Rector’s Reflections
Friday 14th June 2024
Carmelite Spirituality for Today’s World
We have seen that Carmelite Spirituality is a spirituality based on love: love for ourselves, as created by God; love for one another; and love for God Himself. We have also seen that Carmelites live in the real world, and they have been well aware that love is not always easy. It can come up against some many obstacles – so many other things which can get in the way. We like our material possessions and the other things which make us feel secure. We have our assumptions about status and roles. We know that there is much pain and suffering in our world, and in our own lives. In the face of all these challenges, it can be a constant struggle to allow love to be at the centre of our lives.
Indeed, at times the struggle can be so great that we simply give up. I would say that this is largely true of the contemporary Church of England - it is rare indeed that any Diocese or other Church structure puts love at its centre. It may pay lip service to the value of love, but love is largely side-lined as a value - it is dismissed as irrelevant from the point of view of finance, or growing church congregations, and it is looked down upon because it can’t be measured. We are in a spread-sheet culture, and it is hard to put love onto a spread-sheet. And as St Teresa of Avila would be the first to tell us, love makes the powers- that-be in the Church distinctly uncomfortable, because it challenges their authority and encourages a degree of accountability which is profoundly challenging. What would our Church be like if the judgments and appraisal of our clergy and bishops were based solely on love? St Theresa of Lisieux reminds us that “ it is love alone that counts”. What if this were the sole question asked of any of us holding any form of responsibility in the Church: how are we trying to respond to God’s love, and share that love in our world? Such a question would be a searching question indeed. It would also remove much pointless bureaucracy.
This in turn leads on to a further aspect of Carmelite Spirituality. If love is everything, how do we express our love towards God? Do we go far enough in our efforts to love God? Some Carmelites encourage us to seek a spiritual union with God. Some people see a key feature of human love as the desire to be united with the object of our desire: this union will be expressed in different ways, depending on the circumstances. It might be expressed as the desire to be physical close to the person we love, and this might involve physical union. If this is the nature of human love, is it also true of our love for God? Can we seek to be united to God in love? One of the Carmelite writers who has explored this idea in great depth is St John of the Cross. For St John, the goal of our life is union with God in love. For this to happen, we must free ourselves from the earthly attachments which get in the way, so that we can open ourselves fully to God’s love. God then pours His love into us, which allows us to live in union with Him. And because God is love, this frees us to share God’s love with others and the world around us. Much of St John’s thinking on this comes from reflecting on his own spiritual experiences, and on a poem found in the Old Testament, known as the Song of Songs.
This aspect of Carmelite Spirituality offers the tantalising possibility that a spirituality based on love isn’t just about trying to make our world a better place. It has the possibility to bring us into the very heart of God Himself. It offers the possibility of living in union with God. I wonder if you are attracted by such a possibility? You may also be wondering: are there any Christians who have followed this path and actually arrived at the goal of a perfect union with God? Is such a journey open to every Christian, or is it only for the chosen few?
Christians have differed over whether it is possible for us human beings to achieve union with God. St John of the Cross certainly felt that it was a possibility. And there have been plenty of Christians down the centuries who have felt that it is well worth the effort.
And this brings us back to where we started in this short introduction to Carmelite Spirituality. In a nutshell, Carmelite Spiritualty is all about living our lives in the context of the love of God: our love for God and God’s love for us. It is about recognising the challenges we face to living lives of love, but at the same time seeking to overcome these challenges, and pressing onwards regardless. We come from God, and we are journeying towards Him, in the company of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit. And there is the possibility that through love, we may even arrive at the goal of a perfect union with God Himself. It’s a distant goal, but a goal which makes the journey infinitely worthwhile.