Learning by the Light of the Moon
Friday, July 18, 2025
Father Richard describes how both knowing and not-knowing can be trustworthy paths on the spiritual journey:
Each of us must strive for the internal spiritual balancing act between knowing and not-knowing. Perhaps the most universal way to name these two spiritual traditions is light and darkness. The formal theological terms are kataphatic (affirmative way)—employing words, concepts, and images—and apophatic (negative way)—moving beyond words and ideas into silence and beyond-rational knowing. I believe both ways are good and necessary. Together, they create a magnificent form of higher consciousness called biblical faith.
The apophatic way, however, has been largely underused, undertaught, and underdeveloped since the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment. In fact, Westerners became ashamed of our “not-knowing” and tried to fight our battles rationally. For several centuries, Christianity in the West has been in a defensive mode—a “siege mentality,” where we needed certainty and clarity, and where there was little room for not-knowing and the mystical tradition. Christians are still often in that regressive position today. It is crucial that we reintegrate these two streams of knowing and not-knowing in our time.
If we are going to talk about light, then we must also talk about darkness, because they only have meaning in relation to one another. In much of the world’s art, the sun and the moon are pictured together as sacred symbols. The solar light gives glaring brightness but paradoxically creates defined shadows. It can sometimes be so bright and clear that it actually obscures or blinds. Patriarchal religions usually preferred “sun” gods and the worship of fire, light, and order. While order and clarity are good, they also give us an arrogance about that very order and clarity.
Lunar light is much more subtle, filtered, and indirect, and in that sense, more clarifying and less threatening. Note that when God first divided light from darkness, God did not call it “good” (Genesis 1:3). From the very beginning, we are warned that we cannot totally separate light from darkness, or the two have no meaning. The whole of Creation exists inside of one full cycle: “Evening came and morning came and it was the first day” (Genesis 1:5). Separating them is apparently not good! All things on earth are a mixture of darkness and light.
I hope we can recognize how Jesus is more of a “lunar” teacher, patient with darkness and slow growth. He says, “The seed is sprouting and growing but we do not know how” (Mark 4:27). He seems to be willing to live with not-knowing, surely representing the cosmic patience and certain freedom of God. When we finally know we are not in charge, we do not have to nail everything down along the way. We can work happily and even effectively with “mustard seeds” (Mark 4:31).
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John Chaffee 5 On Friday
1.
“A theology that ends in lovelessness cannot be Christian.”
– Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk
Of course, the first question that arises is: “What is love?”
One person might define an action as loveless, and another person might call the same act something done out of love for the other.
Throughout church history, loving someone else means seeking and wanting the Good for them. Notice, I put the “G” in “Good” in capital letters. We are talking about the Highest Good for people.
A loving theology does not include a pervading permissiveness that says “anything goes.” However, a loving theology also does not include a wholesale damning of the other person if they do not shape up.
In St. Paul’s words, love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:7)
2.
“The atheist staring from his attic window is often nearer to God than the believer caught up in his own false image of God.”
– Martin Buber, Jewish Philosopher
This is great.
For me, the classical definitions of theist and atheist fell apart once there was the possibility of being a “theist” and believing in a false image of God, and being an unbelieving “atheist” to that same false image of God.
If we can stop seeing theist and atheist as binaries, and more as a continuum that we all move back and forth along, I think we all might end up with a more healthy spirituality.
3.
“Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends anything. People kill one another over idols. Wonder makes us fall to our knees.”
– Gregory of Nyssa, 4th Century Cappadocian Theologian
When I read quote #2 this past week, I was immediately reminded of this classic from Gregory of Nyssa. He is considered an “apophatic theologian” because he emphasized the mystery of God more than attempting to describe or even explain God.
As long as we are all beholden to our mental concepts of God, then we are still dealing with an image of God that is infinitely less than what God actually is.
This is why wonder is more necessary to a healthy expression of faith than certainty. Certainty about God takes away our humility before this mystery we call “God,” and leads us into violent forms of fundamentalism.
Again, this is why I love the wisdom of the early Church. It is almost as if they figured out everything in the first six centuries of Church history, and we do ourselves a disservice by not learning from them and standing upon their grand shoulders.
4.
“Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.”
– Catherine of Siena, Italian Christian Mystic
I am not as familiar with Catherine of Siena. She is one of the female Christian mystics whom people I look up to, look up to.
So, I really should do my homework and get around to studying her.
The teaching of the True Self/False Self is perennial. Every tradition in the world has its version of the teaching. Although Jesus himself does not use the vocabulary of the True Self/False Self, it is precisely what he is referencing when he calls people hypocrites.
What the world most needs are people who have undergone the long journey of deconstructing their False Selves, egoic needs, and narcissistic endeavors, so that there can finally be enough room for their True Selves to become manifest.
The world is in desperate need of people who are their True Selves in God in the here and now.
5.
“Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.”
– Isaiah 10:1-2, 8th Century BCE Jewish Prophetic Text
This section of Scripture is nearly THREE THOUSAND years old, and yet it still speaks to today.
Many people unknowingly reduce the Hebrew Prophets to merely being individuals who prophesied about Jesus of Nazareth. While it is true that some passages they wrote could be seen as pointing toward the Carpenter of Galilee
I once got into a lot of trouble for giving a Sunday sermonette using a few passages, including this one.
Man, oh man. That Monday morning, I opened my email to find almost 50/50 emails of people who loved it and people who hated it, and thought that I was “being political, and politics should never enter a sermon.”
For the record, in my Sunday sermonette, I did not refer to a political candidate; people just made connections on their own in light of their own life experiences and conscience.
Here’s the thing: God is always on the side of the oppressed, the poor, and the marginalized. In the world of academic theology, this is referred to as the “preferential option for the poor.”
Or, in Jesus’ vernacular, the “least of these.”
It was so fascinating to get in trouble with congregants and even leadership for teaching the Bible. It’s almost as if, for me, it proved that nearly 50% of those who chose to respond to my sermonette did not come to church to learn how to practice their faith better. Instead, coming to church was for an altogether different reason, of which I am not aware.
The Scriptures are unique because they force us to confront ourselves, the world around us, and our current value systems. They demand that we reflect on whether or not we are looking at the world through the same eyes and with the same heart as God.
