...
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him
nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. [John 14: 17]
It is important to understand that contemplative life and prayer is
not some cosy escape route from difficult truth and the often harsh realities
of life. Just the opposite. These days, when I don’t inhabit a pulpit any
more, there is sometimes a distant urge to get back up there and say some of the
things I might have said more clearly long ago.
For instance, that there is only one truth in the universe. There is not one truth of mathematics and
another truth of God. There is not the
truth of science and the truth of religion.
There is not one truth of nuclear physics and another truth of the
Bible. It is not a question of what you
or I believe, or what we call our faith, but of what is, whether we believe it
or not. But, as St Paul said, we see
what is, dimly – darkly, says the KJV – the Greek word is actually enigma.
The contemplative person, through prayer, silence, stillness, is
learning to live with this inescapable mystery – and it actually comes to many
as a very great freedom.
Jesus, according to John’s Gospel, said that his followers would
come to know the Spirit of Truth. Well, I think we do, once we discover how to
hold our tongues, be still and listen to God’s silence. One of our important contemplative writers,
Kathleen Norris, went to a church in Chicago where the minister was actually a
highly qualified scientist. He told her
of what he called a wonderful irony – he said the science that many Christians
had felt over the centuries to be our greatest threat... is now teaching us the
ancient truth about mystery, a truth that once long ago was ours – that when it comes to ultimate truth, the
most appropriate posture is modesty, silence, reverence, not propounding,
shouting, condemning, excommunicating.
...
the Spirit of truth, says
Jesus, whom the world cannot receive,
because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with
you, and he will be in you. There is
that word abide again. To the writer of John’s Gospel this is a very
special word. Jesus speaks to his
disciples of a mutual abiding, he in them and they in him. It is more and deeper than simply belonging
or believing, or doing lots of good works.
It is a relationship not negotiable, and it certainly has nothing to do
with the contemporary wisdom of keeping your options open, never burning your bridges. This abiding embraces doubt and mystery. Jesus’s
disciples do not understand everything.
Typically, we understand very little.
But we are learning to set ego to one side – and it is that which admits
the Spirit of Truth, the humility and attention to see and understand, and to
embrace the mystery. We find we are no
longer afraid of truth – if it is true, then it is of God.
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