Author: CMM, Cape Town

16^th March 1959  |  When Grace Strikes…

 

Friends,

Last week I quoted from Paul Tillich’s sermon entitled: You are Accepted. Richly dense and worth every hour of thoughtful reflection from the reader. He begins by admitting that: “There are few words more strange to most of us than “sin” and “grace.” … But there is a mysterious fact about the great words of our religious tradition: they cannot be replaced.”

Tillich then proceeds to dive into the depth of our human existence to rediscover the meaning of these two great words. Near the end of his sermon he describes what happens when grace strikes us. Seldom have I read words that provoke such longing:

We cannot transform our lives, unless we allow them to be transformed by that stroke of grace. It happens; or it does not happen. And certainly it does not happen if we try to force it upon ourselves, just as it shall not happen so long as we think, in our self-complacency, that we have no need of it.

Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life. It strikes us when we feel that our separation is deeper than usual, because we have violated another life, a life which we loved, or from which we were estranged. It strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us. It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage.

Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: “You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!” If that happens to us, we experience grace.

After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may riot believe more than before. But everything is transformed. In that moment, grace conquers sin, and reconciliation bridges the gulf of estrangement. And nothing is demanded of this experience, no religious or moral or intellectual presupposition, nothing but acceptance.

In the light of this grace we perceive the power of grace in our relation to others … We experience the grace of being able to look frankly into the eyes of another, the miraculous grace of reunion of life with life. … We experience the grace which is able to overcome the tragic separation of the sexes, of the generations, of the nations, of the races, and even the utter strangeness between [humanity] and nature. Sometimes grace appears in all these separations to reunite us with those to whom we belong. For life belongs to life. … And in the light of this grace we perceive the power of grace in our relation to ourselves. … For it is such moments that make us love our life, that make us accept ourselves, not in our goodness and self-complacency, but in our certainty of the eternal meaning of our life. We cannot force ourselves to accept ourselves. … But sometimes it happens that we receive the power to say “yes” to ourselves, that peace enters into us and makes us whole, that self-hate and self-contempt disappear, and that our self is reunited with itself. Then we say that grace has come upon us.”

Grace is not just amazing. It’s radical and revolutionary. Political and personal in saving scope. Transforming relations between nations as well as transforming our inner most being. If these words also provoke a longing within you, may our longing be our prayer for grace to strike.

Grace,
Alan

Friends,

Last week I shared with you Mary Lou Kownacki’s description of the Benedictine way of Christian life – from her book: Peace is our Calling: Contemporary Monasticism and the Peace Movement. This week I share some of the multitudes of miracles she witnessed through her attentively observant wonder-filled living. I pray that as we see how she sees – we may begin to see as she sees:

From the introduction of her book The Blue Heron and Thirty-Seven Other Miracles, Kownacki writes:

“The real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on the earth,” Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist monk wrote.

But who believes him?

This is a book about trying to walk on earth, about taking steps to see every moment as a miracle, as a blessing, as a love song from our Creator. The book is also an invitation, an encouragement to find the miraculous in the ordinary events of your life. Try to imagine how different life would be if we all recognised and revelled in the present, in the common, as sacrament. Come, let’s walk together on earth. Let’s celebrate the miracles happening to us moment by moment.

Monday morning
in the inner city.
My guru,
the boom box
on the neighbor’s tenement
roof,
about five yards from my
prayer corner.
This morning
I am offered
a choice of mantras:

“Born in the USA”
or
“Like a Rolling Stone.”

Koans to wrestle with a
lifetime
from Zen masters
Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.

Is this not a miracle?

Kownacki, Mary Lou. The Blue Heron and Thirty-Seven Other Miracles

 

She is still weeping
for the young deer
whose fresh blood
was splattered
on Interstate 80
ten miles ago.

Is this not a miracle?

Kownacki, Mary Lou. The Blue Heron and Thirty-Seven Other Miracles

 

O, the books I read,
the retreats I made,
the lectures I attended,
the beads that passed
my fingertips
to understand
what Saint Paul meant
when he told the
Thessalonians
to pray without ceasing.

Then
this morning
I listened
– for the first time –
to the sparrow sing.

Is this not a miracle?

Kownacki, Mary Lou. The Blue Heron and Thirty-Seven Other Miracles

 

If on my deathbed
a slight smile plays
upon my lips
know it was
that January walk on the bay
when we first met,
remember:
at dusk,
the light snow,
the thin ice beneath our feet,
your hand
holding my arm tightly,
the circling mist
daring us to continue
walking together
into the winter night.
And we did.

