Ps. 116:5, NIRV
In the late 1980s Henri
Nouwen, one of the best loved spiritual
writers of the twentieth century, experienced a time of darkness and
spiritual crisis. He felt depressed, confused, spiritually void, unlovable.
But Nouwen came out of this crisis as he increasingly experienced
God’s sacred tenderness—as he realized he was (as, indeed, we all are)
the dearly beloved of God.
writers of the twentieth century, experienced a time of darkness and
spiritual crisis. He felt depressed, confused, spiritually void, unlovable.
But Nouwen came out of this crisis as he increasingly experienced
God’s sacred tenderness—as he realized he was (as, indeed, we all are)
the dearly beloved of God.
In Life of the Beloved Nouwen writes of our struggles to see and
accept sacred love:
“[R]unning helter-skelter, always anxious and
restless . . . [one is] never fully satisfied. . . . Well, you and I don’t
have
to kill ourselves [searching]. We are
the Beloved [of God].”[1]
(Also see the “beloved” [us!] of Ps. 127:2; Ps. 108:6; Duet. 33:12;
Rom. 9:25, RSV: to be discussed in an upcoming post. [2])
In
contrast to the restless, anxious life Nouwen describes, he
encountered Adam, a profoundly handicapped man whose life was in
every way the opposite of our restless lives. Describing Adam, Nouwen
said:
encountered Adam, a profoundly handicapped man whose life was in
every way the opposite of our restless lives. Describing Adam, Nouwen
said:
"He was a person, who by his very life announced the
marvelous mystery of our God: I am
precious, beloved, whole, and born of God.
Adam bore silent witness to this mystery, which has nothing to do with
whether or not he could speak, walk, or express himself [Adam could do none of
these], whether or not he made money, had a job, was fashionable, famous,
married or single. It had to do with his being. He was and is a beloved child of God. It is
the same news that Jesus came to announce . . ."[3]
Nouwen met Adam at a crucial time: when Nouwen was beginning to come out of his experience
of darkness. In Adam’s silent grace and gentle demeanor he
became one of Nouwen’s teachers. Nouwen gained new insight into what it means to be tenderly loved by God--to be the "beloved" child of God. And why? Just because . . . just because! Just because God is a God of Love, Grace, and sacred tenderness. And just because we, no matter what, are God's own dearly beloved children.
Like Nouwen, Julian of Norwich (14-15th c.) also had a profound
experience of God’s sacred tenderness in a crisis.
For Julian it was
what we might today call a near death experience. Being
so ill that
her body had gone almost totally numb, Julian experienced a
remarkable series of visions—the explanation of which was to
lead
to a great spiritual classic: Revelations
of Divine Love. (Today
Julian is venerated with a feast day in Episcopalian, Catholic, and
certain branches of the Lutheran Church, just because of this classic. [4])
Having come to incredible insight in the
midst of her crisis, Julian again and again explains the tenderness of God’s love
for us. This includes Christ’s life lived for us and his intimacy with us--and then finally his death, which
shows the ultimate nature of his total love and tenderness for us.
Julian’s classic is filled
with charming expressions of God’s tenderness.
For example, Julian says she saw “a spiritual sight of his familiar love. I saw that he
is to us everything which is good and comforting for our help. He is our clothing, for he is that love which
wraps and enfolds us, embraces us and guides us, surrounds us for his love,
which is so tender that he may never
desert us” (emphasis added).[5] Or again she says, “[S]o are we, soul and
body, clad in the Goodness of God, and enclosed.”[6] In each
case Julian describes an embrace that is closer, more profound, and more tender
and loving than any human embrace.
Julian also explains that God’s “tender love” is actively at work in
our lives if we but allow it to be. God’s “mercy” and “grace” work in
“wonderful courtesy” and in “plenty and generosity” by “protecting,”
“vivifying,” “healing,” and “keeping” us. Why? Because “all is
tenderness of love.”[7] Or, as we read in Psalm 116:5: "The Lord is holy
and kind. Our God is full of TENDER LOVE"; NIRV (emphasis ours).
We turn now to a third example of a significant experience of God's
sacred tenderness. Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who survived
Ravensbrück concentration camp during World War II. She had been
arrested, along with family members, for hiding Jewish refugees in their
home and helping them escape. Because of this “crime” against the Nazis,
who occupiedHolland
In this setting Corrie also experienced a spiritual crisis (as anyone might).
sacred tenderness. Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who survived
Ravensbrück concentration camp during World War II. She had been
arrested, along with family members, for hiding Jewish refugees in their
home and helping them escape. Because of this “crime” against the Nazis,
who occupied
In this setting Corrie also experienced a spiritual crisis (as anyone might).
