recapitulated in Christ”. And we have tried to get an idea of how to reach this difficult goal, starting from our plain and simple everyday existence. We can now end these reflections by referring again to a reality very characteristic of our times: people are searching for happiness, looking for recipes that will make them happy, buying “best-sellers” that are suc - cessful because they offer formulas for happiness. Regarding this craze to find happiness, which I find a bit ridiculous, I have elsewhere made these observations: a) It is a clear symptom of how unhappy we really are, despite our feel- ing obliged to tell people we are happy, whether out of human respect or because of the cultural context. b) Happiness is one of those human qualities which is found (in what- ever measure possible) only when it is not sought. c) Happiness does not belong to this dimension in which we exist except in some “sacramental” way. We will never have here an peren - nial orgasm or an eternal ecstasy. But we do have experiences of peace and meaning, and we catch glimpses of plenitude which can connect us
29 to a “beyond” in which those experiences seem to participate. And perhaps the most wonderful of these glimpses is this: in a profound experience of communion, one experiences, paradoxically, the greatest affirmation of oneself. But now the “self-affirmation” is an “added extra”, not something sought after or even savored selfishly as such, but simply received, once we realize that nothing more is needed. And d) in this life, the happiness we have must coexist with a certain unavoidable pain, since we are aware of how many others are suffering at the same time that we are doing well. We all have to accept the great dilemma Albert Camus left us: in a city affected by the plague, either everybody can happy, or else I cannot be. In this context, then, we can conclude with this thesis (or at least sus - picion): our truly being “contemplatives in relation” can be one of the surest sources of that relative happiness which is the destiny of our temporal dimension. .
30 NOTES
1. «Quaere super nos », Confessions 10,9. ter, I am more at home among rocks than I am 2. Authors who once defended this letter as written among men.» (a G. BRENAN , San Juan de la by Paul (e.g., Schlier) referred precisely to this Cruz , Barcelona, Plaza&Janés, 1974, p. 93: allusion to personal experiences. Nowadays it “men” seems to be a discreet allusion to N. is rather thought that Ephesians is not from Doria and his faction.) Paul’s hand. Even if we accept this for reasons 6. See for example: D. EDWARDS , El Dios de la evo- of language and style (just as a text of Delibes lución , Santander, Sal Terrae, 2006, pp. 34-35. can be distinguished from one of García Már- 7. For all of this see: C. DOMÍNGUEZ , Los registros quez), it is quite likely that the so-called deu - del deseo , Bilbao, Desclée de Brouwer, 2001, tero-Pauline letters contain direct teachings of especially chapters 4 and 5. Paul, which were written down by some disci - 8. Jacques LECLERQ , El matrimonio cristiano , Ma- ple, who later gave them epistolary form and drid, ed. Patmos, 1952 3, (my emphasis). blended them with some thoughts of his own. 9. From the Greek verb askeô , which means “mod- What is undeniable is that in this text someone el”. is speaking in a very direct and personal man - 10. BROECKHOVEN , Diario... , XIII, 2, 7. ner. For the rest, I leave the question to the 11. From the poem, «The sky which is blue» of bible scholars. Cántico … But the poet also know that “this 3. José I. GONZÁLEZ FAUS , La Humanidad Nueva. world of humans is badly made”. Ensayo de cristología , Santander, Sal Terrae, 12. This triad is surprisingly similar to a trinitarian 1994, p. 278. schema in Hinduism: sat-cit-ananda : being, 4. Egide VAN BROECKHOVEN , Diario de la amistad, consciousness of being, and joy at being. XXVI, 32:367 and XXV, 85:536 (the figures 13. Non coerceri máximo, contineri tamen a mini - indicate: notebook, commentary number, and mo, divinum est . page). The diary has been translated into 14. See her diary: Etty HILLESUM , Una vida con - Spanish, with an excellent introduction, by mocionada , Barcelona, Anthropos, 2007; and J. M. RAMBLA (Dios, la amistad y los pobres; my commentary: Etty Hillesum. Una vida que Santander, Sal Terrae, 2009). Egide explains interpela , Santander, Sal Terrae, 2008; where that he went to work in the factory not to gain there is an analyis of the expression, «helping more knowledge but to «enter into the life of God». the people: out of a contemplative attitude, 15. The quoted phrase is from 2 Cor 8,9. The other to place myself alongside them, in the hope expressions are from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. that they might thus find God in me» (XII, 16. «Be perfect», according the version of Mat- 20:160). He therefore writes that for him «the thew 5,48. leap to this environment is like the leap to 17. In philosophical language, a phenomenon is being a Carthusian or a Trappist» (XXVI, that which appears to us (from the Greek verb 50:375) and that «this de-Christianized envi - phainomai, appear), without considering the ronment, harshly exhausting and brutalizing, reality underlying the appearance. is where I find my setting for a contemplative 18. Given the date when I am editing this page, it’s life» (XXII: 154). hard to avoid mentioning the gross falsifica - 5. See the anecdote in J. M. JAVIERRE , Juan de la tion of the face’s value as seen in the polished, Cruz. Un caso límite , Salamanca, Sígueme, subtly fraudulent posters of our electoral cam - 1991, p. 1062. The response is similar to one paigns (and almost all advertising, for that John gave a nun who was grieved because he matter). In the posters there is not even the was being exiled to La Peñuela: «My daugh - “trace of the face”: the face has lost its appea -
31 ling quality and has been degraded by the slide toward yourself. / I give what I have and manipulation and objectification of those who what I am / I’m not sure whether I really let go falsify it. The posters are symptomatic of what / maybe I have never given what is mine» has become of our democracy. Despite this, or (Luis ROSALES , Poesía reunida, Barcelona, maybe because of it, not even times of serious Seix Barral, 1983, p. 85). economic crisis discourage people from inves - 23. This is true despite the fact that the insult is in- ting in their faces. tolerably chauvinist; a more sensitive version 19. Cf. E. LÉVINAS , Totalidad e infinito , Salamanca, might be formulated as «son of a whore’s Sígueme, 1977. client». The sense is that the life that came 20. The expression «vicars of Christ» indicated in forth was in no way desired. the early Middle Ages an encounter with 24. See pages 132-33 of the Catalonian edition. someone different, mainly poor people. Later, 25. Ratzinger referred explicitly to sacred prostitu - unfortunately, the popes reserved the title for tion in his first encyclical. themselves. 26. Leopoldo PANERO , Escrito a cada instante, 21. R. BULTMANN , Jesus Christ and mythology , Lon- Madrid, 1963, 142-43. Also, in the Catalonian don, 1966, pp. 39-41. language, the magnificent M. MARTÍ POL , 22. Writing these lines in the centennial year of the Llibre d'absències , Barcelona, ed. Empúries, great poet Luis Rosales, I dare to quote these 1997, especially the «Lletra a Dolors » (p. 23). verses of his, precisely because they do not 27. Adv. Haer . IV, 20, 2 and V, 9, 3. Elsewhere come from any celibate ecclesiastical authori- Irenaeus says that the human person must ty: «You know that orgasm is an autism / cease being a creature in order to become a which lover and beloved have / and you feel “likeness” (in Greek, progenies, which is the their participant terror / which makes you same term he applies to the Son of God).
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