Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality by Richard Rohr

Author:Richard Rohr [Rohr, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Anthony Messenger Press
Published: 2010-12-29T23:00:00+00:00

desert & mountaintop

For a spirituality of darkness the biblical metaphors would be the cave, the Exodus itself, the exile, the belly of the fish, wilderness and especially desert. A spirituality of light would be represented by mountaintop images, especially Sinai, Horeb, Tabor and even the Mount of the Beatitudes, and to some degree the apocalyptic language found in Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation, although their attempts to be perfect light (i.e., apocalypsis or “revelation”) usually end up very confusing for most people, and often leading them back into fear and self-serving conjecture, as we see in most of the rapture and doomsday theories today. (This has been the practical effect of most apocalyptic literature, because it allows the undisciplined mind to project whatever it wants onto the bizarre, dualistic and usually warlike imagery. The best-selling Left Behind series would be an example of such an appeal to fear in general, fear of death, God as vengeance and religion as superiority and exclusivity. There’s not much love in sight. It’s an overwhelming judgment on the immaturity of Western Christianity that it is drawn to such books, which ask almost nothing of the reader except ideas.)

For our purposes we’ll juxtapose and honor both desert and mountaintop. Those are the two different metaphors for the great mystery of what cannot be directly talked about in rational language. The tradition of the mountain is about presence; the tradition of the desert is about absence. The tradition of the mountain is about speaking; the tradition of the desert is about silence. It’s the mountain of knowing, the desert of not-knowing. “The pillar of flame by night and the pillar of cloud by day” (Exodus 13:21–22) are both good guides, but not one without the other!

We have knowing and not-knowing beautifully integrated in two companion pieces in the Scriptures: Moses on Mount Sinai and Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. When Moses is on Sinai, we see in Exodus 20:21 that God is somehow manifest and yet dwelling in thick darkness; in Deuteronomy 4:15 it says, “You saw no shape on that day at Horeb.”

In Exodus 33:21 Moses “sees” and “hears” to some degree yet Yahweh does not allow Moses to see his “glory” or his “face.” Here we can observe a brilliant and delicate balancing of knowing with “don’t dare think you fully know; of seeing with an immediate reminder that you have not fully seen!” The integrating of the two traditions is right in the text. The most that Moses can see is, humorously, Yahweh’s backside! (33:23).

Now look at the perfect parallel of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:28–36; Mark 9:2–8; Matthew 17:1–9). Here we have Jesus presented as dazzling light, yet it says that a cloud also overshadowed that same light show. The epiphany is both light and darkness, knowability and unknowability, disclosure and non-disclosure. Jesus then deliberately walks with the disciples back down the mountain, onto the plain and desert of everyday life, and out of this enlightening and inflating experience.

Honeymoon experiences cannot be sustained.

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