Fullness and Emptiness
- by Brother David Steindl-Rast

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“Knowledge is power,” we say.  And we think of it as power we can wield to achieve our purpose.  Wisdom, in contrast, ripens only when we are gradually overpowered by meaning.  In the biblical notion of “knowing” these two are reconciled.  In the give-and-take of sexual knowledge, which provides the biblical metaphor for knowing, we are both empowered and overpowered; we come to know by being known.  This give-and-take can be understood as a giving and receiving of thanks.  The bond that unites giver and thanksgiver is one of deep mutual recognition.

We tend to think of leisure as the privilege of those who can afford to take time off. But leisure is a virtue, not a luxury.  Leisure is the virtue of those who take their time in order to give to each task as much time as it deserves to take.  Giving and taking, play and work, meaning and purpose are perfectly balanced in leisure.  We learn to live fully in the measure in which we learn to live leisurely.

We allow the experience of falling in love to shape our concept of love in general.  This puts us on the wrong track.  Passionate attraction – which is indeed an important instance of love – is far too specific a type of loving to serve as model for love in general. 

When we ask for characteristics of love that apply to each and all of its forms, we find at least two:  a sense of belonging and wholehearted acceptance of that belonging with all its implications.  These two characteristics fit every kind of love, from love of one’s country to love of one’s pets, while passionate attraction is typical only of falling in love.  Love is a wholehearted “yes” to belonging.  When we fall in love, our sense of belonging is overpowering, our ”yes” is spontaneous and blissful.  Falling in love challenges us to rise in love.  We can broaden the scope of our “yes,” say it under less favorable conditions, and draw out its consequences all the way to love for our enemies.  Since August 6, 1945, no one can deny that all of us belong together in this spaceship Earth.  “When you are in the same boat with your worst enemy, will you drill a hole into his side of the boat?” asks Elissa Melame.

We humans cannot find peace of heart unless we find meaning in life.  Meaning is that in which our hearts find rest.  We never achieve meaning as one achieves a purpose by hard work.  It is always received as pure gift.  And yet we must give meaning to our lives.  How can we do this?  Through gratefulness.  Gratefulness is the inner gesture of giving meaning to our life by receiving life as a gift.  The deepest meaning of any given moment lies in the fact that it is given.  Gratefulness recognizes, acknowledges, and celebrates this meaning.

If we think
of mystic experience as an experience of communion with Ultimate Reality, we have a fair working definition.  We will do well not to introduce the term “God” into our definition.  Not all people feel comfortable calling Ultimate Reality “God.”  But all of us, regardless of terminology, can experience moments of overwhelming, limitless belonging, moments of universal communion.  Those are our own mystical moments.  The men and women we call mystics differ from the rest of us merely by giving these experiences the place they deserve in everyone’s life.  What counts is not the frequency or intensity of mystic experiences, but the influence we allow them to have on our life.  By accepting our mystic moments with all they offer and demand, we become the mystics we are meant to be. After all, a mystic is not a special kind of human being, but every human being is a special kind of mystic.

The distinction between natural and supernatural is valid.  Yet no one can separate the two; no one can draw a line between them.  Nature and supernature are not two different realms of reality, two different layers of the universe.  One and the same reality will be natural or supernatural, depending on how we approach it.  What we take hold of, physically or intellectually, will always be the natural.  By taking hold of it, we limit it.  The supernatural is limitless. We must let it take hold of us.   A bucket full of water from the river is not a bucket full of river, no matter how much water it may hold.  But by diving off the bank into the water, we dive into the river, no matter how far that spot may be from the source.  No matter where we immerse ourselves in the stream of reality, we will be in touch with the supernatural source of all that is natural.

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From Brother David Steindl-Rast, Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer: An Approach to Life in Fullness (New York, Mahwah, New Jersey:  Paulist Press, 1984).