Is this not a miracle?

Kownacki, Mary Lou. The Blue Heron and Thirty-Seven Other Miracles

—

Grace,
Alan

 

Friends,

Last week, Benedictine Sr. Mary Lou Kownacki died at age 81. You may not have heard of her before but if you have been at CMM over the years – you would have heard me repeatedly teach her interpretation of the Beatitudes. And if you have not, then later this month when the Lectionary readings sit us down to listen to Jesus’ staggering sermon on the mount, I will reach for her interpretation again. Not only a remarkable interpreter of scripture, but a courageous doer of justice and practitioner of mercy. She humbly walked this earth holding the hand of the poor, knowing that she was in fact holding the hand of God. She lived honouring the sacredness of life with every sacred fibre of her own life.

In her 1981 book, Peace is our Calling: Contemporary Monasticism and the Peace Movement, Kownacki beautifully describes the Benedictine way of Christian life. I include some of her description below and encourage you to allow her words to “scan” over your own way of life. Listen out for the words or images or sentence that beeps at you – causing your attention to pause and focus. Hover for a moment over the spot it has touched within you and ask: Why the alert?

BENEDICTINE LIFE IS CENTERED ON COMMUNITY.

The Benedictine way of Christian life was not begun to do any special work. Benedictines are to be living signs that strangers can come together in Christ, care for one another, hold one another up, challenge one another to grow. Our essential ministry is community.

BENEDICTINE LIFE IS FOCUSED BY THREE VOWS: OBEDIENCE, CONVERSION OF LIFE AND STABILITY.

Obedience is a promise to be a faithful listener. … Then we work to respond with generosity and courage. Conversion is a dedication to lifelong growth. We are never fully converted; our lives are a continuing process of listening to the Voice of God, opening our hearts to the Word and growing in love. Daily we pray, “Turn our hearts of stone to hearts of flesh.” Stability is a promise to be faithful to one’s sisters as a way of faithfulness to God. We establish the lifelong human bonds so necessary for healing growth. We agree to search for God together, making our journey as honest, as loving, as human as possible.

BENEDICTINE LIFE IS CREATION ORIENTED.

Benedictines look at the world God has created and say: “It is good.” We affirm moderation rather than severe asceticism; transformation within society rather than withdrawal from it.

BENEDICTINE LIFE IS NOURISHED BY THE SCRIPTURES.

Our common prayer, called the Liturgy of the Hours or opus dei, is based on the texts of the Old and New Testaments … If we are faithful, the Word of God enters our life and disrupts it. Often it impels us to disrupt the lives of others. Always it gives peace.

BENEDICTINE LIFE IS CONTEMPLATIVE.

We think there is great wisdom in the words of the psalmist: “Be still, and know that I am God.” We try to create an atmosphere of prayerfulness, solitude, silence and leisure in our lives so the Word of God can penetrate our hearts and take root. As we enter into solitude we approach the elusive presence of God, open our true selves, and find inner peace. We come to know that we are made in God’s image and that God is love.

BENEDICTINE LIFE IS ONE OF TOTAL GOSPEL MINISTRY.

The intensity of the contemplative vision draws us, as it did Jesus, “to enter compassionately into the struggle, pain and suffering of the world.” Gradually the Spirit transforms us into contemplatives, impelled to action, who see with the heart of Christ: we find the Creator in all creation; we can look on the face of any woman or man and touch our sister or brother.

BENEDICTINE LIFE IS BALANCED.

Each Benedictine community … is a life with a distinctive rhythm. The community gathers for prayer to mark the coming of light and darkness, the passing of night and day. There is time given to serving others and time set aside for reading and personal prayer. Sisters come together for meals and discussions; individuals are encouraged to spend time in silence and solitude. Periods are devoted to study and hours given to play. All creation is treated with reverence, all time is seen as holy. As the days open and close, as the seasons turn and the cycles of redemption are celebrated, a whole and healing life rhythm begins to flow into time.

The creative balance of forces – if she chooses to internalize them – allows each woman to become her truest self. At the depth of her being, at the ground of her being, she discovers love.

Kownacki, Mary Lou. Peace Is Our Calling: Contemporary Monasticism and the Peace Movement

Grace, Alan

PS: If you have not heard Leonard Cohen’s song Democracy then tap the link “staggering sermon on the mount”.