St Paul’s Letter to the Romans,
chapter 8, is a torrent of inspiration.
If Paul had written nothing else but Romans 8, he would have been still
a towering figure in our understanding of God and of life. But where to start, in this chapter in which
every phrase and nuance seems to announce love and freedom…? I could begin at the beginning where we have
this startling announcement: There is therefore now no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus. As
God sees us, says Paul, no matter what we may think of ourselves, we are loved
and known and unconditionally welcomed. No
condemnation…
It was Fr Richard Rohr, writing
about compassion, who drew me back to Romans 8, with this statement: Much of the early work of contemplation is
discovering a way to observe ourselves from a compassionate and non-judgmental
distance until we can eventually live more and more of our lives from this calm
inner awareness and acceptance. In a
contemplative stance, we find ourselves smiling, sighing, and weeping at ourselves,
much more than needing either to hate or to congratulate ourselves—because we
are finally looking at ourselves with the eyes of God.[1] So let’s focus on that point this morning. In a steady discipline of silence and
stillness much change starts to happen.
Fixed attitudes come gently up for question. Certain memories seem to lose their sting, or
to appear in a more truthful light… much happens. But basically, in this space in which God of
course is fully present as always, and in which we now are learning to be as
present as we can, the sight we have of ourselves is adjusting more and more to
the sight God has of us.
One point needs to be made
clear… I am not saying that we plunge
somehow into this work as soon as the bell rings for meditation. No – the bell is the signal to become still
and silent, with the help of the mantra.
That is our task. And that is
perhaps the first lesson in humility for us – contemplative prayer is not what
we do, but what God does in us as we make space and deeply, inwardly consent,
over the days and weeks and years. We
cease passing judgement on ourselves – or, if we do believe we were wrong, we
accept that gently and even with a quiet inner humour. There is no condemnation… Condemnation is unhelpful, inappropriate,
surplus to requirements.
Fr Richard quotes Paul in this
chapter 8: When we cry “Abba! Father!”
it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of
God… “Abba, Father!” indeed could be
a very fine mantra. But what is
happening is that our spirit, our ego perhaps, the way we see ourselves, is
changing towards God’s view of us as beloved daughters and sons. Instead of any judgmental view of ourselves,
we become able to look at ourselves with compassion, with gentle understanding,
even with humour. It is not about sin
and guilt – it is about mercy, compassion and love. God’s
Spirit is bearing witness now with our spirit, writes Paul… God is no longer someone we have to please
and propitiate. It may be that this
re-formation entails the rather painful throwing-off of long-held religious
assumptions which we always took for granted… such as how wicked we are. But dealing with that is the work of the
Spirit too, once we make the space. We
will come back to chapter 8, but for the moment those two words will do – No
condemnation…
No comments:
Post a Comment