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| A Woman Clothed with the Sun - Julienne McLean |
I
was grateful to Julienne MacLean, the Jungian analyst and teacher of Carmelite
spirituality, for introducing me today to the writings of Sara Sviri and, in
particular, to a book she has written called Taste of Hidden Things: Images on the Sufi Path. Sara is herself a Sufi and I was deeply
touched by some of the things she wrote about the Sufi teaching concerning the ‘Oneness
of Being’.
I was immediately struck by the way
this connects with our Christian understanding of God as a Union of Beings whom
we refer to as ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’. But I found myself being drawn
further and finding in that term, ‘Oneness of Being’, a way into an
understanding of God as the Sacred Heart of Being. Whatever God ‘is’, and it is
impossible to define God – all we can do
is to ‘stand-under’ rather than ‘understand’ the mystery – but we can and many
are drawn to gaze upon, or contemplate, this mystery. That ‘oneness of Being’
is what gave ‘birth’ to the sun and moon and stars; from that oneness flows the
whole of creation, which is why we are told that it is the image and likeness
of God. Why Jesus could say that ‘whatever you did for one of the least of
these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’ (Matthew 25:40, 45) and why
St Francis of Assisi realised that all things were inter-related and referred to
earth and fire and water, the wolf and ass – even death itself – as our brother
and sister. For if God is spoken of as our ‘Father’ then Francis realised Earth
to be our ‘Mother’. We are one with all things
and all things have a common origin in the sacred mystery – the Heart – of
Being.
And so we belong together, find our identity
and sense of being in relationship with each other and are enriched by sharing
in the sacred work of creativity. For creativity, especially when connected
with humanity, must be sacred. Whenever, them, we stand before aspects of
creation – a vast land or sea-scape, range of mountains or tiny butterfly and
really give it our attention we can be profoundly moved. Why insubstantial love,
love which seeks to enfold us and invites us to reach out to another, is the
greatest gift we have. Why profound music or great paintings, poetry and
sculpture have a sacred quality to them. And why prayer is so important. For
whilst we may have the occasional awareness of being taken out of ourselves
into the Other the discipline of prayer – what is called contemplative prayer –
works on our own inner being and will make it increasingly sensitive to the
Sacredness of Being. Contemplation of the Other will draw us more deeply into
the Heart of the Other, into the Sacred Heart of Being. This is what people
like Teresa of Avila realised and addressed as the ‘Interior Castle’, what John
of the Cross gave himself to because of the way he realised himself being drawn
to journey into the mystery of love, and what the author of the great medieval work
of English mysticism taught lay behind a ‘Cloud of Unknowing’. Countless women
and men have found that themselves joining with others from different religious
traditions where the one commonality is the notion of the Oneness of Being that
delights in drawing us into union.
And it is why the notion of
fragmenting that union, of damaging it or destroying it, causes so many to
despair and why compassion is to be found deep in that Sacred Heart of Being. Seeing
brokenness the contemplative, or person of prayer, will seek to hold that
fragmentation and place it before the Heart of Being, offering love as a means
of healing the dis-ease of brokenness. The contemplative is also a channel of
that healing by the simple fact of seeking to let their own heart stay still
and focussed so that, deep within them, they are at-one with the Sacred Heart
of Being. With God.
John-Francis
04.07.18
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