MYSTICAL LOVE

FRANCISCAN MYSTICISM

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The two adjectives most applied to God by Franciscan mysticism were  goodness  and  humility. Hardly any of us would think to call God humble, but Francis did. He fell in love with the humility of God because if God emptied himself and hid himself inside the material world as in Jesus, and waits so patiently for us to grow up, then God is very humble indeed.

Francis fell in love more with Jesus ¢â‚¬â„¢ humanity than with his divinity. It was his humanity that he wanted to draw close to and imitate. Only in a humble state, and among the humble, could Francis easily and naturally see God. He even loved humble creatures like worms, and crickets, and little lambs because they more truthfully revealed the Mystery of Jesus.

Some art historians say that Western Christian art changed after Francis. Giotto, the early Renaissance painter and architect, for example, moved from the depiction of exclusively sacred scenes and religious icons, to the painting of natural life: animals, nature, and human encounters. It is never the same afterwards, because this world and God ¢â‚¬â„¢s world are now revealing themselves as one.

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Easter, not Christmas, was the big celebration for the first 1200 years of Christianity. It was the Franciscans who popularized (and sentimentalized) Christmas. For Francis, if the Incarnation was true then Easter took care of itself. He told us to celebrate Jesus ¢â‚¬â„¢ birth and created the custom of the creche, or nativity scene. To his normally fasting friars, he said  ¢â‚¬Å“Even the walls should eat meat on Christmas Day! ¢â‚¬  Incarnation was already redemption for him. Once God became a human being, then nothing human or worldly was abhorrent to God. The problem was solved forever.

Resurrection is incarnation coming to its logical conclusion. If God is already in everything, then everything is  from  glory and  unto  glory. We ¢â‚¬â„¢re all saved by mercy, without exception. We ¢â‚¬â„¢re all saved by grace, so there ¢â‚¬â„¢s no point in distinguishing degrees of worthiness because God alone is all good and everything else in creation participates in that one, universal goodness to varying degrees. There is no absolute dividing line between worthy and unworthy people in the eyes of God, because all our worthiness is merely participation in God ¢â‚¬â„¢s.

On our great feast day of Francis, let me elaborate a little further on what we Franciscans believe to be  ¢â‚¬Å“the Univocity of all Being. ¢â‚¬  Univocity, in Latin, means  ¢â‚¬Å“one voice. ¢â‚¬  When you speak of God, when you speak of angels, when you speak of humans, when you speak of animals, when you speak of trees, when you speak of fish, when you speak of the earth, you are using the word  ¢â‚¬Å“Being ¢â‚¬   univocally, or with one foundational and common meaning.

They all participate in the same Being to varying degrees. And being is One, as is God. It might seem like an abstract philosophical position, but I hope you can see how life-changing it is. Now we have an inclusive and consistent universe where everything is sacred, where you can ¢â‚¬â„¢t divide the world into the sacred and profane anymore. God is revealed in everything and uses everything without exception (1 Corinthians 15:28,  Colossians 3:11).

In most paintings of people waiting for the Holy Spirit they are looking upward, with their hands outstretched or raised up, the assumption being that the Holy Spirit will descend from  ¢â‚¬Å“up ¢â‚¬  above. In the Great Basilica in Assisi where St. Francis is buried, there ¢â‚¬â„¢s a bronze statue of him honoring the Holy Spirit. His posture and perspective are completely different from what we have come to expect. He ¢â‚¬â„¢s looking  down  into the earth with expectation and desire! This is the change of perspective that became our alternative orthodoxy ¢â‚¬”although it should have been mainline orthodoxy! He was merely following the movement of the Incarnation, since Christians believe that the Eternal Word became  ¢â‚¬Å“flesh ¢â‚¬  (John 1:14), and it is in the material world that God and the holy are to be found.

Francis recognized and took to the logical conclusion the implications of the Incarnation. If God became flesh in Jesus, then it is in the world, the physical, the animal, in the natural elements, in human sexuality that God must be found. Speak of embodiment, physicality, and the world ¢â‚¬”use whatever words you want ¢â‚¬”these are the hiding places and the revelation places of God. This is how Christianity was supposed to change everything. Most of us just kept looking up, when God in Jesus had, in fact, come  down. (This is the foundation of Franciscan mysticism.) On this day in 1226, Francis died at sunset and asked to lie naked and exposed on the earth as he died. The friars were embarrassed, but conceded to his wish. Now you know that it made total sense.