Before describing Corrie’s
experience we pause to ask two questions. (A.) Must one experience a crisis, as in the lives of the three people
discussed here, before experiencing sacred tenderness? (B.) Is God’s sacred tenderness a theme that is too
often missing/neglected in spiritual discussions in Christian tradition (as we
indeed believe it is) just because it is known best by those who have been
through a spiritual crisis?
We
believe the answer to the first question (A.) is no. The answer to the second question (B.) is a conditional
yes.
In a crisis one ask, seeks, knocks
more than usual; one becomes more open/childlike (Lk. 11:9-13, 18:17 ). Perhaps one
gives God a greater opportunity to answer, to reveal the Grace and sacred tenderness that are always
there. In the end it is those who knock, seek, ask with open/childlike
honesty and simplicity who are most likely to discover God’s sacred tenderness—crisis or not.
Furthermore, this discovery is central to our spiritual lives! Spiritual directors note that if one has little concept of God’s immense love for us, everything else in the spiritual life will be somewhat askew. More and more each day we need to know of God’s vast love for us and this includes God’s sacred tenderness. As we read in Psalm 86:5: "Lord, you are a God who is tender and kind"; NIRV.
We now complete Corrie’s story. Corrie’s beloved sister Betsy, a woman of
remarkable love and courage, was also in the concentration camp. Betsy was sick and in a makeshift camp
hospital. Corrie attempted a visit to
her but was soon turned away. In a dark
mood Corrie walked toward her own barracks in the cold and fog. She felt dismal and even felt a flash of
anger toward God (most unusual for her). And
then something happened; we quote Corrie’s words as she describes what she
experienced on that cold, foggy day:
I
heard three words: "Rempli de tendresse."
I stopped and looked around me. There was no one in sight. No, it was the Lord. . . . [W]onderful
sense of comfort. . . . He opened His
arms wide and
said: "Filled with tenderness." [8]
Corrie had just a
few such mysterious, inexplicable experiences in her lifetime, so it is
most interesting that when the Holy Spirit gave her such experience—at one
of her darkest moments—it was all about God’s tenderness (as in the
two other examples above).
Perhaps Corrie was experiencing what Julian of Norwich described centuries before: “. . . He has great tenderness, and therefore He will Himself make them [divine secrets] more open to us whereby we may know Him and love Him and cleave to Him.”[9] And one of God's great secrets (as Julian promises us in multiple ways) is God's immense sacred tenderness toward us.
Perhaps Corrie was experiencing what Julian of Norwich described centuries before: “. . . He has great tenderness, and therefore He will Himself make them [divine secrets] more open to us whereby we may know Him and love Him and cleave to Him.”[9] And one of God's great secrets (as Julian promises us in multiple ways) is God's immense sacred tenderness toward us.
And perhaps Corrie’s experience
also expresses something similar
to what the prophet Jeremiah (voicing a concern for God) proclaimed:
“. . . I [the Lord] must still . . . be deeply moved for him [her], and let
my tenderness yearn over him [her]. . . .” (Jer. 31:20). Or, “I have
loved you with an everlasting love, so I am constant in my affection
for you” (Jer. 31:3[10]). 
to what the prophet Jeremiah (voicing a concern for God) proclaimed:
“. . . I [the Lord] must still . . . be deeply moved for him [her], and let
my tenderness yearn over him [her]. . . .” (Jer. 31:20). Or, “I have
loved you with an everlasting love, so I am constant in my affection
for you” (Jer. 31:3[10]).
(With future posts we will examine neglected aspects of God’s
sacred tenderness [especially of God's "tender mercies" as
proclaimed in scripture] and possible reasons for such neglect.)
We close with thoughts for meditation, prayer/poetry/proverbs [11]
(note: the second entry below is based on Corrie's report above):
“God's Own Heartbeat (a Meditation [12])”
“He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the
lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom [near His
Heartbeat], and gently lead the mother sheep”; Isa. 40:11,
NRSV, NRSVCE (also see Deut. 33:27, NIV).
(Watch for other imagery regarding God's tender love and tender
mercy [e.g., Lk. 1:78, Ps. 25:6; ASV, NKJV, WEB] as such is developed
in future posts.)
“Rempli de
tendresse” (“Filled with tenderness”!).
Surrender to vast TENDERNESS.
Breath it in;
breath out every fear.
Rempli de
TENDRESSE:
Filled with
TENDERNESS—
SACRED TENDERNESS.
And it is all
for us.
Teach us, Lord, to know!
("The Lord is full of tender mercy and loving concern”;
("The Lord is full of tender mercy and loving concern”;
James 5:11, NIRV.)
