10 October 2017

Nicole entitles today's thoughts as 'A Quiet Heart Is... Trusting God's Timing', and certainly I'm sure the Divine's view of time is very different from our own.

When I was studying for my Theology degree back in the 1980s, my favourite course was on the English Mystics, where I spend weeks immersing myself n the writings of Margery Kempe, Piers Plowman, Julian of Norwich and the unknown author of this book, which I still have on my bookshelf.

The mystics speak my language. They remind me much of the Divine is 'unknowable'. One thing that troubles me with Western theology is the attempt to rationalize, to figure out, to declare exactly what happens when the human meets the Divine (answering the question, 'How many angels can dance on a pin head?' is a famous example). The mystics simply state their encounters with God knowing that words are a poor medium for the utterly inexpressible.

To me, a definition of wisdom is knowing what we don't know - and being at peace with that. Sadly, too much of Western Christianity, is all too ready to declare they know God's will, too ready to espouse a theology of division, of separation between 'godly' and 'ungodly', between 'righteous' and 'unrighteous', between 'sacred' and 'profane', little realizing this is exactly what the Pharisees did in the time of Jesus.

The mystics 'know' there is no such division - all is holy, all is sacred, all is of God - and ultimately all is contained in the Mystery. Hence, the talk of 'faith' rather than of 'knowledge' - 'for we walk by faith, not by sight', and each of the mystics 'knew' that.