This week, instead of talking about the Gospel, it might help to discuss the nature of “The Mystical Word.” This column reflects on the Gospel and contemporary life from a mystical perspective. Taking its cue from the way the Christian mystics have proclaimed God’s love for us, I have used unique, different, and provocative words to goad us into not only seriously thinking about what the Gospel means for us, but also to get us into following Jesus. As such, it inevitably comes into conflict with more conventional ways of understanding our faith.
I have, perhaps, used words, images, and metaphors that you, dear reader, have not normally heard regarding our Catholic faith: oneness, becoming God, divine identity, and nothingness. Some may find these words offensive. I am glad because it has the potential to reveal egocentricity. Someone once said, “More harm comes into the world by taking offense rather than giving it.” If there is something that I wrote that offends you, I suggest looking at why it offends you. I may have written something off-base. I may need to elaborate or be more precise. But, before offering feedback, the Gospel thing to do – which I must do as well – is to cleanse our own lens. Reacting to this column out of anger will not lead to truth. Instead of taking offense, become aware of how you feel and let God be God in that feeling. Anything can be a moment for transformation, even this column.
Allow me to explain some of the themes I regularly touch on in this column. The first is oneness. We are always already one with God, but we do not realize it. This oneness is due to God’s grace; it is not our achievement, or something owed us. In John 17, Jesus prays that we might be as one with God as Jesus himself is one with God: “That they may be one, as we are one” (John 17:22). This oneness, though, is deeper and more mysterious than we might think. It has to do with our identity. The story of the man born blind in John 9 reveals a great truth: the I AM of God is, by God’s gracious love, our own I am, too. The man born blind stands in for everybody, hence we can all say, “I AM.” God as our deepest identity – also proclaimed by St. Catherine of Genoa who exclaimed, “My deepest me is God!” – is totally scriptural and even traditional Catholic spirituality.
Another theme of this column is that we, too, are Christ. Now, Christ is not the last name of Jesus of Nazareth, it means “the anointed one.” Christ is not exclusive to Jesus, though Jesus is THE Christ. We are called to realize our Christ-nature, that is, our God-given oneness with the mystery of God. Along these lines, I have received some questions about this sentence: God became human that we might become God. This is an axiom that is, in fact, more orthodox than the rosary. The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes a Doctor of the Church named St. Athanasius: “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God” (#460). Still, we hear this sentence and presume being God means being all powerful, when it really means – a la Philippians 2:5-11 – powerlessness and self-emptying.
This brings us to a very challenging term for God: nothing. The word “nothing” is a way of naming divine mystery. God is not a thing (no-thing); God transcends all existence. Scripture asserts that no one has seen God (see John 1:18, for instance). This insistence on the divine invisibility is a way of communicating how transcendent God is. The Catechism states, “God is mystery…infinitely above everything we can understand or say” (#206). I use this word to disrupt our pedestrian ways of conceiving God; we too often see God through our emotional or ideological needs. To state “God is nothing” is to be subversive, radical, and purposefully shocking. But it does not mean that there is no God. I am not taking up the position of an atheist. Further, one does not have to call God “nothing.” It is but a way of subverting our egocentricity and our illusory ways of conceiving God and the world.
The Gospel is supposed to assault our worldviews. God’s ways are not our ways. So, God disrupts our status quo. If that doesn’t happen, we will turn our understandings of God into idols. Injustice always follows. So, this column is intended to disrupt our status quo. Therefore, I will use words and phrases that may shock, surprise, or offend. Next week, to clarify the nature of this column and help us understand the Gospel so as to put it into practice, I want to review how to read the Bible. I hope these short discussions helps us focus more on the essential thing: let God be God in our lives.