In the Grip of Light by Paul Murray OP

Author:Paul Murray OP
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781441166340
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

For Bernard, part of the experience of God – a major part – is, paradoxically, the experience of his ‘absence’. Again and again, both in life and in prayer, we are – or so it seems – left completely on our own, bereft of the sense of God. Reflecting on this fact, Bernard quotes the words of Jesus in John’s Gospel, words intended of course to console us: ‘A little while and you shall not see me, and again a little while and you shall see me’ (Jn 16.16). But Bernard is not consoled. With real exasperation he exclaims: ‘Oh little while, little while! How long a little while! Dear Lord, you say it is for a little while that we do not see you. The word of my Lord may not be doubted, but it is a long while, far too long.’41 As soon as Bernard loses sight of his divine Lord, he begins to search for him again in prayer. And, what is more, he begins to speak of this search for God in a number of his sermons. The effect is truly remarkable, for by speaking of God’s ‘absence’ in this way, by revealing to his readers, and to his brethren, something of his own spiritual anguish, the reality of God – the presence of God – is made more palpably real, perhaps, than ever before.

Actively searching for God demands that, as believers, we enter step by step into the mystery of God’s Word. And that requires faith. But faith, as it grows, inevitably involves some personal experience of both the absence and the presence of God. Mere information or abstract knowledge about this mystery will never be enough. ‘[O]nly personal experience’, Bernard says, ‘can unfold its meaning’. And he adds: ‘Let those who are versed in the mystery revel in it; let all others burn with desire rather to attain this experience than merely learn about it.’42

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