The Gift of Contemplative Prayer #2

I’m reading through Richard Rohr’s book Everything Belongs.  Chapter two focuses on, among other things,  two significant issues regarding the contemplative life.

First, Rohr emphasizes the importance of adopting a “beginner’s mind” (32).  One of the keys to truly getting to the core and not staying on the outer edge (chapter one) is to adopt a beginner’s mind–a mind-set in which we acknowledgethat we don’t already know everything about the spiritual life; we confess that even in spite of advanced age or experience in the Christian life, we are merely beginners.  It is only those who recognize how little they know, how dimly they currently see, who will be teachable enough and humble enough to eventually see God in every facet of life.  Rohr writes: “Religion…has not tended to create seekers or searchers, has not tended to create honest humble people who trust that God is always beyond them…Rather religion has tended to create people who think they have God in their pockets, people with quick, easy, glib answers.” (35-36).  Thus a posture of humility and teachability are critical in order to pursue the journey to the center.

Second, Rohr writes about the importance of pain and suffering in the contemplative life.  Jesus, Rohr suggests, holds up the sign of Jonah as the “primary metaphor for the mystery of transformation” (Matt. 16:4; 12:39; Lk. 11:29) (44).  If we ever hope to reach a new shore of understanding and spiritual fruitfulness (e.g., the shore upon which Jonah was spit) we must be willing to spend time in the belly of the whale (the darkness and pain of suffering).  Alternatively, if we hope to reach new life and spiritual transformation (e.g., the resurrection) we must be willing to endure a cross (e.g., the crucifixion). (44-45).  These dark periods, Rohr writes, “are good teachers” and thus “we must learn to stay with the pain of life, without answers, without conclusions” because this painful space is “sacred space” which brings about true spiritual transformation. (46-47). 

Pain and suffering are one of what Rohr calls “liminal spaces” (from the Latin limen meaning “threshold”) (47).  They lead us to the threshold of new spiritual growth–if we do not rush through them or try to avoid them.  Rather than embracing such “liminal spaces” we have instead created “liminoid” experiences.  In these liminoid experiences we try to escape pain and suffering by “getting away from it all” (e.g., a trip to the beach, drinking a lot of booze, having sex) but these encounters do not lead to anything truly transforming. (53-55).  Because they attempt to bypass the suffering of life, they interrupt spiritual growth.  It is only by fully embracing and feeling pain and suffering that we allow God to do in it all he desires.