“The great temptation of the ministry is to celebrate only the presence of Jesus while forgetting his absence. Often the minister is most concerned to make people glad and to create an atmosphere of ‘I’m okay, you’re okay.’ But in this way everything gets filled up and there is no empty space left for the affirmation of our basic lack of fulfillment. In this way the presence of Jesus is enforced without connection with his absence. Almost inevitably this leads to artificial joy and superficial happiness. […] If we deny the pain of his absence we will not be able to taste his sustaining presence either.”
Henri Nouwen
From The Living Reminder
friendship as a mode of spiritual formation | instigating one another from alongside to follow Jesus
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6 comments:
Practicing confrontation by taking on some of our greatest fears is a bold move Scott. It is important to be truthful and open to our deepest parts but not an easy task. There are not many who dare..I found this quote from Nouwen that speaks to a similar condition.
"Many people don't think they are loved, or held safe, and so when suffering comes they see it as an affirmation of their worthlessness. The great question of ministry and the spiritual life is to learn to live our brokenness under the blessing and not the curse.
Henri Nouwen
Nouwen's statement bears the mark of perpetual tragedy. First, he appears to be saying that self-deception is disingenuous and cannot fulfill us - okay, yeah, we accept that as truth. The tragedy is that he's asking us to answer our "basic lack of fulfillment" with the pain of absence. And this will lead us [me] to fulfillment, to genuine happiness - pain? I doubt (like me) he really understands what “happiness” means in this century, for he offers no explicit definition or answer [in the passage provided]. Perhaps happiness is not thinking about or involving one’s self with happiness, or the pursuit thereof. Now, that would certainly clear out some space in us for the presence of Christ, would it not?
"Anonymous #1", is that quote from Wounded Healer?
"Anonymous #2", your interpretation of Nouwen's words might be right, but it doesn't ring sonorously with the greater body of his work (IMHO). I think he's pointing toward the same kind of thing Jesus was getting at when he told the disciples he'd have to leave in order for them to have a deeper, more dimensional awareness of him (otherwise known as the Holy Spirit). It could be that Jesus continues to do the same thing: offering us his absence in order to gift us with more presence.
Your observation about our obsession with happiness is very interesting. It seems like a truly American pathology -- it is even written into our Constitution!
Anonymous #2 (named Leander) says: Yes, sb, life is short; happiness is long. Have we allowed ourselves to be fooled, and do we fool ourselves continually, so that we are dependent (like an addiction) on the pursuit of happiness itself? I "need" to be happy. I "want" to be happy. I have the "right" to be happy. Sometimes, we even fall into the holes we dig looking for happiness and must be rescued by grace. Happiness is the enemy of simplicity and reality, it turns eyes from God; it is our great struggle, the belief we can be satisfied by our experience in the flesh. What if the constitution said "Wisdom," instead of happiness? Is it not through her that God is revealed to humanity and led to the truth? Is it not through her (the holy Spirit) we are made to want to live by those things which the law commands? - overcome our poor choices, our temptation, and thus sin? For if anything is at the root of suffering (unhappiness) it is sin. I believe we have been misdirected from eternal pursuits into the pursuit of happiness by many powerful (commercial) forces prevalent in current society, and we have been raised on dreams, which have no value to eternity.
You've packed your comment with provocative statements, Leander. Thanks for that! Entitlement... Sophia... Sin... Dreams...
A question: Do you mean that dreams have no eternal value, or just the particular ones we Americans have been raised on?
It is a fascinating question you raise about substituting wisdom for happiness in our Constitution. How different the past couple of centuries might have been...
(Leander says:)
Yes, material dreams, not like MLK's dream about justice; but dreams dreamed by the flesh: the great addiction of our society. They are implanted, inherited, from one generation to the next. (I suppose freedom isn't enough for us.) Dreams divide us; lead us into a state like a self-contained entity; we idolize them; they are oppressive in that way, and dangerous. I had said that dreams of the "happiness" type are the enemy of reality and simplicity. This is because they distract us from God, and reality is found within God, and it is Wisdom which is responsible for revelation of reality. It's a shame that I am only learning this now. When I was young someone told me that dreams keep one alive and involved in life. I wish they had told me Wisdom instead, but I probably would have laughed at them. And by the way, this is not exclusively an "American" psychosis, but you'll find it where there is no longer a struggle for freedom, food, and shelter.
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