The Way: Ancient
Journey for modern Times
The Way of Ascent and
Descent
Jesus said, "I
tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up
and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and
earth." John 1:51
When
I was growing up, our school regularly took trips to the science museum in
Boston. The capstone event was the museum electricity show. We sat in a small
amphitheater in front of an enormous dual-sphere Van DeGraff generator – two
enormous columns the size of a four-story building with enormous aluminum globes
fixed at the top each column. The generator produced static electricity. We
would sit in wonder and terror as the machine zapped arcs of lightning,
teaching us about the power of electricity. The grand finale of the show was a
hair-raising electrical storm with the retina-scorching light and ear-splitting
crackle. I think we were supposed to learn about how awesome it is to control
and use such power for human benefit. I learned that being in the presence of
that kind of power gives me a migraine headache. I always dreaded the
electricity show.
One
of the demonstrations at the museum was an arc of electricity that travelled up
two parallel wires. I’ve since learned it has a name: Jacob’s Ladder. His dream
described in Genesis 28 must have felt electric. Jacob is on the run from his
brother. Jacob, the impish and impetuous youngest child of Isaac now finds
himself in the desert, destitute and cut off with nothing other than what he
might find as he goes. For instance, he uses a rock for a pillow. Nothing in
the text suggests that Jacob is thinking about God. He’s tired, afraid, and on
the run when he stops at the place that will be known as Bethel, or God’s House.
At this low point, Jacob dreams of angels ascending and descending on a
staircase, then God appears next to him and offers a blessing. Jacob gets a
small experience of the wider workings of God. God has more in store for Jacob
beyond his own plans and schemes. God
draws close as if to say, “I am with you and I will watch over you.” It must
have felt electric. If his experience is at all like mine at the electricity
show when one is in the presence of power, I wonder Jacob was in caught between
amazement and terror. The text says he woke up afraid. I wonder if experiencing
the electricity of God also have him a headache. Or, maybe it was from sleeping
on that rock for a pillow.
I
was taught that the spiritual life is an upward journey in which I must strive
for goodness and perfection in life. We should always be growing. Always
learning. Always getting better. Always taming our wild sides and becoming more
respectable. These expectations are like upward angels, moving us closer to the
unattainable perfection of God. It sure is a lot of pressure, trying to be
perfect while knowing we will never get there. The thought of always reaching,
always striving, but never getting there this side of heaven – that gives me a
headache, too.
Jacob’s
dream isn’t just about the upward journey. In Jacob’s dream angels are
ascending and descending—going up and
down. I experience those upward
moments when I sense more of God’s presence and feel transformed. Sometimes,
those very same encounters fill me with fear. In my experience, both movements
are important to understand out spiritual lives. The spiritual life if not just about travelling
arcs of electricity that always rise. Spiritual life is about rhythm. We travel
up and down. We breathe in and out. We expand, and we are emptied.
At
times we sense a deep connection to God. The world feels in sync. The journey
feels life-giving, even when it’s demanding. It’s as if we are, in those
moments, ascending the ladder. We say, “This feels good. I’ll do whatever it
takes to be in this place.” Then life hits us hard. We experience pain, doubt,
and confusion. We are afraid. We are afflicted by "contracted
consciousness" and feel far away from God. People will offer us some
religious sounding platitudes, thinking they help us feel better. I hear this especially
around grief and dying. “God needed another angel. He is in a better place. Now
you will have another angel watching over you.” Those words may be helpful for
some people. Not for me. They discount my grief and suffering, making me feel
like I’m somehow less resilient because of my pain. Or they are somehow more
spiritual than me because they are still climbing the ladder while I am
tumbling back down to the bottom.
If
two people are on a ladder, one at the top and one on the bottom, who is
higher? It depends on which direction each is headed. In other words, there is
nothing wrong with this up-and-down process. Descending is an important part of
the spiritual journey. Times of descent can lead to fuller and higher ascents.
Distance or crisis can lead to a more profound sense of connection and intimacy.
During
the 1920s, a young French Catholic Jesuit priest and scientist named Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin [te-yar duh shar-dan],
worked as a geologist and paleontologist in China. In his spare time, he developed
a spiritual focus that integrated all the discoveries being made in science
with what he knew about God. He published his ideas in a book called The Divine Milieu. It became a revolutionary
book of Christian spirituality -- so revolutionary that his religious superiors
refused to let him publish it.
