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Contents © 2005
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

CONFESSIONS
November 2005

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WHAT'S UP WITH CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER?

The painter Hieronymous Bosch put a lot of monks and nuns in his depictions of hell. I have read that in Bosch's The Haywain, "the monastic concept of poverty ... is defined as parasitic worthlessness."

Parasitic -- feeding off of the host, giving nothing back. Was Bosch right? What do those cloistered nuns do, really? Is there some point to their life of prayer? After all, "our participation in the Eucharistic sacrifice requires that we make present in the world Christ's self-offering: his rejection of the cycle of violence, his embodiment of God's 'no' to torture, oppression, and injustice." If nuns aren't out there "recognizing the mystery of Christ's presence 'in the waiting world,' to use Pope Paul VI's words, that is, in the poor, in those devastated by war, in the suffering at our doorstep," then what are they doing? Are they just parasites?

I got those quotes from an article in US Catholic in which Bryan Cones expresses his concern with "this return to 'traditional devotions'" such as Eucharistic adoration. "Why is it," he asks, "that so many ... are trying to restore a piety that characterized a medieval church? Do they hope for a return to a different age, when the church was neatly divided between the ordained and the merely baptized?" This is opposed to today, in which the baptized have a right and duty to "full conscious and active participation" in the liturgy. Cones is concerned about a return to a time when "almost no one but the clergy understood most of the Mass." He notes that Jesus says, "Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me," and concludes that "all the rest is icing, pieties that are helpful to some but not necessary."

Since you asked, Mr. Cones: I don't hope for a return to any age. I'm all for full conscious and active participation in the liturgy. I am glad that I understand as much as I do about the Mass, and would like to understand more. I go to Eucharistic adoration to do what those cloistered nuns do: to contemplate God. In the Eucharist, He is really and substantially present to me, which means that at adoration, I am in His presence in a unique way. At times, I would almost call it basking. It is balm for my soul, and it is an inducement to love.

Receiving Communion at Mass is a taste of heaven -- an intimate union with Christ. It still tops my list of spiritual practices. But heaven is also a vision. If Communion is a taste, mightn't adoration be a glimpse?

Ah, but I am not a cloistered nun. Even if the life of a contemplative has worth for the whole mystical body (and I'm pretty sure it does), it is not the life I have chosen. I live in the world, and have an obligation to my neighbors to recognize the mystery of Christ's presence in the waiting world. But why deprive me, a layperson, of sharing in this aspect of the contemplative life? Why this neat divide between the religious and the merely baptized? If it benefits my spiritual life, why are you so concerned?

Is it because, as you say, "some may argue that worship of Christ in the host leads to service, but I don't see the connection?" First, I would argue that it doesn't have to "lead to service" to be of worth. Our Protestant brethren are on to something with their talk of a "personal relationship with their Lord and Savior." It is good to spend time with the one you love, especially when the one you love is your God.

Second, why do you suppose Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity spend three hours a day in prayer before going out into the streets to care for the poor and the dying? Do you suppose there is any connection? I do: prayer leads to an increased love for God, which leads to an increased love for his creatures, even those most difficult to love. You love them because God loves them. I don't often deal with the poor and the dying directly, but I do deal with people I don't like, and the same holds true. And while I've got a long way to go, it makes intuitive sense to suppose that the greater my love for Christ, the greater will be my desire to follow his command to love His least ones

Finally, I worry about your characterization of Mass as "the challenge of God's Word in scripture, the grace of becoming the Body of Christ broken and his Blood poured out for the sake of the world." Yes, the Eucharist transforms us, but don't jump too quickly into the notion of becoming "his Blood poured out for the sake of the world." Don't forget that you're part of that world. Personal sanctity is not opposed to a life of service. It is arguably essential to it.

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