You Make the Path by Walking
You Make the Path by Walking
Thursday of the First Week of Lent – March 5, 2020
There is no single way to live the spiritual life. We have centuries of clues, passed down to us through the centuries by those who have sought a deeper connection with God and who lived meaningful in the world. But in many ways, we follow their clues in order to find our own way more fully.
While some versions of Christianity promise to lead us into more and more certainty (and call it, “faith”), the contemplative spiritual tradition tends to lead us deeper and deeper into mystery and the unknown. We enter into a “cloud of unknowing” . . . we experience the “dark night of the soul.” There is no single template for journeying in this cloud or dark night.
I’m drawn to the image of journey to describe the nature of contemplative spirituality, and I often think that the journey is mostly uncharted.
In one of his poems, Antonio Machado says that we make the path by walking.
Why should we call
these accidental furrows roads? . . .
Everyone who moves on walks
like Jesus, on the sea.
You walking, your footprints are
the road, and nothing else;
there is no road, walker,
you make the road by walking.
By walking you make the road,
and when you look backward,
you see the path that you
never will stop on again.
Walker, there is no road,
only wind-trails in the sea.
[Antonio Machado, "Proverbs and Tiny Songs," in The Soul Is Here for Its Own Joy, ed. by Robert Bly (Hopewell, NJ: The Ecco Press, 1995), 248 – 249.]
Henri Nouwen speaks to the spiritual journey this way in Making All Things New:
Jesus sends the Spirit so that we may be led to the full truth of the divine life. Truth does not mean an idea, concept, or doctrine, but the true relationship. To be led into the truth is to be led into the same relationship that Jesus has with the Father; it is to enter into a divine betrothal.
To be lifted up into the divine life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit does not mean, however, to be taken out of the world. On the contrary, those who have entered into the spiritual life are precisely the ones who are sent into the world to continue and fulfill the work that Jesus began. The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it. Jesus says to his Father, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world” (Jn. 17:18). He makes it clear that precisely because his disciples no longer belong to the world, they can live in the world as he did: “I am not asking you to remove them from the world, but to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world” (Jn. 17:15 – 16). Life in the Spirit of Jesus is therefore a life in which Jesus’ coming into the world – his incarnation, his death, and resurrection – is lived out by those who have entered into the same obedient relationship to the Father which marked Jesus’ own life. Having become sons and daughters as Jesus was Son, our lives become a continuation of Jesus’ mission.
“Being in the world without being of the world.” These words summarize well the way Jesus speaks of the spiritual life. It is a life in which everything seems to remain the same. To live a spiritual life does not mean that we must leave our families, give up our jobs or change our ways of working; it does not mean that we have to withdraw from social or political activities, or lose interest in literature and art; it does not require severe forms of asceticism or long hours of prayer. Changes such as these may in fact grow out of our spiritual life, and for some people radical decisions may be necessary. But the spiritual life can be lived in as many ways as there are people. What is new is that we have moved from the many things to the kingdom of God. What is new is that we are set free from the compulsions of our world and have set our hearts on the only necessary thing. What is new is that we no longer experience the many things, people, and events as endless causes for worry, but begin to experience them as the rich variety of ways in which God makes his presence known to us.
[Henri J. M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life (San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1981).]
For Reflection:
o There is no single template for the spiritual life. In the life of the Spirit, one size does not fit all. There are as many expressions of the spiritual life as there are people. At best, others can only provide a pattern for faithfulness in their own expression of the spiritual life; however, we are not invited to live anyone else’s spiritual life.
o Think about those who have influenced your becoming in God. Who has touched you with their influence? As you think about those persons, consider the impact each had on you.
o I sense the challenge to find my own expression of the spiritual life that is unique to me and to my life-world.
Thursday of the First Week of Lent – March 5, 2020
There is no single way to live the spiritual life. We have centuries of clues, passed down to us through the centuries by those who have sought a deeper connection with God and who lived meaningful in the world. But in many ways, we follow their clues in order to find our own way more fully.
While some versions of Christianity promise to lead us into more and more certainty (and call it, “faith”), the contemplative spiritual tradition tends to lead us deeper and deeper into mystery and the unknown. We enter into a “cloud of unknowing” . . . we experience the “dark night of the soul.” There is no single template for journeying in this cloud or dark night.
I’m drawn to the image of journey to describe the nature of contemplative spirituality, and I often think that the journey is mostly uncharted.
In one of his poems, Antonio Machado says that we make the path by walking.
Why should we call
these accidental furrows roads? . . .
Everyone who moves on walks
like Jesus, on the sea.
You walking, your footprints are
the road, and nothing else;
there is no road, walker,
you make the road by walking.
By walking you make the road,
and when you look backward,
you see the path that you
never will stop on again.
Walker, there is no road,
only wind-trails in the sea.
[Antonio Machado, "Proverbs and Tiny Songs," in The Soul Is Here for Its Own Joy, ed. by Robert Bly (Hopewell, NJ: The Ecco Press, 1995), 248 – 249.]
Henri Nouwen speaks to the spiritual journey this way in Making All Things New:
Jesus sends the Spirit so that we may be led to the full truth of the divine life. Truth does not mean an idea, concept, or doctrine, but the true relationship. To be led into the truth is to be led into the same relationship that Jesus has with the Father; it is to enter into a divine betrothal.
To be lifted up into the divine life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit does not mean, however, to be taken out of the world. On the contrary, those who have entered into the spiritual life are precisely the ones who are sent into the world to continue and fulfill the work that Jesus began. The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it. Jesus says to his Father, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world” (Jn. 17:18). He makes it clear that precisely because his disciples no longer belong to the world, they can live in the world as he did: “I am not asking you to remove them from the world, but to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world” (Jn. 17:15 – 16). Life in the Spirit of Jesus is therefore a life in which Jesus’ coming into the world – his incarnation, his death, and resurrection – is lived out by those who have entered into the same obedient relationship to the Father which marked Jesus’ own life. Having become sons and daughters as Jesus was Son, our lives become a continuation of Jesus’ mission.
“Being in the world without being of the world.” These words summarize well the way Jesus speaks of the spiritual life. It is a life in which everything seems to remain the same. To live a spiritual life does not mean that we must leave our families, give up our jobs or change our ways of working; it does not mean that we have to withdraw from social or political activities, or lose interest in literature and art; it does not require severe forms of asceticism or long hours of prayer. Changes such as these may in fact grow out of our spiritual life, and for some people radical decisions may be necessary. But the spiritual life can be lived in as many ways as there are people. What is new is that we have moved from the many things to the kingdom of God. What is new is that we are set free from the compulsions of our world and have set our hearts on the only necessary thing. What is new is that we no longer experience the many things, people, and events as endless causes for worry, but begin to experience them as the rich variety of ways in which God makes his presence known to us.
[Henri J. M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life (San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1981).]
For Reflection:
o There is no single template for the spiritual life. In the life of the Spirit, one size does not fit all. There are as many expressions of the spiritual life as there are people. At best, others can only provide a pattern for faithfulness in their own expression of the spiritual life; however, we are not invited to live anyone else’s spiritual life.
o Think about those who have influenced your becoming in God. Who has touched you with their influence? As you think about those persons, consider the impact each had on you.
o I sense the challenge to find my own expression of the spiritual life that is unique to me and to my life-world.
Comments
Post a Comment