The season of Advent invites us to make room for Christ in the ‘inn of our heart’. The Rev’d Linda Chapman* reflects on how, through meditation, we can abide in love, and partner with God in bringing Christ to birth in the here and now.
Advent anticipates the birth of Christ. In this season we are reminded of the Incarnation: of God born into this world of matter, of flesh and blood, of human vulnerability and complexity.
The Incarnation is not the birth of an idea, or a construct about God, but rather, our faith says, it is the actual bodily birth of God in this world. Christian faith recognises God, in Christ, as embodied in a particular place and time; born into this every day, ordinary life.
Yet at the same time, we recognise the cosmic Christ, who whilst born in Bethlehem in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, was also in the beginning with God, in the creative genesis of all life. This incredible insight proclaimed in the Gospel of John, together with the infancy narratives in Luke and Mark, is the vertical and horizontal of our faith.
We recognise that the historical incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth is a continuum between that birth in the very beginning and the continuing incarnation, the unceasing birthing, now in the vast cosmos, and in us. The mystical heart of Christian faith says that through the incarnation we have become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1.4).
The mystic Meister Eckhart says:
“What does it avail me if this birth takes place unceasingly and yet does not take place within myself? It is quite fitting, however, that it should take place within me.” [1]
It is from Eckhart that the metaphor of Advent as pregnancy and meditation as midwife arose for me. If we are to take this birth seriously then we might consider advent as a time of renewed attention to our prayer life and the practice of meditation as a midwife to the birth of which Eckhart speaks. He says:
“In the soul that abides in a present now, God begets his only begotten Son, and in this birth the soul is born again in God. It is one birth: as often as the soul is born again in God, the Father begets his only Begotten Son in the soul.” [2]
What we are to birth is the divinity within us. Our divided hearts are to come together to form (w)holiness. “In the soul that abides in a present now, God begets ...” Meditation enables a greater abiding in the present now. It is in this that we might consider it as a practice that midwives the birth of divinity through us; which is to say, the birthing of our fullest humanity.
We abide in a present now by giving our full attention to that which is present. In meditation we give our attention to a prayer word, a mantra, in the present now. By giving our attention, we are cooperating with the birth of which Meister Eckhart speaks. The birth that God “accomplishes unceasingly in eternity; the same birth now accomplished in time within human nature”. The vertical and the horizontal; the immanent and the transcendent; the human and the divine. It is quite fitting that this birth should take place within us.
The practice of meditation is not about disconnecting from the painful, messy, exhilarating reality of life. It is, rather, about tending the divine life within us in the midst of the sometimes painful and mundane lives we live in this world. Meditation is not an esoteric practice. The midwife assists at a natural event.
But it is not only in the human that the incarnation is manifest. The incarnatio continua is realised as the unceasing pouring out of God’s love that reaches the deepest centre or ground of every living thing. Deep incarnation recognises that the historical embodiment of God in Christ, through death and resurrection, reveals the radical embodiment of the divine extending to every last atom.
If we are to believe this, to take it seriously, then it has implications for our relationship, our inter-relatedness with the whole of life. Humanity’s divided consciousness is destroying the earth. To take the incarnation seriously is to take matter seriously. Flesh and blood, bark and sap, skin and scales, fur and feathers are all embodiments of the unceasing birthing of God’s generative Life in all its fullness.
The continuing or deep incarnation is a recognition of divine presence everywhere. The unceasing flow of God’s creative energy pouring forth throughout the cosmos; the invisible, generative Source of all life, becomes manifest, most particularly in Jesus of Nazareth, and also throughout all of history and geography.
During Advent we may choose to consciously pay greater attention to this birthing by partnering with the midwife of meditation. As we give our attention to the prayer word, we enable the readying and opening of our heart that Christ may be born there. Teacher of Christian meditation, John Main OSB, says:
“Christ was born at Bethlehem and that is a marvellous historical fact. But it was completed in the past so that he now must be born in our hearts. Our hearts must be made ready for him. There must be room for him in the inn of our heart. That is all meditation is: a readying and opening of our heart for the birth of Christ.” [3]
However, as Eckhart says, what does it avail me if the birth of Christ happens unceasingly yet does not happen in me? It seems this birth is as much process as event. And it happens in the ordinary, everyday reality of this life, in the here and now.
Eckhart said that we do not necessarily experience rapture or ecstasy when we partner in this birth. It may indeed be as simple as paying attention in the here and now to this world in all its messiness, its labouring pains as well as its joys. This is an everyday mysticism utterly connected with all matter of life. And at the same time this birthing process, our practice of meditation, leads us into the infinite mystery at the heart of creation.
Pregnancy requires a tending of the inner life growing within, both hidden and revealed at the same time. Such is the life of God incarnate. Here and now is the God whose ground is our ground, in the deepest interior of all life; unceasingly birthing through us.
Through our prayerful practice of attending and abiding, and our agency as human beings, we may avail ourselves of this birth, in this world. This birthing of Christ heals our divided mind-hearts; unifies our consciousness such that we will see the whole of life as one.
Meditation then may midwife that birth in us which is divine love. God may be incomprehensible; both hidden and revealed at the same time. Yet, in the face of such incomprehensibility we are brought to silence. And from silence we might fall in love. We might see the whole creation is alive with birthing. And we will love it, the whole of it. And so the saviour comes.
The joy of Christmas might then be a celebration of simply being, abiding in a present now, living in love.
*The Rev’d Linda Chapman OAM is an Anglican priest and presently Rector of the parish of Moruya on the far south coast of New South Wales, Australia. Linda founded ‘Open Sanctuary’ at Tilba Tilba: a contemplative ecumenical community committed to living out practical sustainable life principles and the practice of silence. Linda nurtures the Christian contemplative way and is an oblate of the World Community for Christian Meditation. An occasional retreat leader and spiritual director, as well as advocate for action on climate and conservation, Linda sees the urgent need to be contemplative in action for the common good.
For more information about Christian Meditation see:
https://www.thelivingwater.com.au/christian-meditation
References:
[1] WCCM Course material, ‘Roots of Christian Mysticism’
[2] ibid
[3] The Heart of Creation. John Main, Canterbury Press, Norwich, 2007, p. 77