Can we become the music? Is it mysticism? Ask our Jubilarians?

Thomas Merton defines mysticism as an experience with God beyond words.   Many have been touched deeply by God when we listen to some piece of classical music or perhaps had a spiritual experience when listening to the melody of a good song.    Perhaps there are times when each of us experience music without ever hearing a sound and we are touched deeply.  It often comes from another’s life or some profound moment in our own, a moment when God reveals Godself.  It is when we are deeply immersed in the music of life that we become the music.  God and I make music all the time.  How about you?

Merton tells us “…the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion.  It is wordless!  It is beyond words, and it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept.” (“Thomas Merton’s View of Monasticism,” a talk delivered at Calcutta, October 1978,)  Many have had such an experience when we spend a quiet afternoon with a friend saying virtually nothing but being so at peace and  at one with one another that we know “communion. ”   The same often happens on a quiet day alone with God perhaps enjoying nature together.

When I was on sabbatical (at Cedars of Peace in Nerinx, KY) my hermitage was called “Namaste” and there was a sign in my hermitage explaining the term Namaste.  It read:

I honor that place in you, where the entire universe resides. I honor that place in you, of love, of light, of truth, of peace. I honor that place with you where, when you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us.

The word Namaste  is often used as a greeting in the Hindu or Buddhist tradition.  When spoken to another person, it is commonly accompanied by a slight bow made with hands folded in prayer. This gesture is often made wordlessly and carries the same meaning.  Namaste is a form of music living within us,  music in which a reverent dance honoring another flows freely.  When we use it, we are recognizing in the sacredness of one another, that place where the divine dwells within each of us.  The gesture alone is like sweet centering music without any sound.  In it we become the music.  I had a Namaste experience this weekend.

The music of Namaste was everywhere this weekend.  Our congregation’s Jubilarians spent the weekend in the Spiritual Center amid a great deal of celebrating and sharing.   It was a time of pure joy in every possible way, celebrating those among us who for seventy-five, seventy or fifty years of professed religious life have lived the music of their lives and sung it beautifully to each of us and to all who they have served and all who have touched their lives.   They offered many surprises to us as well.  On Saturday they spent a significant amount of time with our retired sisters at Assisi House thanking them for being their role models and mentors and friends who brought them to this day.  At a magnificent liturgy on Sunday morning amid the most joyful music imaginable the jubilarians entered with dance and celebrated with praise to our God who is always loving us extravagantly.  They thanked the congregation for all that they have been for them and asked pardon for any way in which they were not fully present to anyone of us. 

It was a powerful way to begin their renewal of vows.  And in a tradition that is still alive in our congregation they sang the Benedicam Domine thanking our all good God for such extravagant love.  Throughout the liturgy the joy was in no way restrained.  It was contagious and on the way out of chapel they surprised us as each one pulled out a silver streamer and began their movement down the aisle or one might say their dance down the aisle.   Trust me THEY WERE THE MUSIC – if no instruments were playing or no voices singing – their lives and their joy would have been enough.

Those of you who have been around the Spiritual Center for some time may know one of our Jubilarians quite well.  Sr. Marie Angela Presenza, our program coordinator,  celebrated 50 years as a professed Sister of St. Francis.  Here is a picture to just give you an inkling of the joy in her heart.   Sr. Bernadette McKinniry, RSM, a former Board Member of the Franciscan Spiritual Center joined her for the celebration as did many of her cherished friends in community:

The weekend was filled with song, dance, and a deep level of sharing God's love.  It was clear that here in the joy of the moment we were each the music we heard in the sound of one another's joy and in the memory of each jubilarian's journey.  Namaste!