St. Bonaventure and John Duns Scotus observed what St. Francis was seeing and doing, and took it to the universities of Paris, Cologne, and Oxford where they translated it into a systematic philosophy and theology. God, for them as intellectuals, was not just  ¢â‚¬Å“out there ¢â‚¬  but just as much  ¢â‚¬Å“in here ¢â‚¬  ¢â‚¬”the transcendent was also within. Grace is inherent to creation from the first Chapter of Genesis (1:1-2). Grace is not something you invite into the world but something you discover already in the world.

This is why Franciscanism normally had no trouble with evolutionary thinking. Bonaventure wrote  The Tree of Life  and  The Soul’s Journey into God ¢â‚¬”images of growth and development from  within  while basking in the sunshine from  without. Duns Scotus taught  ¢â‚¬Å“the univocity of all being, ¢â‚¬  in other words, that we could use the word  ¢â‚¬Å“being ¢â‚¬  with  one consistent voice ¢â‚¬”for the natural world, animals, humans, angels, and God. Then he further taught that each act of creation is absolutely chosen, free, and unique in the universe (his doctrine of  haecceity). Both St. Bonaventure and Duns Scotus created an entire philosophical system out of Francis ¢â‚¬â„¢ uneducated, but intuitive, genius.

In the first six centuries most of the mystics were identified with the early desert fathers and mothers of Egypt, Asia Minor, Syria, and the area of Palestine. Then the search for encounter moves into the monasteries where it becomes more academic trying to explain itself. And later St. Francis would bring mysticism from the monasteries to the streets and cities. He said  ¢â‚¬Å“Don ¢â‚¬â„¢t speak to me of Benedict and Augustine. God has shown me a different way! ¢â‚¬  (Although Francis had nothing personal against these saints, he did have great inner clarity about what was his to do, and knew that the church would try to put him inside of its known modes of religious life.)

Franciscan men are not monks (from Greekmonos,  ¢â‚¬Å“alone ¢â‚¬ ). We are called friars ( ¢â‚¬Å“brothers ¢â‚¬ ). A friar is one who mixes with the people. Often we were found near city centers in Europe, because we were a part of city life, the working people, and the poor. This was the beginning of a real  ¢â‚¬Å“alternative orthodoxy, ¢â‚¬  a kind of practical mysticism of the streets, and with those who were on the edges of society. In fact, our poorly named  ¢â‚¬Å“vow of poverty ¢â‚¬  was to structurally assure that we would stay on the edge and not become establishment people. St. Clare and the  ¢â‚¬Å“Poor Clare ¢â‚¬  Sisters tended to live this much better than we, the later  ¢â‚¬Å“ordained ¢â‚¬  friars. (Francis himself refused ordination to the priesthood.)

From an unpublished talk in Assisi, Italy, May 2012
For more on Franciscan Mysticism, consider
Great Chain of Being: Simplifying Our Lives  (CD/DVD/MP3)

Prayer:
I will seek the goodness and humility of God.

Mysticism is when God ¢â‚¬â„¢s presence becomes experiential and undoubted for a person. You can see a kind of courage and self-confidence in the mystics. That puts them in an extraordinary category. Most of us believe things because our churches tell us to believe them and we don ¢â‚¬â„¢t want to be disobedient members of the church so we say  ¢â‚¬Å“I believe ¢â‚¬  as we do in the creed.

A mystic doesn ¢â‚¬â„¢t say  ¢â‚¬Å“I believe. ¢â‚¬  A mystic says  ¢â‚¬Å“I know. ¢â‚¬  A true mystic ironically speaks with an almost arrogant self-confidence and, at the same time, with a kind of humility. When you see this combination of calm self-confidence, certitude, and patient humility, all at the same time, you can trust you are in the presence of a person who has had an actual  ¢â‚¬Å“encounter ¢â‚¬  with God or the Holy.

A very little bit of God goes an awfully long way. When another ¢â‚¬â„¢s experience of God isn ¢â‚¬â„¢t exactly the way I would describe it, it doesn ¢â‚¬â„¢t mean that they haven ¢â‚¬â„¢t had an experience of God or that their experience is completely wrong. We have to remain with Francis ¢â‚¬â„¢ prayer:  ¢â‚¬Å“Who are you, God, and who am I? ¢â‚¬  Isn ¢â‚¬â„¢t there at least ten percent of that person ¢â‚¬â„¢s experience of God that I can agree with? Can’t I at least say,  ¢â‚¬Å“I wish I could experience God in that way ¢â‚¬ ?

What characterizes anyone who has had just a little bit of God is that they always want more of that experience! Could it not be that this Hindu, this Sufi, this charismatic, this Jewish woman has, in fact, touched upon the same eternal Mystery that I am seeking? Can ¢â‚¬â„¢t we at least give one another the benefit of the doubt? I can be somewhat patient with people who think they have the truth. The problem for me is when they think they have the  whole  truth.

