PRAYER AND MYSTICISM

These few words are offered to the formators and young men in initial formation. At the same time, I hope they will be helpful to all our members both religious and lay.

The great philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said, “It is not how the world is that is the mystical but that the world is.” I want to begin my few reflections by offering a word of encouragement to our young philosophers by pointing out that metaphysics and mysticism have a lot in common. Both are focused on reality and respond to the fact of existence with wonder and awe.

Metaphysics goes on to ask further questions in order to deepen our understanding. Mysticism goes on to praise and worship. Metaphysics is a good preparation for mystical experience as we see in the lives of Plato, Plotinus, Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas and others.

Both the metaphysician and the mystic urge us to open our eyes and be mesmerized by the fact that anything exists. This sums up the starting point for both true philosophy and true religion.

It is the experience of the gratuitous nature of existence that evokes the sense of wonder and amazement and

that nourishes an attitude of gratitude for life and all existence.

The true philosopher is also a worshiper. He worships by dedicating his mind and effort to exploring and seeking to understand the great wonder and mystery of reality. The mystic is led to discover the creator God who is the origin and end of everything.

Passionists at Prayer

St. Paul of the Cross liked to think of the Passionists as like the apostles (Const. No. 1). They are the intimate friends of Jesus whom He sends to preach the Gospel to the whole world. In St. Mark’s Gospel we find the lovely verse which describes Jesus calling the first disciples who are “to be with him and sent out by him’ (Mk. 3,14).

The friends of Jesus are those to whom he reveals all he has heard from the Father. They become the intimates of the Father too so that the union between Father and Son is extended to enfold Jesus friends. It is because of this intimate friendship with Jesus that the disciples can go out to the whole world and bring others to know and love Jesus too. It is because they have seen, heard and touched Jesus

that they can speak with authority and credibility about him.

Passionists have been called by God to be the intimate friends of Jesus Crucified and to preach the Word of the Cross to the whole world. The Constitutions tell us that we dare to announce the message of the Cross to others only because we have allowed it first to penetrate our own lives (No. 9). Through our daily intimacy with Jesus, we come to be like him, to share his “mind and heart”, to have his love for the Father and for God’s people, to share his mission of bringing Good News to the poor and announcing that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

The intimacy of friendship with Jesus is possible because he has chosen us (Jn. 15,16). This is not based on nay merits or gifts of ours (1 Cor. 1,26) but is a pure gift of grace. In calling us, Jesus wants to share himself with us and fill us with the fullness of life (John 10,10). This is a cause of great joy and fulfillment and it fills us with zeal and enthusiasm to make Him known to the whole world.

Jesus calls us to be his friends and wants us to spend time with him. Prayer is the ordinary way of spending time with Jesus and allowing him to tell us about the Father and His love.

There are many ways of speaking about prayer but here I want to stress that it is first of all a gift. We pray because the “Holy Spirit has been poured into our hearts” (Rom 5,5) and continuously cries out Abba Father (Gal 4,6). Because Jesus wants us to be his friends he enables us to spend time with him. He gives us a desire for prayer. He helps us to find the time and place to be with him. Our part is to cooperate, to follow our deepest desires and give ourselves to prayer. The most important thing we can do to develop a life of prayer and intimacy with Jesus is to be generous and to give the time.

All the great masters of prayer teach us that it is not our strenuous efforts to think holy thoughts that really matter. The important thing is the love that desires to be with Him and that finds the time to be there. Then we leave it with Jesus. He will fill our time with his presence and we need simply to be there with him.

Mysticism

There is a lot of interest in mysticism today just as there is a lot of interest in all religious experience. People are bored with the routines of regular church attendance and the daily round of familiar religious practice. We live at a time when new or special “experiences” are sought and valued. Young people in particular want to experience something new, or go to a new place and see new things. Seeking a religious experience can be part of this kind of experimentation and gratification.

However, there is a deeper quest going on in many people. This may be because the “tide of faith” is receding and the beaches are becoming bare. The experience of loss as well as anxiety about the future may be the most receptive environment for the cultivation of intense religious experience. Whatever the reason, many people are reading the texts of the mystics and are experimenting with techniques of meditation and eastern spiritualties in the hope of experiencing something that will change their lives.

For Christians, the mystical was often considered the preserve of an elite few, particularly monks and nuns. It was considered extraordinary and not for everyone. This is no longer the general view. Mysticism is seen as part of the continuum of Christian life and

experience. All Christians have been baptized and share the life of Christ and this can become a conscious experience for any Christian. It usually happens when one has a well developed life of prayer and Christian practice. Mysticism is not an inevitable stage on the road to Christian maturity. It is a gift given to some and not to all. But it is not in principle restricted to any group or special individuals. All are called to the fullness of Christian life and all in principle can experience this in a conscious way.

The use of the term mysticism might suggest a kind of mystification of something that is rather simple. That is not my intention. Mysticism does suggest something that is not at first obvious. It refers to what is hidden or a secret but that is now made known. This is exactly how St. Paul characterized the “mystery of Christ” or the mystery revealed in Christ (Col 1,26). Mysticism is our relationship to the great mystery hidden for so long and now revealed at last in Christ. It is of course the mystery of God’s unfathomable love made manifest in Christ crucified and risen. And not only made manifest but shared with us who have faith.

