Fr Christian Nnanna

Archdiocese of Kaduna

Christian Spirituality week 5

Possibility of Contemplation

1. If contemplation is necessary for a human being, then it must be possible. If God speaks,

humans can listen and thus must listen. But if a person is to answer in this way —because he

believes the word of God—he must be at home in the word. He must know what he is about.

He must be so attentive to God’s word that he is not merely aware of being addressed at

all—as a person stands in the wind and feels it blowing past him—but knows that he is being

challenged to understand what he is told and to react accordingly. Thus the boy Samuel is

instructed by Eli: “Go lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for thy servant

hears’” (1 Sam 3:9). When Mary hears the word of God from Gabriel, she is already

prepared to respond: “How can this be”—i.e., how shall I do this— “since I have no

husband?” (Lk 1:34). Thus too Paul, struck down under the impact of the Lord’s revelation,

hears as one who is willing to respond: “And he said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord

said to him: "Rise, and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do." (Acts 9:6-7;

22:10). (Balthasar 36-37).

According to the Creed, everything comes from the Father, both His Son, begotten not created,

and, in addition and in a profoundly different way, all that is created out of nothing, all that is

seen and unseen. The Father is the source of all that is within the triune God, creator of the

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entire universe. The Word, the Son of God, and human persons in the created world both

originate from God, albeit in profoundly different ways. Everything is a free gift/grace of the

Father’s love. The fact that we are created and the fact that we are saved is a free loving gift

of the Father. “What have you that you have not received?” The greatest gift of the Father is

the gift of the begotten being of the Son, the Word, through whom we are bonded to the

Father: Everything floats on the incomprehensible and free love of the Father. The Christian

who prays floats on the sea of the Father’s love. We are blessed and can only respond:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The grace which the Father gives

us is christoform: it assimilates us to the Son himself without violating us as human beings—for

the Son himself became a human being. (Balthasar 58)

Further, the incarnate Son died for us and for our salvation. The Paschal Mystery is a movement

toward the Father, a coming to us and a return to the Father. Often the Paschal Mystery is

stated as the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fuller, more complete

statement should be the passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus to the right hand

of the Father. Through contemplation, we are called to participate in that movement. The

possibility of contemplation is confirmed by the role of the Holy Spirit. There is a mutual

relationship between the Ascension and Pentecost. When the Son returned to the Father, he

was able to send the Spirit to dwell within the believer and within the Church, the mystical

Body of Christ. Of course, the Holy Spirit was always there as the three Persons are always

present to one another. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Spirit eternally

proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Spirit dwelling within prepares us for, and enables

our hearing of, the word from the Father. The Spirit is the Lord, giver of life, who has spoken

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through the prophets. The Spirit inspires the Sacred Scriptures as the word of God in the words

of human authors. We receive the gifts of the Spirit—wisdom, understanding, counsel,

fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord—which enable the practice of the state of life

of being a Christian, that is, Catholic spirituality (Text Equivalent).

2. This was a time of dramatic change in the life of the Church when new types of religious

orders arose, when magnificent churches and cathedrals were constructed, and when the great

medieval universities were founded. But it is also the time when the schism between East and

West solidified; when the Inquisition used torture to secure evidence of heresy (one of

the most lamentable chapters in Church history); when “Christendom,” the tensely unified

order of the Church and Empire began to come apart; and when the new national states of

England and France began to emerge. It was widely felt that the Church was in need of great

reform. Providentially, new kinds of religious orders that were apostolic rather than

contemplative—the Franciscans and the Dominicans—were established in 1206 and quickly

spread throughout Europe. The mendicant friars (who were dependent on alms and had no

landed income) emphasized preaching and the evangelical practice of poverty. They were free

to move about and thus serve the Church in the rising cities in ways that monks were unable to

(Text Equivalent).

Saint Dominic founded the Order of Preachers, priests who were educated and distinguished

for their doctrinal and spiritual expertise. The Dominican stress on scholarship and education

moved the friars into important roles in the new universities. With a different emphasis at the

beginning, the Franciscans embraced “Lady Poverty,” a dedication to a radically poor

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life and a mission of preaching. The foundation of the universities greatly stimulated the

intellectual life of the Church. Analytical thought and logic, based on new translations of

Aristotle, were newly and systematically applied to Catholic faith and doctrine. Theology and

philosophy began to separate into different disciplines. This is the age of the great scholar

saints: Anselm (1033-1109 A.D.), Albert the Great (1200-1280), Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274),

and Bonaventure (1217-1274). Great women saints also flourished: Clare of Assisi (1193-1253),

Mechthild of Magdeburg (1212-1282), and Gertrude the Great (1256-1302)(Text Equivalent).

3. In the opinion of many commentators, the greatest saint, after our Blessed Mother Mary,

was the unique Saint Francis of Assisi (1181- 1226 A.D.). He is considered “another Christ,”

radically answering a personal vocation to imitate Christ. Saint Francis followed Christ’s

instructions literally. He embraced Lady Poverty. Just as Christ has emptied Himself in order to

redeem the world, so Saint Francis became poor to show us that everything is a gift from God.

The goods of the created world are not to be taken for our self-appropriation. For Saint Francis,

the sacred humanity of Christ had a special place. The special moments in Christ’s life were

His birth in a stable in Bethlehem and His dying on the Cross on Calvary. The Eucharist, with its

humble and elemental broken bread and poured wine, are compelling reminders that in Christ

God has become poor for us. Saint Francis could do no other than follow his Master. He showed

a deep compassion for the poor and despised. He loved all creatures of God. Thus, he is the

patron of the environment. Saint Francis was the first known case of the reception of the

stigmata, the physical experience of the wounds of Christ (Text Equivalent).

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St Clare of Assisi (c. 1193-1253) is the first woman to write a Religious rule. She was a disciple of

St Francis of Assisi and she struggled to preserve his enduring ideals after his death. It is

uncertain when just Clare first met Francis, but this probably occurred a year or two before

Holy Week of 1212, when she offered to Francis her commitment to follow his way of living the

gospel. Soon, other women joined her at the Church of San Damiano, the first of the edifices

that Francis had repaired with his own hands. There Clare remained with her "Poor Ladies" for

the remaining forty two years if her life (Dupre 117).

WORKS CITED

Text Equivalent.

Balthasar, Hans Urs von. Prayer. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986.

5Haeley Charles. Christian Spirit; An Introduction. NewYork: Pauline press, 2003.

Vatican Council II; Lumen Gentium 1965.

Dupre, Louis and Wiseman, James (editors). Light from Light: An Anthology of Christian

Mysticism. New York: Paulist Press. 2001.