Song of Songs 2:8-13 – Springtime rhapsody
Psalm 45:1-2, 6-9 – Ode for a royal wedding
James 1:17-27 – Hearing and doing the word
Mark 7:1-8, 14-23 – The tradition of the elders
He is the Way.
Follow him through the Land of Unlikeness;
You will see rare beasts, and have unique adventures.
He is the Truth.
Seek him in the Kingdom of Anxiety;
You will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.
He is the Life.
Love him in the World of the Flesh;
And at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy.
This piece written by the Anglo-American poet W.H Auden shortly after the conclusion of the Second World War, formed the basis of the addresses we received by prominent American academic and writer, Fr Roger Ferlo at the silent retreat I attended last weekend.
This poem, and the way in which Fr Roger unpacked it provoked for me much thought, reflection and prayer as I was challenged in my perceptions of where I might expect to find God in my life.
The theme of the retreat was, “The Land of Unlikeness: Ministry in an Anxious Age.” The concept of this “Land of Unlikeness” that we were to explore throughout the retreat emerged from three particular sources. The first was St Augustine, who wrote in his Confessions, “I found myself to be a long way from thee in a region of unlikeness.” The second came from the ancient philosopher Plotinus who described in his work entitled Enneads, the fate of men and women who had become, “…dwellers in the place of Unlikeness, where, fallen from all our resemblance to the Divine, we lie in gloom and mud.” And lastly, as mentioned above, W.H Auden who wrote, “Follow him through the land of Unlikeness,” and, “Seek him in the Kingdom of Anxiety.”
In his first address Fr Roger spoke about the difference between fear and anxiety. He spoke in the context of his experience of the terrorist attacks upon New York City in 2001 and their aftermath. Feelings of fear, he said, most often have an object as opposed to anxiety, which seems more open-ended and, unlike fear, irresolvable. Fear, he said, is like a labyrinth in that we can see an end to the path upon which we are traversing. Whereas anxiety is more like a maze, full of dead ends and trick turns … it’s far easier to get lost in a maze than it is in a labyrinth. Anxiety speaks of a wilderness of sorts, a wilderness of the soul where what was once comfortable now feels like a looming threat. When anxiety rules God can seem remote as our moral landscape shifts and turns and lays prey to lurking agents of evil.
BUT Fr Roger went on to say (and this was a “BIG BUT”), if we would allow him, Jesus could blaze his way through the wilderness of our anxiety. In the maze that is our anxiety, Jesus is our map, our compass and our steady companion. As Christians, Fr Roger said, we are called to follow Jesus wherever he leads, and more often than not, that will be to the Region, the Place, the Land of Unlikeness, for the Way of Jesus is the Way of the Cross.
After this first session on Friday afternoon we were all sent away with a series of scripture references to reflect upon. The passage that I sat with came from Mark and told the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. As I sat and prayed with this piece of Scripture I found myself focussing entirely on Jesus’ emerging from the wilderness after his 40 days of what I saw as a kind of captivity. I viewed his release from the wilderness as something positive, something liberating and something that I must achieve for myself … escape from the wild beasts, from the chaos and the uncertainty and the danger that for me represented the wilderness.
This view of mine was to be seriously challenged the next day at our second session with Fr Roger who concentrated on the second stanza of Auden’s poem:
He is the Truth.
Seek him in the Kingdom of Anxiety;
You will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.
A question that Fr Roger had us ponder was, “What is the city that Auden refers to in this stanza?”
There has been a tradition in Christianity, and I suspect there still is, that life on earth is viewed as an exile of sorts. We are mere visitors here, sojourners in an earthly city that bends us and breaks us and gives us no end of tears and frustration. Our escape from the hard slog that is life comes at life’s end when, we hope, we will make our way to that heavenly city where every tear will be wiped away. While not denying the hope we have in one day being enfolded in God’s divine embrace, Fr Roger, stated quite clearly that Christians can not use religious life as a form of escape from anxiety, rather our decision to follow Christ is an invitation to enter into the Kingdom of Anxiety. Christianity is not an exit from this Kingdom … it is our point of entry. Should we fear this? No, because God has pitched his tent in this Kingdom of Anxiety. In the midst of this earthly city God’s compassionate presence can be felt. In the midst of this earthly city, God, who through Jesus Christ, took all of life’s muck upon himself and transformed it, redeems sin and sorrow.
After this address I was given an entirely new perception of wilderness and my place in it. The day before my focus was on escaping from the wilderness. This day I knew that as a Christian I should not be seeking to emerge from the wilderness rather I should be seeking to immerse myself within it. If God has pitched his tent in the Kingdom of Anxiety, in the Land of Unlikeness (and we know in our heart of hearts that he has, we know from the history of salvation as it is revealed in Holy Scripture), if God has pitched his tent in the Kingdom of Anxiety, then I should be looking to pitch my tent next to His, rather than pulling up my tent pegs and running away. On this second day of the retreat I recognised my invitation to take up residence in the Kingdom of Anxiety, to re-enter that city that has expected my return for many years.
If God has pitched his tent in this city, immersing Himself in the sin and the sorrow of this place, redeeming it, transforming it by his compassionate presence … then so must I and so must you. By virtue of our baptism into the life and death of Jesus Christ we have been invited to make our entrance into, not our exit from, this city.
As a parish we find ourselves in the midst of this Kingdom of Anxiety. Our congregations are not growing as we might hope, we are without the resources both human and financial to maintain our Churches, we are struggling to pay our bills, we are heavily reliant upon the support of the diocese to pay our clergy stipends and to keep us viable as a parish. We know first hand what it is like to live in the Kingdom of Anxiety. What then is our response? Do we ignore what’s happening around us? Do we deny the reality of our situation? Do we hope that someone else will fix our problems? Are we seeking to make our exit from this city, this Kingdom of Anxiety?
We have an invitation now that we must respond to, an invitation to look upon that which we fear most and, instead of mindlessly resisting our fears or denying them or being defeated by them, we are being invited by the Holy One, to think outside the square, to make painful decisions, to redeem and transform our fears, to immerse ourselves, like Jesus did, in the wilderness that we now find ourselves in, to make our entrance into that great city, to seek God and his purposes for us as a parish in the Kingdom of Anxiety.
He is the Way.
Follow him through the Land of Unlikeness;
You will see rare beasts, and have unique adventures.
He is the Truth.
Seek him in the Kingdom of Anxiety;
You will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.
He is the Life.
Love him in the World of the Flesh;
And at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy.
In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
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