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Comments
The focus of what it means to be a Christian can highlight a single aspect, in contrast to others. Some persons define being a Christian as believing certain things. She might say, "To be a Christian is to believe Jesus is the Son of God." Other persons would define being a Christian as doing certain things. He might say, "My being a Christian means I imitate Christ in the things I do."
The contemplative discovers in herself the arising of a deeper, richer, more mature experience of what it means to be a Christian. This experience is relational, for it arises organically from sharing with and in the Tri-Unity. This knowing is not thought up, as though deduced or induced; the knowing is the fruition of communion and union with the Three-in-One.
This knowing focuses on being a Christian as, not what one thinks or what one does, but as what one is. Neither doing nor thinking is definitive, rather being is definitive for defining what it means to be a Christian.
"The primary sacrament of Christianity," writes Thomas A. Keating, in The Mystery of Christ, "is Jesus himself." And, he notes, "Jesus transmitted what he signified, divine love, by his teaching and example. He manifested how the divine nature functions." Jesus' teaching and doing arose out of His sacramental Being.
So, for the contemplative Christian, following Christ principally means entering into and being entered by the sacramental presence of Christ Jesus. Again, as Keating writes, "After Jesus, the greatest sacrament is another human being."
This entering into is not unconscious. We each, by virtue of being of God, have an unconscious union with the Divine. This is as unconscious as a tree limb having union with the stock of the tree. Following Christ means entering into a fully conscious, fully chosen communion and union with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
This communion-union is not individual, however. For we are becoming consciously one with the Divine as part of a communal Body of Christ. The more I grow into the realization of union with the Divine One, the more the whole Body is being awakened to that conscious union.
This means that I, too, become a sacramental presence. However, I am only a sacrament through Christ. Christ is sacramental Presence in essence. I am sacramental presence through reception of the Grace in Christ.
To practice contemplation is simple. Contemplation means the trusting receptivity to receive and be the means of the Grace of Christ. We do not do the work of Grace. We only receive Grace and, then, the very reception is one with the sharing.
Christian contemplation purges motives and actions, and it transforms knowledge. Contemplation in the sacrament of Christ always bears the fruit of most pure, beautiful attitudes and good works. This is why prayerful contemplation is essential to the health and work of the Church, not an option for a select~ few looked upon as specially gifted or as super saints.
Suggested Reflection
What sets Christian contemplation apart from other paths of meditation and prayerfulness? How does your Christology [doctrine of Christ] shape your understanding of what God is doing in and through your practice of prayerful contemplation? How do you see Grace operating in your life as a result of your discipline of contemplative prayer? How might Christian contemplation contribute to the fellowship and service of the Church?
*Brian K. Wilcox lives with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, in Port Charlotte, FL. Brian is Pastor of Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL. He is a vowed member of Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community. His passion is living a contemplative life and inspiring others to experience a deeper relationship with Christ through contemplative prayer and living.
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