God is the wisdom of every lifetime, a deep plunge into a clear pool, the sinew and muscle of ethical responsibility, a community of goodness, but always more. Descriptions reach out as far as they can toward the God of the universe, and then, like a rubber band stretched too far, they snap back and we are left with the silence of mystery and awe.
—Barbara Holmes, Liberation and the Cosmos
Father Richard considers how contemplative practice deepens our capacity to experience awe and wonder:
Moments of awe and wonder are the only solid foundation for the entire religious instinct and journey. Look, for example, at the Exodus narrative: It all begins with a murderer (Moses) on the run from the law, encountering a paradoxical bush that “burns without being consumed.” Struck by awe, Moses takes off his shoes and the very earth beneath his feet becomes “holy ground” (see Exodus 3:2–6) because he has met “Being Itself” (Exodus 3:14). This narrative reveals the classic pattern, repeated in different forms in the varied lives and vocabulary of all the world’s mystics.
We’re usually blocked against being awestruck, just as we are blocked against great love and great suffering. Early-stage contemplation is largely about identifying and releasing ourselves from these blockages by recognizing the unconscious reservoir of expectations, assumptions, and beliefs in which we are already immersed. If we don’t see what’s in our reservoir, we will process all new encounters and experiences in the same old-patterned way—and nothing new will ever happen. A new idea held by the old self is never really a new idea, whereas even an old idea held by a new self will soon become fresh and refreshing. Contemplation fills our reservoir with clear, clean water that allows us to encounter experience free of our old patterns.
Here’s the mistake we all make in our encounters with reality—both good and bad. We don’t realize that it wasn’t the person or event right in front of us that made us angry or fearful—or excited and energized. At best, that is only partly true. If we allowed a beautiful hot air balloon in the sky to make us happy, it was because we were already predisposed to happiness. The hot air balloon just occasioned it. How we see will largely determine what we see and whether it gives us joy or makes us pull back with an emotionally stingy and resistant response. Without denying an objective outer reality, what we are able to see and are predisposed to see in the outer world is a mirror reflection of our own inner world and state of consciousness at that time. Most of the time, we just do not see at all but rather operate on cruise control.
It seems that we humans are two-way mirrors, reflecting both inner and outer worlds. We project ourselves onto outer things and these very things also reflect back to us our own unfolding identity. Mirroring is the way that contemplatives see, subject to subject rather than subject to object.
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| DEC 17, 2025. Skye Jethani How Big is God’s Mission? |
 “I want what breaks God’s heart to break my heart.” You’ve probably heard this well-intentioned cliche in your religious community. It’s a sincere way of expressing a desire to be more like Christ, and that should be affirmed. But have you ever asked, “What doesn’t break God’s heart?” Is there a degree of pain, suffering, or injustice that doesn’t rise to our Lord’s attention? Are there broken things in this world over which the Creator does not grieve? The impulse to label certain things as “breaking God’s heart” implies a category of things beyond his concern. That doesn’t sound like the one Jesus said counts every hair on our head and notices every sparrow that falls to the ground (Matthew 10:29-30).Still, the instinct to prioritize is a part of every religion. It’s a way of ordering the world into what matters and what does not, and then validating those who focus on the “right” things. It’s why so many churches, whether explicitly or implicitly, function with a bifurcated and disintegrated vision of the world. They instinctually label certain things and activities as “sacred” and therefore within the scope of God’s concern, and a far larger group of things and activities as “secular” which exist beyond God’s care if not his sight. Sadly, this tendency has severely reduced our understanding of what Jesus accomplished on the cross and the scope of his redemption.The New Testament repeatedly emphasizes the cosmic scale of Jesus’ sacrifice. Paul said through the cross, God has “reconciled to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven” (Colossians 1:20). And in his most extensive articulation of the gospel (found in 1 Corinthians 15), the Apostle reiterates Jesus’ intent to rule over “all things” no less than eight times! The cosmic scope of Paul’s gospel fits with the Jewish vision of God he inherited from the Hebrew scriptures, which declare, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The next verse does not say God then retired into full-time ministry.And yet, that is how many of us function. We assume that God cares about redeeming souls but not bodies. We think he wants a thriving church but cares nothing about a flourishing school. We believe God wants the gospel preached, but is indifferent to whether a hospital is built. When the church narrowly defines “what breaks God’s heart,” it ends up producing narrow disciples who do not recognize the reign of Christ over every part of their lives and every atom of creation.This error, according to Ed Stetzer, was on display on January 6, 2021, when thousands of rioters—many displaying Christian symbols—violently attacked the U.S. Capitol. Writing about American evangelicalism’s complicity in what unfolded, Stetzer, an evangelical pastor himself, said: “Committed to reaching the world, the evangelical movement has emphasized the evangelistic and pietistic elements of the mission. However, it has failed to connect this mission to justice and politics. The result of this discipleship failure has led us to a place where not only our people, but many of our leaders, were easily fooled and co-opted by a movement that ended with the storming of the Capitol building.” In other words, the problem is not that the church failed to accomplish its mission, but that it defined it too narrowly. When huge parts of our lives and world are seen as beyond Christ’s concern, we shouldn’t be surprised to discover false gods defiling those domains. DAILY SCRIPTURE 1 CORINTHIANS 15:20-28 COLOSSIANS 1:15-20 WEEKLY PRAYER. From Mother Teresa (1910 – 1998) Dear Jesus, Help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go. Flood our souls with your Spirit and life. Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly that our lives may only be a radiance of yours. Shine through us and be so in us that every soul we come in contact with may feel your presence in our soul. Let them look up and see no longer us but only Jesus. Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be light to others. Amen. |
