“That’s a real eye-opener”. We have all heard that phrase, right? And I will bet we have all had our “eyes opened” about something a few times in our lives. It might have been a person you thought you knew, who then suddenly acts in ways that open your eyes to their true nature. It might be that you have walked or driven some place a dozen times and suddenly, the sun is just right, the breeze just perfect and your eyes are opened to the true beauty of that place.
In my life, I must confess, I have missed some of those moments because I was not paying attention. I have missed some because I did not want to see and a few others because I was not ready to see. Timing does seem to matter. That moment when we see? That is an epiphany, a serendipitous moment. It happened to Thomas Merton, years ago in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. The corner of 4th and Walnut, there is a plaque there now. I stood there a year or two ago, thinking of Merton seeing all those people on the street as if they were shining lights. He saw with eyes given to him by the Eternal, that all of us are filled with the Light of the Eternal. In that moment, the scriptures he had read came to life.
So what opens our eyes for the first time, to things we see all the time? I think that we have to get past ourselves. We have to get past our worries and our fears and our rigid beliefs about our world, our lives and the Eternal. Most of all we have to get past our concrete, literalist thinking. Rohr refers to this as the second half of the spiritual life, when we begin to see the meaning through the eyes of the Eternal. I have seen so many church people hurt by literalism, by concrete thinking. I think this is what saddened Jesus the most when he spoke to all who would listen. They could not get past the rigid laws and thoughts of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
That is why the miracles He did are so telling. He heals a blind man and the church elders demand to know how it was done. Was it by the law? They did not like the answer, it did not fit in their literalist box. The former blind man said he didn’t know how it was done: he was blind, now he sees. That describes all of us you know?
Scripture says no one comes to the Eternal unless the Eternal draws them there and then opens their eyes. Now that is comforting, the Eternal is not a secret, not a mystery, but wants to know us and even goes out of the way to get our attention. A phrase describes how we are before the Eternal gets hold of us: eyes wide shut! Trust me I have been there, lived it, have scar tissue from it. Eyes wide shut, how many times have I looked but not seen? How many times for you?
The mystic part is not that we have to seek the Eternal or the will of the Eternal. No, the mystery is why in the world the Eternal seeks us? That is a nutshell explanation of Christian mysticism: The Eternal creator of all seeks each and every one of us, for all time, to be in love with us and us with the Eternal. That is the meaning of “be still and know that I am God”.
For me, being a mystic is being eternally grateful and in awe of this one tiny truth. The Eternal knew me from the first moment, knows me at my worst, knows how foolish I can be and still, and still calls me, walks with me, carries me and wants to be with me now and always. It don’t get more mystical than that!
TMM