Chardin
recognized at every moment we experience the descent. He called the descent diminishments. We experience external
diminishments all around us… premature deaths, stupid accidents, weather-related
destruction, oppressive political systems. They all work outside of us and
hinder our capacity for development. We also face internal diminishments. If an
external diminishment gets us asking, “Why him, why her, why now?”, internal
diminishments get us thinking, “Why me?” To Chardin, internal diminishments were
far more threatening because of the kind of damage they inflict: dealing with
failing bodies, sickness and disease, and the pain of moral failings and
weaknesses that keep us weighed down. They strike without warning and rob human
beings of hope. Can these diminishments ever become for us a source of good and
growth?
We
respond to diminishments differently. Some people will fear the downward
journey and avoid it all costs. They may even blame God or loathe the idea of
God.
Some
will feel defeated by diminishments. Chardin says no matter how well we resist
we will feel the constraining grip of our diminishments gradually gaining
mastery over the forces of life.
There
is a third way. Chardin called it resignation. He didn’t mean to just give up
and accept the pain. He wanted us to resign ourselves to God -- to unite with
God when our strength is spent. We resist. We persevere courageously. In the
wonder and in dread, in the glory and in the agony, God appears next to us and
says, “I am with you.” In our tradition, Jesus is the ladder … the staircase.
He is the one who shows us an example of what it feels like to live the upward
and downward journey. Christ gathers up our stifled ambitions, our inadequate
understandings, our incomplete or clumsy endeavors. He shows us a way to resign
ourselves to God when caught between amazement and terror.
Take
a minute of silence now. I want us to think a diminishment you experience. Never
give up the struggle. This hostile force can become for you a loving moment of
transformation. The challenge is to acknowledge that our unwanted and uninvited
experiences are happening in the Divine Milieu – in God’s Space. As created
beings, we are still incomplete. Every other being is also incomplete and
looking for wholeness. Earth itself is still incomplete, still in a state of
process. We will experience conflicts, competition, loss and failure. All of
this, the upward and downward journey, the blessings and challenges, the
embellishments and diminishments, the healings and the headaches, all happen in
God’s Milieu. All pain unfolds within God’s Space.
May
we come to see we are not alone in our pain… On the downward journey, we are in
the company of millions around the world. Even in pain, we can be a blessing to
others
We
will be tempted to get angry, and rage against the powers and people who cause
pain in our lives. Or, the pain might be like a migraine headache that causes
us to withdraw and close our lives up. We can convert the energy of fear and rage
into something else – something that brings us closer to God and to one
another. All of this takes place in God’s Space. We won’t always understand how
or why. Instead of downplaying our diminishments with simple answers and
unsatisfying slogans, we can resign ourselves to live in God’s Space—to sink
into God’s presence.
If
two people are on a ladder, one at the top and one on the bottom, who is
higher? It depends on which direction each is headed. As we journey along the
Way, we remember everyone is climbing Jacob’s ladder. Everyone is moving
upward, just like we are. And everyone is also moving descending, just like we
are. What can we do but smile at others, and encourage others, and love the
person who grips the ladder while frozen in panic? What can we do but address those
who try to push others off the ladder, those people around us who cause pain
and destruction? They might be wounded at their very core. You never know. What
can we do but journey with Christ who is the Ladder, the Staircase, the Way along
our insufficient knowledge and our incomplete actions? Our inner failings, our
wounds, our pains, our scars – those help us remember what it means to show
compassion as we all journey in God’s Space.
Sources:
·
http://spiritualpractice. ca/welcome/how-can-my-ageing-become-a-spiritual-practice/a-spirituality-of-diminishment/
·
Teilhard de Chardin:
Theology, Humanity, and Cosmos by David Grumett 89-91
·
http://www.beliefnet. com/faiths/judaism/2000/12/the-ladder-to-heaven.aspx#StvpRhEw5Hgbru2d.99
·
https://rc.library.uta. edu/uta-ir/bitstream/handle/10106/424/umi-uta-1153.pdf?sequence=1
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