Artwork by Sr. Mary Grace Thul, OP
Olivier Clement in The Roots of Christian Mysticism expounds on the many names we give to God. Quoting the Patristic Dionysius the Areopagite's treatise on Divine Names he writes theologians praise the divine Origin for having no name and yet possessing all names...Goodness, Beauty, Wisdom,...Giver of life, Intelligence...Ancient of Days, Eternal Youth, Salvation, Justice, Sanctification, Liberation, as surpassing all grandeur, and manifesting himself to humanity in a gentle breeze. (29)
It is this all encompassing aspect of the Divine that Clement sees surrounding humanity, which we see only when we pierce through the veil that blinds us and look beyond the superficial to the Divine within, be it ourselves or others. That is why God is referred to as Light, because as Clement writes, According to the Fathers, the fall impaired the capacity of creatures to see the divine light, but did not destroy it.
As we can see just from the multiply names applicable to the Divine, the search for the Divine takes us gently but deeply into the essence of what it means to be God. Such a journey opens up the world of the spirit for us, giving us a better perspective on life in the here and now, and allows us to go beyond the tangible to things intangible. This is the journey of the monastic. This is your journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment