Day three of this new book, and I'm already finding it more challenging than our Advent reader. At the same time, I think I'm also finding it more rewarding. It took me a few minutes to realize that the design of this book is different from our last one in that it has two Nouwen passages paired together rather than a Nouwen passage and a commentary from the editor.
And today I'm struck by the tension that's held between these two passages from two different books by Henri. The first part focuses on the incarnation, the very realness and presence of Jesus in our world, the historical fact of the man we believe wasn't only a man. The second portion focuses on the absence of God.
Wait...what? The absence of God? Didn't Henri Nouwen go to Sunday School? Doesn't he know that God is everywhere?!
But Nouwen goes on to point out that God "transcends our psychological distinctions between 'already' and 'not yet,' absence and presence, leaving and returning." In each of these opposing pairs, God gets to be both at the same time. This is one of those concepts that has me utterly convinced that scientific advances are actually bringing science and faith closer together, not further apart. This notion of a flexibility in time and space that is beyond that which a human can experience is part of what's at the heart of the theory of relativity. Sometimes I think the line between theory and belief is actually a pretty blurry one.
So what does it mean to focus on God's simultaneous presence and absence? What does that look like experientially? Practically, I think the easiest way to focus on God's presence in any given moment is to find the thing(s) for which you are grateful. Gratitude is one emotional fast-track to God. In the same moment, to focus on God's absence it to go to a place of emotional uncertainty, and wait there in peace. For example, in this moment I can look out my office window and focus on God's presence by being grateful for the particular kind of rosy glow the setting sun is giving the trees on Cushing Island. And in this moment, I can also focus on God's absence by thinking about the things in my life that provoke the most anxiety, the things about which I have the least amount of certainty. And rather than giving in to that uncertainty and getting overwhelmed by it, I could choose to sit with it. And in that way, I can try and befriend mystery and learn to tolerate the uncertainty with which our society is becoming less and less comfortable.
I think this comfort with mystery is at the heart of the Descending Way of Lent and life.
Kelly, I appreciate Nouwen's passage also...that God "transcends our psychological distinctions between 'already' and 'not yet,' absence and presence, leaving and returning."
ReplyDeleteIf we can embrace the mystery of God, we can also learn to embrace times of ambiguity in our own lives as part of the human condition.
I agree with the suggestion that this Nouwen reader is more challenging than the Advent one. I would go so far as to say it’s more provocative. I love being confronted with the opportunity to hold in dynamic tension two seemingly opposite ideas. And I love the idea of “the mystery”…it’s the way I framed my eventual return to the Church…wanting to be present to the mystery of God and faith.
ReplyDeleteIn this day’s passages, I found brilliant the notion that by listening to our longings and getting present to our solitude we sense that we have already been touched by God. Hmmm…I think I’ll hang with that for a while.