The mystic probably represents the old shibboleth,  ¢â‚¬Å“Those who really know don ¢â‚¬â„¢t speak too quickly. Those who speak too quickly don ¢â‚¬â„¢t really know. ¢â‚¬  Maybe that is a good reflection on this feast of the angels ( ¢â‚¬Å“messengers ¢â‚¬  of God), but with a few exceptions, like Gabriel (Luke 1:28-38), they hardly ever speak.

The German Jesuit,  Karl Rahner, said something like this (although his German is hard to translate):  ¢â‚¬Å“The infinite mystery that you are to yourself and the infinite mystery that God is in God ¢â‚¬â„¢s self proceed forward together as one. ¢â‚¬  In simple English, as you uncover God ¢â‚¬â„¢s loving truth, you uncover your own, and as you uncover your own truth, you fall deeper into God ¢â‚¬â„¢s mercy and love. I ¢â‚¬â„¢ve certainly seen this in my own little journey. When I come to a breakthrough in my own shadow work, my own sinfulness, my own self-knowledge, or in wonder at my own soul, it invariably feeds and invites the other side, and I want to go deeper with God.

In the same way, when my heart opens up in a new recognition of the nature of God, it always invites me into deeper and daring honesty, deeper self-surrender, deeper shadow work with my own illusions and my own pretensions. The two will always feed one another, and that ¢â‚¬â„¢s why people who go deeper with God invariably have a very honest evaluation of themselves. They are never proud people. They can ¢â‚¬â„¢t be, because the closer you get to the Light, the more you see your own darkness. And the closer you get to your own ordinariness (which sometimes includes darkness), the more you know you need the Light.

We are told that St. Francis used to spend whole nights praying the same prayer:  ¢â‚¬Å“Who are you, God? And who am I? ¢â‚¬  Evelyn Underhill claims it ¢â‚¬â„¢s almost the perfect prayer. The abyss of your own soul and the abyss of the nature of God have opened up, and you are falling into both of them simultaneously. Now you are in a new realm of Mystery and grace, where everything good happens!

Notice how the prayer of Francis is not stating anything but just asking open-ended questions. It is the humble, seeking, endless horizon prayer of the mystic that is offered out of complete trust. You know that such a prayer will be answered, because there has already been a previous answering, a previous epiphany, a previous moment where the ground opened up and you knew you were in touch with infinite mystery and you knew you were yourself infinite mystery. You only ask such grace-filled questions, or any question for that matter, when they have already begun to be answered.

Evelyn Underhill  defines mysticism as  ¢â‚¬Å“an overwhelming consciousness of God and an overwhelming consciousness of one ¢â‚¬â„¢s own soul  at the same time. ¢â‚¬  In my experience, that is exactly what I see happening. There ¢â‚¬â„¢s this wonderful sense of my own value, my own significance, my own validation from above, from on high.  ¢â‚¬Å“I was once blind, but now I see. ¢â‚¬  I was once nobody and now I ¢â‚¬â„¢m everybody ¢â‚¬”and this change in self-image is simultaneous with a discovery of a true and all-accepting image of God. No wonder so many people cry, or sing in tongues, when this happens. Their boundaries are blown away.

Mystical experience is the best possible cure for low self-esteem. You know you were chosen by the One who does the choosing! You know you are intimately loved by the One who does all the loving! When the  ¢â‚¬Å“Unmoved Mover ¢â‚¬  says you are good; you would do well to accept His or Her version of reality, and let go of your petty carping and complaining about yourself.

Adapted from  Following the Mystics Through the Narrow Gate  (CD/DVD/MP3)

Bernard McGinn says that mysticism is  ¢â‚¬Å“a consciousness of the presence of God that by definition exceeds description and . . . deeply transforms the subject who has experienced it. ¢â‚¬  If it does not deeply change the lifestyle of the person ¢â‚¬”their worldview, their economics, their politics, their ability to form community ¢â‚¬”you have no reason to believe it is genuine mystical experience. It is often just people with an addiction to religion itself, which is not that uncommon.

Mysticism is not just a change in some religious ideas or affirmations, but it is an encounter of such immensity that everything else shifts in position. Mystics have no need to exclude or eliminate others precisely because they have experienced radical inclusivity of themselves into something much bigger. They do not need to define themselves as enlightened or superior, whereas a mere transfer of religious assertions often makes people even more elitist and more exclusionary.

True mystics are glad to be common, ordinary, servants of all, and  ¢â‚¬Å“just like everybody else, ¢â‚¬  because any need for specialness has been met once and for all.

