Contemplation and Action

Day 1: Talk 2: CONTEMPLATION AND ACTION. Retreat to the FMAs, Bellefonte Outreach, Shillong.

Our spirituality is one of prayer in action, contemplation in action. Contemplation and Action should go hand in hand: the most important word here is not “action” nor even “contemplation,” but “and.”

But please don’t be disturbed if I speak more about contemplation, than about action. (You will see why.) The wrong stress on action is some kind of leftism or socialism which thinks about revolution, and not transformation. The future of Christianity, as Rahner says, belongs to one who contemplates, to one who is a mystic. Otherwise, no future for Christians. Meister Eckhart: A busy person can be a mystic.

Prayer, reflection, contemplation are the most important aspects of our religious life. Work and activities should not stifle our contemplative spirit. (Active contemplation.)

Contemplation is a long, loving, lingering look at something. To see God in everything, in everyone. It is allowing the God in me to meet the God in the world. Allowing the divine in me to meet the divine the world. I allow my depth, the divinity in me to deal with the world. It is surrender. Not an action. It is a passion. Heraclitus says, “The lightning guides everything.”

Prayer or contemplation is surrendering; not about saying or doing something. It is tuning into God’s presence, His active presence. It is allowing oneself to be moved by the Spirit.

The more you believe in God, the more you will believe in yourself.

How should I be in the world?

What should I focus on?

What should I do?

How do I serve the world?

Henri Nouwen gives us a clue: “The way for us to be in this world is to focus on the spiritual life – our own as well as the spiritual life of each one of the people that we meet. All the rest pales before these ‘spiritual events,’ which will become part of our enduring search for the truth of life and the love of God.”

We serve the world by being spiritually well. The first questions are not: “How much do we do?” or “How many people do we help out?” but “Are we interiorly at peace?” The distinction between contemplation and action can be misleading. Jesus’ actions flowed from his interior communion with God. His presence was healing, and it changed the world. In a sense he didn’t do anything! “Everyone who touched him was healed” (Mark 6:56).

Personal Encounter with the Lord: “Life becomes an unbearable burden whenever we lose touch with the presence of a loving Saviour and see only hunger to be alleviated, injustice to be addressed, violence to be overcome, wars to be stopped, [problems to be solved, order to be achieved] and loneliness to be removed. All these are critical issues, and Christians must try to solve them; however, when our concern no longer flows from our personal encounter with the living Christ, we feel oppressive weight.” (Nouwen)

Mission without contemplation is not possible. It is the other side of contemplation.

Transformed people transform people.

If you have encountered the Lord, if you allow God in your life, He will bring transformation in people’s lives—as He has brought in your own life.

Everything belongs. (Rohr)

All is well. (Three Idiots.)

Everything is in order. Though everything is in a mess, everything is in order. (Tony D’Mello)

Prayer is not an achievement, it is surrender.

Let go, and let God.

It is what is done to you, not done by you.

Moving to the centre. (Nouwen)

The center of a wheel is at rest, the centre of movement is at rest.

Be still and still moving. (T.S. Eliot.)

Thomas Merton: In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream. [...] This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. [...] I have the immense joy of being [hu]man, a member of a race in which God ... became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now [that] I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. [...] Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed.

[…] At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. […] It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely.

God is radically involved with the world. Contemplation is an acknowledgement of the same. God is already active in you and me and in the world. Perhaps only the awareness is missing. “Union with God” is not an achievement, it is a realization, a consciousness, an awareness. We are already in union with God. We are the Beloved; we belong to God. (Illusion of separatedness.)

Contemplation trains you to let go of what you think is success, so you can find the ultimate success of simple happiness. Contemplation is largely teaching you how to let go—how to let go of your attachment to your self-image, your expectations, your very ideas. Every such “set up” is a resentment waiting to happen. So maybe we are just redefining success as foundational happiness and contentment.

Contemplation: non-dualism and non-separation. There is no separation between the sacred and the profane. Unfortunate discovery to enter into spirituality. Blessings, sacraments, sacramentals are reminders that God is present and active everywhere. Japanese chief: only 7 sacraments? I thought there will 7000 or 70,000 occasions to meet God!

Pondering is contemplating: embracing disorders and contradictions, befriending lust and anger, holding conflicts and tensions and contradictions in one’s heart, forgiveness of oneself and others. Getting deep down into the unified field, unified field of love. (See my article, “A Spirituality of Contradictions,” Mission Today.)

Practice:

Be still and know that I am God.

Be still and know that I am.

Be still and know.

Be still.

Be.