Is the Mystical Life for You?

Perhaps a life of contemplation is for you …

“Spiritual awakening, even if it seems sudden and world shattering, is generally part of a long process,” writes Carl McColman in Answering the Contemplative Call: First Steps on the Mystical Path. “Think of the Buddha. His mind-blowing moment beneath the tree came, not only after weeks of meditation, but also after years of inner restlessness and searching. Great spiritual memoirs — from Saint Augustine’s Confessions to Thomas Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain to Anne Lamott’s Traveling Mercies — are classic, not only because they tell of people who undergo profound shifts in consciousness and awakening, but also because they acknowledge that such aha! moments typically come after long periods of questioning and struggle.

Perhaps a life of contemplation is for you …

McColman continues: Our bodies don’t wake up once and for all, so why should our souls? Our bodies go through a rhythm of wakefulness, fatigue, sleep, dreaming, deep slumber, and awakening again, and the cycle continues over and over. There is nothing wrong — and indeed much that is good — about this rhythmic nature of life. And so it is with our spiritual lives. Sometimes we go one step forward, then one step back, then two steps forward, then one step back. I believe that, behind every dramatic spiritual awakening, there is at least one — perhaps many — little awakening that paves the way, just like the message of John the Baptist paved the way for the coming of Christ.

Perhaps a life of contemplation is for you …

Anyone wishing to walk the mystical path must become a student of silence. This doesn’t mean taking a vow of silence. (Even monks don’t do that. They may live in silence, but their silence is not under a vow.) Nor does it mean you can never enjoy loud music or a raucous party ever again. Befriending silence is not the same thing as becoming hostile to sound. It merely means opening up a space in your life where all that silence represents — resting, waiting, beholding, not-knowing, and trusting — can be attended to in your own heart, without the distractions that sound and noise (whether external or internal) typically cause.

Perhaps a life of contemplation is for you …

Let go of any impulse to give yourself a heavenly makeover in imitation of God or of Christ. Sure, look to God, look to Christ, for inspiration in your own spiritual and ethical growth. Focus your beholding on God, not on yourself. Seek to love Christ by paying more attention to him than to yourself. Empty yourself to create the space for God’s love to pour into you. When God pours love into you, God is also pouring Divinity into you. This is what the Fathers of the Church called theosis, a Greek word meaning “deification” or “divinization.” This is where the mystical path leads us: not necessarily toward awesome experiences (although they may or may not happen), or even toward a sense of union with God (it may take place below the threshold of our awareness) — but always toward a life filled and transformed by love.

Perhaps a life of contemplation is for you …

God is a God of love, therefore, God is a God of possibility. Indeed, more than once the Bible declares that with God, all things are possible. For contemplatives, the infinite possibilities of Divine love represent the always-new promise of a life filled with joy, purpose, and meaning, even in the face of loss, suffering, illness, or death. Really, the only obstacle to the freedom and joy that comes from God is our own selves! Contemplation, therefore, is an invitation to freedom — to getting out of our own way and getting out of God’s way in order to create the space within us for the transforming, healing, loving, creative activity of the Holy Spirit to be born within us.

Perhaps a life of contemplation is for you …

To be present to God, begin by being present to yourself. That means remembering who you are — someone created in the image and likeness of the Divine mystery. If only we could truly know who we are — images and likenesses of God, of Love, of the Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. Be present to who you truly are; remember in whose image and likeness you have been made. And suddenly, everything is possible. Sit in silence with that luminous, resonant truth. Behold the Mystery who loves you — and who calls you to be everything it is possible for you to be. Wake up! Your spirit shines like the sun. You have a glittering, shimmering day ahead of you. For knowing who you are, remembering who you are, and responding to your unique call — these steps are just the beginning of an adventurous journey that will last forever.