"Tell me all about your faithful love come morning time, because
I trust you"; Ps. 143:8, CEB. (Also quoting Julian of Norwich.[13])
“The ‘Just Because’ of GRACE Echos Through the Spheres”
Ps. 127:2, Ps. 108:6, Duet. 33:12, Rom. 9:25, Isa. 49:15; RSV.)
Note similar wisdom in "The Twelve Steps" of AA and
other recovery groups: "Each of us would like to live at
peace.... We would like to be assured [& can be assured!]
that the GRACE of God can do for us what we cannot do
for our-selves." - Co-founders of AA. [14]
And finally, simply in celebration of the season; for the
seasons can also teach us lessons of faith:
“A Child Pressed Her Nose (a Meditation)”
A little smudge on a window
Where a child pressed her nose--
To watch the snowflakes paint the world 
In heaps all white and cold.
The child now has gone away
To find some other Art—
Still time before the years would cloud
The windows of the Heart.
(With reflection upon Mt. 18:3; Isa. 11:6; Ps. 131.)
* * *
“Dimensions (a prelude to prayer)”
"Be Still!". . . The snow falls as a prayer--
A prayer that whispers, 'Faith
Is like the quiet work of snow
That comes in to erase
'The world with its sharp edges;
It lays a New World down.
The World it brings is carved in new
Dimensions all around.
'Faith is a view we could not see
When last we scanned the scene.
But Grace comes in on Silent Wings--
Like snow, all fresh and clean.'(With reflection upon Ps. 46:10; Lk. 7:1-10, 18:8. Also
note that Martin Luther advised: "Ask God to work
faith in you ..."! [15])
* * *
(See additional blog posts under "Newer Posts" after the "Notes.")
……………………………
Notes:
1. Henri J. M. Nouwen, Life of the Beloved (New York: Crossroad, 1992), pp. 33-6.
2. RSV translation and NRSV, NRSVCE, KJV, ASV, AMP, WEB translations in some
cases. See "The Tender 'Love Song' of God";
3. Henri J. M. Nouwen, Adam: God’s Beloved (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997),
pp. 36-7, emphasis added.
4. The feast day is May 8 in Episcopalian, Anglican, and some Lutheran churches--
May 13 in Catholic churches.
5. Julian of Norwich: Showings, trans. Edmund Colledge, O.S.A. and James
Walsh, S.J. (New York: Paulist Press, 1978), p. 130 (Chap. 4, Short Text).
(Showings is a title sometimes used for both the Short and Long Text of Revelations
of Divine Love.)
6. Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, ed. Grace Warrack (London:
Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1901, 1949), p. 14 (Chap. 6, Long Text).
7. Ibid., p. 102; Julian of Norwich: Showings, pp. 262-263 (both Chap. 48, Long Text).
8. Corrie ten Boom, A Prisoner and Yet ... (London: Christian Literature Crusade, 1954,
1962), p. 121.
9. P. Franklin Chambers, Juliana of Norwich: An Introductory Appreciation and An
Interpretative Anthology (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955), p. 148 (from
Revelations of Divine Love, Chap. 34, Long Text).
10. Both passages from The Jerusalem Bible translation, 1966 (JB). Also
especially note NIRV, ASV, AMPC, CEB translations.
11. Meditations, prayer/poetry/proverbs by Lorraine B. Eshleman. (Also see
Note 12 below.)
12. Note that throughout our blog when using shapes--such as heart
shapes, etc.--we often borrow an idea from "shape poetry," while
still intending the offering to be thought of as a meditation or prayer--
as it will usually be introduced. Heart shaped represent "The 'Great
Divine Romance of Heaven' for Us ...," as soon discussed: see
13. Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, ed. Warrack, p. 129
(Chap. 53, Long Text), capitals added.
14. Co-founders of AA, "12 & 12," Step Seven, "The Twelve Steps,"
(capitals added).
15. Martin Luther, “An Introduction to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans,”
Luther’s German Bible of 1522, trans. Robert E. Smith from Dr. Martin
Luther’s Vermischte Deutche Schriften, Johann K. Irmischer, ed.
(Erlanger: Heyder and Zimmer, 1854), 63: 124-125.
Good introduction. Makes me want to go on, as I have.
ReplyDeleteMy wife says she's read much about Corrie but never knew she had mystical experiences.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteDo you have suggested reading about or by Ten Boom?
ReplyDeleteYou can't miss with "The Hiding Place" and "My Father's House."
ReplyDeleteSuggesting Corrie's books, we should also have mentioned "Tramp for the Lord" and "A Prisoner and Yet..." as favorites. Look her up: there are so many!
ReplyDelete