Sunday, February 2, 2014

GENTLE TOUCH




SILENCE – WOODS

Kilmarnock, Va.

Robert Trabold

What a trip – hundreds of miles –
visiting a cousin,  then poets’ workshop.
Turning of the wheels still resonate
within me.  At last, no more endless
driving – two days of peace – silence – meditation.
Quiet – stunning spot – water
Chesapeake Bay. Air is still – even
gentle breeze is silent.  Rich green pine
trees – those of Cézanne
stand at attention – do not move
enchanted by the sunshine – silence.
Such is our life – endless running around -
life in the big city. Many things to do –
 hopefully good. But like the long trip,
one has to slow down – stop!
Touch deeper down things!
My life is not exhausted by these busy
activities – good as they may be.
In quiet – silence – woods
there is a meeting – mysterious –
human touching divine – two
lovers meeting – holding hands.
Strange – silent meeting stronger than
all the noisy activity in the world.
Sacred silence is where my real life is -
more real than running
around the big city. My beloved takes
my hand – will lead me through
ups – downs of city life – helping me make
it a better place –lead the ship of
my life to a good – safe – final harbor.
                                                        
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GENTLE TOUCH

‘PRESENCE’ IN THE CONTEMPLATIVE PATH

Robert Trabold


I sleep but my soul wakes.
I hear my beloved who knocks at the door.
Song of Songs, 5:3




            At the heart of the contemplative journey is the sense and realization that a presence has entered our life. Without us necessarily looking for it, we are gently touched by Someone.  In the midst of our ordinary life and activities, in a peaceful moment of walking in nature or a visit to a quiet chapel or in other moments of pause, we experience this. It comes into our life as a robber in the dark of night unannounced nor sought by us.  Someone touches us at our center. As time goes on, we experience this presence more deeply and frequently, we feel that there is a deep sweetness to this advent and a desire on our part to experience it more. This presence revealing itself in my ordinary life is a mystery and has an uncommon element to it.  It appears at the center of my being, closer to myself than perhaps anyone can be or even closer to myself that I am.  On the other hand, despite this immanence, I cannot grasp it; there is an aura of mystery to it and it is something ineffable.

           
Contemplatives and mystics through the ages have written about this presence at the human center.  They were overwhelmed by it at the depth to their person and found with time that their whole life revolved around it. John of the Cross stated this well in the opening lines of his poem, ‘The Flame of Love’

O living flame of love
That so tenderly wounds
My soul at its deepest center:


It is a personal reality who is calling the contemplative to friendship.  We realize also that this presence has taken the initiative to reveal itself to us.  We did not look for it but in its own mysterious way, it has made its appearance.  It has touched us in the deepest spiritual sense. In experiencing this presence, mystics are living at the center of all religion, that is, in the mystery of the absolute reality and its being the true root of all human experience.  It is a reality transcendent to us and to the other things in the world but also immanent to us. The question of who God is and who we are become related because the presence is at our center. We cannot answer the question of our identity if we do not take into account this reality and its call to us.

           
If we quietly listen to this call, we see that we are being wooed by the Lord. He is at the center of our person because He loves us and wants us to love Him.  As Julian of Norwich so beautifully said, “God loves us and delights to be in our presence, He wants us to love Him and delight to be in His presence, and all is well.” John of the Cross stated the same in his poem ‘The Flame of Love’

In my heart where you secretly dwell
With your delightful breath
In glory and good will,
How soothingly do you woo me!

If we reflect on this verse, it stuns us that the divine is wooing us in our contemplation to a meeting in silence and darkness so that the Lord can entice us to love Him.  He reveals Himself to us and calls us to enter into the rapture of His love. As time goes on, we realize that we are no longer the center of our life with its desires and the importance of our ego; our life now is centered on the divine and we are subject to it. We realize that we cannot become our true self and grow into our true depth if we do not give ourselves to it. This whole relationship with the presence of God within us is a difficult one because we can never grasp the transcendent who is always beyond and transcendent to us. The mystics rightly say that we can know and experience the divine only in silence and the night. The center of our life and the question of our identity are related to the Lord whom we can never grasp but whom we can only desire.  As time goes on, the question of desiring God becomes paramount in our lives because this is how we can touch Him/Her.


            The advent of the presence of the divine in our contemplative path sets up conflicts within us.  First, it calls us to change and struggle against our selfishness and pride, things also afflicting all humans.  It is a hard struggle and one lasting all our life. Secondly, as the Lord’s presence grows to dominate us, we lose our taste for and liking for many things of life, such as, our work, hobbies, art, etc., and look forward to being in the quiet and silence of this presence. Thirdly, the traditional ways of our praying with many words and thoughts give way to a prayer where we quietly sit saying nothing or repeating our mantra. We are just there.  This is a big change and it will time for us to get used to it.  Also, we may lose our liking and interest in the more ritual and ceremonial aspects of religion and find that our religious and prayer life is centered on the quiet experiencing of the divine presence. All the above three changes impact on us and change our life as we grow in our contemplative path.


            In sum, this immediate but obscure experience of God’s presence in our life is the center of the contemplative and mystical paths.  This is what we are called to and how the Lord calls and reveals Himself to us. It is something we did not ask for but it came into our life.  Many of the mystics referred to the metaphor of the spiritual sense of touch to describe this advent. St. John of the Cross in his poem ‘The Flame of Love’ described it as ‘a gentle touch.’ The touch is real but it also a mysterious one because the divine is transcendent and ineffable to us. It encourages us to enter more into this mystery and presence.  The first two lines of the poem “The Dark Night” of John of the Cross sum up this desire:

On a dark night,
Afflicted and aflame with love.


            As a deer yearns for running water, so my soul thirsts for you, O Lord.
                                                                                                Psalm 42


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