The Cloud not of Knowing, but of Loving
Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message
June 6, 2012
I have heard it said several times by different people that
many of our people at Trinity come “because of the fellowship, not because of
their faith.” Usually, this is said by
way of praising the warm welcoming spirit of our congregation, while perhaps slightly
censuring those who come to Church to be with others they love and are loved by
rather than out of a fervent support of a system of belief.
The English mystics saw things in a different light. Thomas Merton wrote of this group, “they have
a charm and simplicity that are unequaled with any other school. … quite clear,
down to earth, and practical, even when they are concerned with the loftiest of
matters.” For most of them, the friendship and warmth of
human relations within the Church is a primary sign and means of God’s love and
work in the world.
The Cloud of Unknowing is a fourteenth century mystic work written
in Middle English that addresses its reader as “friend in Christ.” It says the following:
“Now all
rational creatures, angels and human beings alike, have in them, each one
individually, one chief working power, which is called the knowing power, and
another chief working power called the loving power. Of these two powers, God who is the maker of
them, is always incomprehensible to the first, the knowing power. But to the second, the loving power, God is
entirely comprehensible in each one individually, in so much that one loving
soul of itself, because of love, would be able to comprehend the One who is
entirely sufficient, and much more so, without limit, to fill all souls—human
and angel—that could ever exist. This is the everlasting wonderful miracle of
love which shall never have an end.”
Simply enjoying the fellowship we have with each other,
showing our love through service, and simply being present for each other is a
key way that God works through us and in us.
Experiencing it, contemplating it, and practicing it bring us closer and
more directly to the knowledge and love of God than affirmations or working up
some kind of internal mental state where we ignore our doubts and fears, deny
who we are, in order to be “orthodox” or “faithful” or feel that we have done
the necessary for God to pay us with his blessings. Love comes unbidden, and so does grace and
faith. By living into our fellowship and
being present with our “friends in Christ,” we can get nearer and nearer to the
Love that made us.
--Fr. Tony+
No comments:
Post a Comment