SPANISH mystic Miguel de Molinos
(1628–1696) was a martyr, but not in a way we would traditionally assume; his
death was a life of imprisonment with torture, and he did indeed die of his
injuries. He is someone who might know something of pain and of darkness, and
of God there and there abouts:
“What you should do in the darkness, then, is
to believe that you are before the Lord
and in His presence. But you should
do so with a sweet and quiet attention
— not bringing desire to know anything; nor to search after delicacies,
tenderness, or sensible devotions; nor to do any thing except what is the good
will and pleasure of God. Because otherwise you will only make circles all your
lifetime, and you will not advance one step toward perfection.” (Italics mine.)
Do we even want perfection? If we
knew it, what it could give us, an imperviousness to depression, for one
instance, we would drink deeply of the vine of perfection — which is constant
spiritual progress. And this is to what the martyred mystic calls us.
Imagining we are before the living
Lord, endured in his eternal Presence, captured in awe beyond comprehension, we
have want for nothing. Every compensation for the darkness that pervades us is
made manifest when we feel we’re actually deeply with God. The hard part
is extracting ourselves from the world enough that that would occur. The
difficulty we have is extricating ourselves from the dilemmas we find ourselves
inextricably in.
Our darknesses are not always so
easy to get out of. But the martyr, de Molinos, commends us not to deny our
darkness, but to embrace it.
Come into
me now my Lord,
Show me
you’re really there,
Help me hard
now to hoard,
Your holy rarefied air.
What can a seventeenth century
martyr teach us about the mystical truth of God’s power, even in, especially
in, the darkness? Everything. And why should we believe? The truth is we
must believe. We cannot afford to negate the role of the Presence of God
who is with us by his Spirit. Sometimes, especially when things are toughest,
we must believe. We must choose to
believe.
Let me close by attending to what
de Molinos mentioned as “a sweet and quiet attention.” This is so very
important. God must become our everything so everything we are is of God.
This is the radicalisation of love
such that no threat of darkness could ever prevail. Darkness, in and of itself,
is actually the very reason we’re to be blessed of God’s Presence. The more
darkness surrounding us, the more light comes in to reveal it.
The more darkness is against us,
the more God is for us.
The darker the experience in life,
the tougher the spiritual battle, the more God has promised and delivers in
being eternally with us.
This is the truth: darkness, and
not copious light, will bring you to the fullness of maturity in God. Darkness
cannot be complained about when God is there with us. There is so much more to
think about, say and do. This challenge is not to ‘make circles’ all our lives.
© 2015 Steve Wickham.
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