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Historically, mysticism was often seen as the opposite of prophecy. There was the prophetic strain, which was working for social justice, making a difference, solving problems, fixing the world, and bringing about the Kingdom of God. Then there were these other  ¢â‚¬Å“mystified ¢â‚¬  people who locked themselves in hermitages and didn ¢â‚¬â„¢t care about the suffering of the world. Now we know that was a radical misunderstanding of both sides.

When we read the prophets, we see that without exception they talk about an intimate relationship with God that, itself, led to radical social critique. Jeremiah talks about a love that  ¢â‚¬Å“seduces him and that lets him be seduced ¢â‚¬  (Jeremiah 20:7). The normal language of the prophets Amos and Hosea is an intimate language of divine encounter that always overspills into social concerns. It seems to blast their previous understanding of Judaism and temple worship, and puts them in competition and tension with the priestly class.

In the Jewish Scriptures, the priests are invariably competing with the prophets and the prophets are critiquing the priests, and this tells me it must be a necessary and creative tension. Maybe both sides get refined because of it. Today, in our church, we have mostly priestly concerns ¢â‚¬”or as Jeremiah put it,  ¢â‚¬Å“the sanctuary, the sanctuary, the sanctuary ¢â‚¬  (Jeremiah 7:4) ¢â‚¬”and little concern for immigrants, health care for the poor, the acceptance of the marginalized, or even minimal peacemaking. The patterns never seem to change, since the  ¢â‚¬Å“priests ¢â‚¬  control the home front and the  ¢â‚¬Å“prophets ¢â‚¬  work at the edges.

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Ordinary Christianity has emphasized that  we  should love God. This makes sense, but do we really know how to do it? What I find in the mystics is an overwhelming experience of  how God has loved us!  That ¢â‚¬â„¢s what comes through all of their writings, and I do mean  all ¢â‚¬”that God is forever the initiator, God is the doer, God is the one who seduces me in my unworthiness. It ¢â‚¬â„¢s all about  God ¢â‚¬â„¢s  initiative! Then the mystics try desperately to give back, to offer their lives back to the world and thus back to God.

Mystics are not trying to  earn  God ¢â‚¬â„¢s love by doing good things or going to church services. That question is already and profoundly resolved. The mystics ¢â‚¬â„¢ overwhelming experience is this full body blow of divine embrace, a  radical acceptance  by God  even in their state of fragmentation and poverty. That ¢â‚¬â„¢s what makes it  ¢â‚¬Å“amazing ¢â‚¬  and  ¢â‚¬Å“grace ¢â‚¬  (see  Romans 11:6).

Adapted from Following the Mystics Through the Narrow Gate (CD/DVD/MP3)

Prayer:

“Who are you, God, and who am I?”

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THE FOUR SPLITS  

For some reason, our mental ego takes control by splitting from reality in at least four basic ways. Only through some experience of loss, death, and suffering are these four splits ordinarily overcome. (Deep journeys of prayer can also accomplish the same.) I will take this week to describe these splits, and hopefully you will see how the true mystic overcomes and undoes all four of them.

The first split is between myself and other selves. In the first half of life (and for many in the second half also) we spend most of our time accentuating and accessorizing that separate self. I ¢â‚¬â„¢m better than you, I ¢â‚¬â„¢m smarter than you, I ¢â‚¬â„¢m better looking than you, I ¢â‚¬â„¢m healthier than you, I ¢â‚¬â„¢m whatever. It ¢â‚¬â„¢s all about you after this unfortunate split. We choose to over-identify with our separate self and most of our thoughts and actions are self-referential. The modern word we use for this is ego.

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The second split is the separation of life from death. In his book  The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker believes that the denial of death largely creates human culture. We all pretend that we are going to live forever, and that we can avoid all forms of dying. To overcome this illusion, you must come to understand that life and death are not two, but one. They cannot be separated except by blindness and denial ¢â‚¬”but your mental ego tries to have one without the other. It splits from all necessary dying, losing, and suffering in a thousand ways. This keeps you very superficial.

Once you know that life and death are one, you ¢â‚¬â„¢re not afraid of death anymore. The only people who are afraid of death are the people who haven ¢â‚¬â„¢t walked through it ahead of time. St. Francis said  ¢â‚¬Å“Face the first death and the second death can do you no harm. ¢â‚¬  So what he called poverty, humility, suffering, diving right into death by identifying with the lepers and the poor, was identification with the first death.  Once you walk through it and come out on the other side even more alive, you ¢â‚¬â„¢re not afraid of death anymore.

From an unpublished talk in Assisi, Italy, May 2012

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Prayer:

Help me walk the journey close to the bottom.