4th Sunday of Lent A

I had a phone-call this week from a parishioner who wanted to know if I had any books on mysticism, not un unreasonable request given the number of times I have mentioned it recently. And so I gave her one of William Johnston’s, the Jesuit I have quoted several times in the last year, who, speaking of the Church today, has said that we must give people mysticism or die. But what exactly is he talking about? What is this thing we call mysticism. What is it he wants us to give people? Well, that’s the question I want to reflect on today.

Straight away, however, there is a problem and it lies in the fact that the word ‘mysticism’ has been used in many different senses down through the ages, one study identifying twenty six different meanings of the word. But as far as we are concerned, mysticism can be defined quite simply as ‘a direct experience of God which in some way transforms us.’ For some of the great mystics these direct experiences of God involved things like visions, ecstacies and so on, but these unusual phenomena are not of the essence of mysticism. For one thing, the people who had them – like Teresa of Avila or John of the Cross, the great Spanish mystics – attached no importance to them and often warned people against them. And then there’s the fact that you don’t have to be Zinedine Zidane to kick a ball about or Roger Federer to join a tennis club. There’s a very ordinary kind of mysticism which we can all experience. We can all have direct experiences of God, and in the man born blind today we have a powerful image of what happens when we do.

All his life this man had been surrounded by things he couldn’t see, the earth, the sky, trees, people, mountains and many more. Imagine his amazement, therefore, when suddenly he could see them. And it’s like that with mysticism. Through the grace of God working in us what we might call our inner eyes are opened and, like Peter, James and John two weeks ago on the Mountain of the Transfiguration, we see things that have always been there but which were hidden from our sight. Sometimes the change they bring about is permanent, as when we have a moment of revelation or insight which changes our perspective forever. But as often as not these moments are brief and passing. They can be the birth of a child or something as simple as a beautiful sunset. But they reach deep into us and, for a moment, at least, we know that we have been touched by something beyond ourselves. Such things can happen in Church too, but mostly, in my experience, they don’t, being more common in ordinary daily life, one of the signs that they come from God being that we cannot make them happen or control how long they last. Sadly, we can, and often do, forget they ever happened, but, whether we realise it or not, even in people who don’t believe he exists, these are direct experience of God glimpses of what one day, when we, too, are healed of our blindness, will become our reality.

But when we talk about revelations or insights which change the way we see things forever, what are we talking about? Well, there is literally no limit to it, but let me give you a few examples, beginning with this week’s first reading. In it, God sends Samuel to the home of Jesse to choose a king from among his sons. Samuel lines them all up, starting with Eliab, the eldest, but, God chooses none of them. Instead, he reveals to Samuel in a moment of revelation an insight without which the world will never enter the Age of Mysticism. And it is that, with God, to be weak is to be strong, to be foolish is to be wise, to be poor is to be rich. In the Age of Mysticism the values of the world will be turned upside down, inside out and back to front and it’s according to this logic, not worldly human logic, that David is appointed king. And it happens all the time.

Just the other day, despite my efforts to avoid it, I saw some of the coverage of Prince Harry in Afghanistan. And at one point there was a close-up of the back of his head with the words We do bad things to bad people written on his military cap. Now, unremarkable as this may seem to millions in Britain today, it is a totally abhorrent, sickening idea to anyone who has had any direct experience of God. No mystic, whether Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish or Moslem could ever think this way, and as we finally enter the Age of Mysticism I am speaking of, such ideas will become as extinct as the dinosaurs are today. In this new time, all barriers between peoples will melt away and future generations will wonder how we could ever have tolerated a world divided into nation states who fought with and killed each other. Colour, race and, in particular, religion will cease to divide people from each other as Jesus’ words to the Samaritan Woman last Sunday are fulfilled and we learn to worship, not on rival mountains, but in Spirit and truth.

And it has to start now. I think of the joy I feel each week as I see the car park full of cars bringing the Moslem community to prayer here in our hall. I think of the homeless lunches when our guest are transfigured before our eyes and we see, not their faces, but the face of Jesus shining out of them. I think of the number of times over the years when I have had direct experiences of God in Kilmarnock prison, times when his presence in those whom the world rejects has been tangible and I would not have been surprised if Jesus had physically walked into the middle of so much sadness. And all of this has slowly but surely transformed the way I see the world, something God longs to do in each of us.

But at the heart of it all is something we read at the end of last week’s gospel. In it, the Samaritan woman put down her water jar and went back to her village to tell people about Jesus. And so they came to see him. And do you remember what they said to the woman? ‘Now we no longer believe because of what you told us. we have heard him ourselves and we know that he is the saviour of the world.’

There’s the heart of mysticism; to move from hearing about God to knowing God…. What a journey to be on!


BIDDING PRAYERS


We live today in a world which needs signs of hope. Millions are steeped in pessimism, whether it be about the environment, what they see as the increasingly violent nature of our society or simply the emptiness of modern living. And so we ask God to raise up among us many every day mystics, men and women who, transformed by their direct experience of God and healed of the blindness we all suffer from, are able to offer the world the hope it needs…….…………..Lord hear us

The mystics of the 21st Century come in all shapes and sizes. Many have nothing to do with organized religion and large numbers don’t even believe in God. But, without understanding it, they have been touched by the Spirit of God, enabling them to dreams new dreams and imagine new worlds different from the one we currently live in. They are found in all kinds of odd places and we pray today for the grace we need to recognize them when we see them…………….Lord hear us

When William Johnston says that the Church must give people mysticism or die, he is putting into words one of the great truths of our time. Religion without faith is dead. Beyond it lies a new age in which people will come to know God as they know their best friend. No longer will they have simply heard about God in Church or read about him in books. Instead, healed of their blindness they will come to know him for themselves. And so we pray for the coming of that day………………….Lord hear us

In the Age of Mysticism, the current values we live by will be replaced by the values of the Gospel. In this new place, the greatest among us will become the least, those in positions of power and leadership will be the servants of all, the poor will be society’s first priority, barriers between nations will melt away and, healed of our blindness, we will see every man woman and child on the face of the earth as our brother and sister. And yet these things are already true for those who already have eyes to see and we ask for the grace to be counted among them…………Lord hear us

Although we all have moments of mysticism in our lives, moments when the veil covering our eyes is drawn away and we see reality in a new way, it is perfectly possible to have such experiences and then forget them, living as if they had never happened. This is because God, ever respectful of our freedom, never forces himself upon us. Yet these are crucially important moments in our lives. And so we pray for the grace to remember them today and trust them………………………..Lord hear us

In the first reading today, David, the youngest son, so insignificant that he was not even brought to meet Samuel, is anointed king. God does not think as we do. His grace, as St Paul says, is it at its best in weakness. And so we pray that, by reflecting deeply on this story, our own weaknesses will become a source of encouragement rather than discouragement to us and that we will stop using them as an excuse for not going where God leads……...Lord hear us