History records that human beings have always sought meaning. Despite the modern world’s advances, we find ourselves searching for answers to what are ultimately spiritual questions. Bookshops are filled with writings on a range of topics, all of which hold out some promise of answering these questions.
Previously, the church was perceived as a source of wisdom. Today, judging by the rapidly declining numbers, people no longer feel their personal need for meaning is met by the church or its teachings. Perhaps this has been so for a long time.
For most, the church has been a set of rules, designed to control or modify behaviour for some greater good. But whatever one thinks about “rules”, the personal yearning for meaning can never be satisfied by dogma. What, if any, can be the church’s role over the coming century?
The German theologian, Karl Rahner (1904-1984), wrote that “the Christian of the future will be a mystic or he or she will not exist at all”. While mysticism is often associated with pre-Christian or Eastern philosophy, it is, in essence, a union with or absorption into God or presence – use whatever word you wish.
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It is the apprehension of knowledge, inaccessible to the intellect, attained through contemplation and self-surrender.
Of this presence, an ancient Upanishad – part of series of a sacred Hindu treatises – states that “the eye does not go there; nor speech; nor mind. We do not know; hence we are not aware of any process of instructing about it.” What the Upanishad says is that the presence cannot be articulated or described or known, or even taught.
Christ has no body now, but yours. No hands, no feet on earth, but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks compassion into the world. Yours are the feet with which Christ walks to do good
— St Teresa of Avila
St Paul articulated similarly when he wrote: “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard; neither have entered into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for those that love him”.
In the space caused by the collapse of organised religion in the West, there is an opportunity to look again to mysticism, which always was, and is, at the heart of Christianity. Mysticism is not rule-based, nor is it institutional. Why did the monks of Skellig Michael seek such isolation if it was not to contemplate presence and surrender to it?
Not separate
Teresa of Avila wrote: “Christ has no body now, but yours. No hands, no feet on earth, but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks compassion into the world. Yours are the feet with which Christ walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which Chris blesses the world.” This could be understood as an instruction to behave, or heard as a description of reality – that the individual and the Christ are not separate.
Teresa wrote of self-knowing as “something so important that I would not want any relaxation ever in this regard, however high you have climbed into the heavens. It is foolish to think that we will enter heaven without entering ourselves, coming to know ourselves. In my opinion we shall never completely know ourselves if we do not strive to know God.”
The church of the 20th century, especially the Irish church, was a church of rules. Rules imply knowing – the church knows what is right and what is wrong and dictates how its flock should behave. But the people have moved on – and a church which dictates to them will not be listened to.
After millennia of domination, the great edifice of the Cchurch may be crumbling. But centuries and the grand cathedrals are ultimately insignificant
John of the Cross wrote of “entering into unknowing”. He wrote: “When I saw myself there, without knowing where I was, I understood great things; I will not say what I felt, for I remained in unknowing transcending all knowledge.” What he speaks of cannot be corralled or organised. It does not depend on ceremony or membership.
The challenge for the modern church is to be available to all people so that they may explore the mystical in their own way and in their own time. This requires flexibility and a generosity which is not always easy for the established system.
Through the Carmelite order I have found profound solace and energy in the company of those who seek, in their own way, to experience the mystical. Word must go out that the church can provide this space to everybody.
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Rahner wrote: “God communicates to us all, all the time. This communication can be accepted or rejected, but it remains that God is present in the office, in the school, in the kitchen.”
The common denominator is not location but presence itself. After millennia of domination, the great edifice of the church may be crumbling. But centuries and the grand cathedrals are ultimately insignificant.
The presence, experienced by those monks kneeling at the edge of the world, lives now in the moment for every individual, whether or not it is perceived – always an innocent, uncalculating reality, limitless and eternal.
Annetta Maguire is author of Praying with Christian Mystics and a member of OCDS or Secular Carmelites, who meet at the Avila retreat centre in Donnybrook Co Dublin.