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Spiritually Concave
"I wanted to be spiritually concave" - Kristen Johnson Ingram
Something about that image haunts me. My life, like many of yours is heaped up - with gadgets and books, appointments and tasks, a To Do list that never seems to get shorter. My life is heaped up.
"I wanted to be spiritually concave" - like a basin, ready to be filled. Like hands cupped, ready to receive the water of life.
The image brings to mind a sermon I heard years ago. The preacher spoke about the difference between praying with clenched fists and praying with open hands. I still remember her hands demonstrating, or rather embodying, the difference.
"I wanted to be spiritually concave." Lent is a penitential season. Hendrikus Berkhof writes that the essence of repentance is clearing away the obstacles we put in the way of a full and open relationship to God. Those obstacles, he wisely notes, may just as well be our "pretensions and achievements" as our disobedience.
"I wanted to be spiritually concave." It is not easy - not easy to open my hands, to let go of pretensions and stop clinging to achievements. If I clear away the heap, I fear discovering my spiritual concavity to be more like a sieve than like a basin.
Maybe it should be. After all, the Spirit of God is not a stagnant pool, but a fresh stream rinsing over us, sluicing through us, washing and refreshing us, before flowing on to other parched souls.
O Lord, I want to be spiritually concave. Puncture all pretensions, that your Spirit my freely flow.
-Bill
Sources:
Kristen Johnson Ingram, "Poverty is Where the Blind Fish Live," Weavings Jan/Feb 2000, 17.
Hendrikus Berkhof, Christian Faith, Eerdmans, 1979, 429.
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Contact Lenses and Beatitudes
--By Jan
Contact lenses in those days were hard, large, and heavy. The "first generation" contact lenses that I wore in the early '60's were easily scratched or chipped. Their concave design fit over the entire cornea and their rigid shape rendered them unfit to wear for more than several hours at a time. Worst of all was the discomfort when even a mote of dust the size of a fraction of a dot lodged between the contact and the cornea.
Many concave things are made for holding, such as spoons and cups. Some concave things are meant to be empty, like umbrellas. Contact lenses wear best when empty of floating debris.
This image clarifies one aspect of the truth, but obscures another. The whole notion of the Beatitudes arises from emptiness: "Blessed are the poor in spirit..." yet the reward is the fullness of the reign of heaven "...for theirs in the Kingdom of God." As Bill and I prepare to lead a retreat this weekend on "Beatitudes: To be Blessed and to be a Blessing" for Benedictine Oblates and guests, we are drawn into a deeper understanding that the Beatitudes are blessings emerging from the poverty of spirit. The Beatitudes promise to fill with blessings that which is lacking. "Happy all, who persevere for Christ, for in God they'll be filled with joy."*
St. Augustine said: "Empty yourself, so that you may be filled; go out, so that you can go in."
*"Les Béatitudes" © Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, 2004.
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