God is often hidden, but never absent

 

Book 1, Chapter 2

-Part 6-

There have been times in my life when I have felt alone and irrelevant. A spiritual person is bound to feel himself out of sync with everything, occasionally, as he does his best to bring his life to bear upon the God who made him, saved him and guides him. Surely nothing else and no one other than God can fill the combined role of maker, savior and guide. Not truthfully anyway.

I once shared these feelings of malaise with a loving old Cistercian monk during a retreat at Holy Trinity Abbey in Huntsville, Utah. While in the loving embrace of his full attention, I heard him say to me, “Saint Bernard once said, ‘Never less alone than alone.’” The monk actually said it twice, knowing that sometimes the wisdom of the ages fails 21^st Century man on the first pass; and I, at any rate, am not the best student.

“Never less alone than alone.”

God is especially present when he seems to be absent. This is a wonderful aspect of the hiddenness of God that the writings of John of the Cross had brought to my attention. He wrote, “Neither the sublime communication nor the sensible awareness of his nearness is a sure testimony of [God’s] gracious presence, nor are dryness and the lack of these a reflection of his absence. . . Even though he does abide with you, he is hidden.” (See Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 1, Sections 3 and 8.)

Our guide touches again on this subject:

_{“A mystery is life to the heart through faith, but for the rest of our faculties a contradiction … the darker the mystery the more light it contains.” (Page 30)}

We must again be cautious when reading Caussade and Company, lest we spoil a good faith with elements of Gnosticism or other heresies. We are back to this concern about God acting in ways that are beyond our ability to see. The mystical writers would not suggest that we find some special knowledge or a special means to acquire the vision that it would take to see God’s divine perfection at work in every moment. They would advise us instead to take the path of love to the Christ of the gospels. The pathway is love, and the pavement is truth. (Truth and love are very distinctive themes oftentimes paired in the Psalms.)

Caussade has already hinted that he would cover this topic, and he does so eloquently and succinctly:

_{“we wish to reduce god’s action to the limits and rules that our feeble reason can imagine.” (Page 29)}

Just about every lad I went to school with would take exception to this statement; arguing that God’s truth is propositional and rational. We are able to communicate about the Cross and its meaning. Children are able to comprehend the love and forgiveness of God through Christ, and faith can be talked about, studied and outlined. We are not indeed Gnostics who would contend that they have had a personal experience of God through special knowledge that cannot be shared due to its loftiness.

I agree with my classmates, but, we have to admit that while God is rational, he is also beyond expression. The extent to which he loves, the beauty that he truly is, the depth at which he works within a person or within a country’s history – these are beyond us.

Although worried about this misunderstanding, let us not lose the point that is made here – that God’s will is all that matters. Really. All.

 _{“and i tell you that the will of god is the only thing necessary and that therefore all that it does not grant is useless.” (Page 29)}

This emphasis is made because believers can treat the will of God poorly. We can turn from it because it is not what we expected, or because we don’t understand it, or because we don’t recognize it, or because to obey it could bring unpleasant ramifications.

I am reminded of the priests of the Jews during the time of Christ. They were every one of them a Sadducee. They had been given position, authority and wealth from the Romans. While Christ was making his way to the salvation of all, the priests were concerned that the rabblerousing of Jesus and his followers would bring Rome crashing down on Palestine, and the priests’ prosperity would be ruined. (See John 11:47)

They were looking at the wrong things while God was acting. Deliver us, Lord, from this easy miss.

Caussade’s wording in this section is particularly harsh – possibly in order to bring us up short lest we believe we are immune to weakness and frail thinking about God and his involvement in our lives. We are, perhaps, no less Sadducee than the priests at the time of Christ. Would we, indeed, follow the will of God if we knew it would mean worldly ruin for us?

Caussade tells us God’s will, “his adorable will is blasphemed by his children who do not recognize it” (Page 29). We do this by labeling God’s participation in our lives as “misfortunes, mishaps and contrarieties,” he says. Jesus was mistreated and called names by those who would not know him. Now, Caussade contends, we who know God are no less culpable for our own name-calling when we abuse God’s will as expressed in our lives.

What then? Is the will of God a bad thing? Or is it that we have an “incapacity for divine truths”?

Lord, I have capacity. Help me in my incapacity.