The Dazzling Darkness

At the Center for Spiritual Development we have spent the last few days in discernment and Ignatian prayer. As a result of silence, and pondering the movements of discernment, I have moved from a murky focus to a sense of deep assurance.
The work of discernment begins in prayer and emptying. The spiral of movement into God passes through humility and obedience before it swirls into clarity. We do not rest here, as our spiral is not static but moving. Sometimes, as in the passage from Philippians, clarity is very dark indeed:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.
Phil 2:5-8
In this passage, we are encouraged to let Christ be our guide on the via negativa-which is the way of emptying. Christ, through self-emptying, moves into the vision that God is holding for the world. It wasn’t enough to become human; obedience insisted on the assumption of all that humanity had made of itself, including sin and death.
We are invited to join Christ in self-emptying. We are invited to let go of everything that keeps us from clarity of God’s vision for us.
Spiritual clarity is not the same as arriving at a solution to a question. It is more like a diamond’s clarity, which is determined by clearness and lack of impurities. The most valuable stones catch the light around them and reflect it out in shimmering brightness.
The soul’s clarity glimpses the Presence without name and without words--at once unknown and yet known intimately.
Read what Dionysius (around 500 AD) wrote about this mystical encounter with God:

(The)"unchangeable mysteries of heavenly Truth lie hidden in the dazzling darkness of the secret Silence, outshining all brilliance with the intensity of their darkness."

What I am circling around here is the unchangeable nature of the living God. Spiraling or coming to the edge of mystery is the way of dazzling darkness. This is the deep paradox of the spiritual life. I seek light and I find darkness. I seek life and I am invited to give up my life. I seek Christ and I find a man hanging from a tree.
And yet, these conundrums are the very means of my salvation. The good news is that I do not have to understand them with my intellect I only need enter them with my heart wide open.
Blessings,
Debra


"Teach me to go to the country beyond words and beyond names.”
T. Merton