Faith leads to baptism and in baptism we are mysteriously and sacramentally united with Christ in the paschal mystery of his death and resurrection (Rom. 6,3). This is the deepest truth about every baptized Christian that it is way beyond the reach and capacity of our thinking and imagining. It is the truth of who we are and what has happened to us but we accept it in faith without fully understanding how it can be. In baptism we are changed by the action of God and we are given new powers to live and act as members of Christ’s body. We believe the change has taken place in us but we cannot explain how it happened, and often we have no sense experience of being different.

Mysticism refers to the way this truth of our new existence in Christ becomes consciously present to us and how we actively appropriate it. We are given a new awareness of God acting in our lives and of our union with God. This profound

and deep mystery breaks into our conscious awareness. This is what I mean by Christian mysticism.

We recite the biblical texts about “dying and rising with Christ” so frequently that they now appear like common sense when in fact they are the expression of the incomprehensible plan and action of God. Mysticism is our conscious participation in these great and mysterious actions of God on our behalf.

I have been insisting that mysticism is a form of consciousness or awareness. It is when the hidden mystery of our Christian existence emerges into consciousness and we see as if for the first time. It usually has a profound and transforming effect on our living. What we had believed in darkness is now seen in the light. What is seen can differ from person to person. It can be a vision of the Unutterable Mystery of God or a revelation of Infinite Love, or a vision of the New Creation. There is no way of determining what the content of the vision will be except that it throws new light on our relationship with God. Authentic Christian mysticism is always a strengthening of our relationship with God, a heightening of our awareness

and a deepening of our love. The ultimate test of genuine mysticism will be the fruit it produces, “and the greatest of these is love’ (1 Cor. 13, 13).

Very often the mystical insight is also a new understanding of the nature of reality as proceeding from God and as a manifestation of God. God is seen to be in all of reality and all of reality is seen to be in God. This enables the person to take up a new stance towards reality that is full of wonder and care. Every simple thing is now valued as precious.

Passionist Mysticism

Is there such a thing as “Passionist mysticism”? Passionists have always insisted on the contemplative heart of their vocation. Passionists meditate on the Passion of Jesus. They ponder

the mystery of God’s unutterable love manifested in the passion of Jesus. Passionists live a contemplative life of silence and recollection. The aim is to live in contemplative union with Jesus crucified. It is to be one with Jesus in his total self-giving to the Father for us on the cross. This is the goal or desire of every Passionist. The contemplative union with Jesus on the Cross fills us with His passion for the Father and for the whole world. Filled with his love, we go in his name to change the world by proclaiming the Word of the Cross.

In addition to the classical mystical experience associated with mystical prayer, there has been an extraordinary discovery in the contemporary Church that working with the poor and acting for justice have opened people’s lives to a new experience of God that can only be called mystical. Of course many of the great mystics, including Paul of the Cross and

St. Francis, experienced Christ present in the poor. More recently, the American activist Dorothy Day and Bishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador witness to this new form of mystical-prophetic life. Today, more and more Christians are experiencing God in this way. Passionists have also been affected by these new expressions of mystical union and are committed to contemplate Jesus crucified on Calvary and in the poor and suffering of today. It may be that future Passionist saints will be those who experience mystical union with Christ through their commitment to work for the poor and to eradicate injustice.

Mysticism is the religious reality coming to conscious awareness and consequently changing our way of being in the world. For most Passionists, as for most Christians, the profound truth about who we are remains hidden and we accept it in faith but in darkness. We don’t experience the light of revelation. We are not flooded with a new way of seeing. We rather grow in our conviction of its truth and cling to that truth in darkness.

Should we pray for mystical experience? Why not? Every

time we pray for a deeper knowledge and love of God, for a deeper insight into God and the mystery of Jesus passion, we are implicitly asking for a greater consciousness of these mysteries. And that is mystical experience. Of course we cannot demand it or feel aggrieved if we don’t receive it. However, it is my impression that some form of mystical insight, however fleeting, is common in the life of one who prays and tries to love God. If that is so, there are many Passionist mystics. It is also surely part of our mission to help Christian men and women who want to deepen their knowledge and experience of God and who may have had mystical experience.

A Final Word

Here is a final word for the young philosophers. Metaphysics may seem a long way removed from mystical union with God. But I encourage you to study the great philosophers and you will

see that their great insights are very close to the insights of the mystics. This is true even of the moderns like Descartes, Kant and Heidegger.

Young theologians, you too will find nourishment for your prayer in the study of the scriptures and the great doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation. In the early centuries of the Church the great mystics were also theologians and scholars. There is no conflict between serious study and prayer. The ancient monk and mystic Evagrius Ponticus (346-399 A.D.) teaches us that “to be a theologian is to pray and to pray is to be a theologian.”

Finally, to those of us who are no longer engaged in fulltime study, our life can be described as mystical-prophetic since we have been called to intimacy with Jesus and sent to share our joy at His love with the whole world. Sometimes He surprises us with new insights into the mystery of His Love. For this we say, Thanks!