This is probably something that if you know me you have heard me talk about a thousand times ... but nonetheless, for a recent Grad School app I had to write about how a theologian's view on a particular passage of scripture had affected my understanding of it. I thought it would make sense to write about something that was quite important for me! I think the footnotes are lost in the blog transfer, but almost all quotes are the Nouwen book.
Beloved
“Prove that you are worth something; do something relevant, spectacular, or powerful, and then you will earn the love you so desire.”
Often, I believe, this statement is tacitly accepted as a fundamental motivation for success for any and all individuals no matter their beliefs about God or spirituality. In fact it sometimes seems that these few words are all that the world ever tells us. In the conversations in our churches, there are times that this belief seeps into our words to each other without us being conscious of it. We feel like ministry needs to succeed on our own terms. After all, if there are no visible outcomes then how can God be glorified? Outside of the arena of the church, this love equation dominates our every action. We have an insatiable desire for fulfillment through perceived love of everything created; we begin to forget the creator.
One begins to wonder how Jesus dealt with the above questions and issues as a human. The first answer, I believe is: very well. Why? Jesus was continually and firmly grounded in the reality of His Father’s love, as well as grounded in His Father. At the onset of his ministry, God the Father spoke plainly.
“Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.’” Luke 3:21-22
Henri Nouwen wrote an entire book to his dear friend based on those words. He believed that the phrase “’You are My Beloved’ revealed the most intimate truth about all human beings.” The writings and thoughts that surround this claim have formed much of my understanding not just about the passage detailing Jesus’ baptism, but also about life, love, and relationship to God. What Nouwen says has implications for our understanding of the biblical text, for communication with our soul, and for our existence within culture.
Firstly, I can speak to how Nouwen’s approach has influenced my own understanding and interpretation of the text of the Bible, including ways to read all of scripture as well as just simply this passage. In the book, Nouwen is writing to his friend who does not have a faith of his own. Immediately after the introduction of the passage above, he says plainly, “Fred, all I want to say to you is ‘You are the Beloved.’” For his friend, unfamiliar with the Bible and biblical interpretation – couldn’t this seem like an odd conclusion? God was clearly speaking to his Son Jesus, and told Him he was beloved but Nouwen seems to extend this to Fred as well. I believe this speaks to Nouwen’s understanding and interpretation of text here. He connects multiple truths. We, as humans, are in fact all God’s children (Romans 8:16). Furthermore, the entire story of continuing redemption presented both in the Old Testament and again in the New Testament and our current experience reflects God’s immeasurable love for us. This love is the reason Jesus was here with us (John 3:16). Nouwen uses these truths to extend what God the Father says to Jesus to what he says to Fred.
In this way he teaches me not only the truth of what he is saying, but also informs an understanding of interpretation of biblical text. We must be diligent, careful and prayerful in what we conclude that God is telling us in Scripture and we must make sure to connect the truth of words themselves with the larger truths that we see throughout the narrative of scripture and through the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Even more important than what Nouwen implies for the interpretation of text through his discussion of this passage, is what he tries to show us it means for our soul. Here Nouwen speaks to how easy it is to listen to the negative voices that tell us we are despicable and lead our soul into the trap of self-rejection rather than the life of the beloved. He goes so far as to postulate that arrogance is simply ‘the other side of self-rejection’. Both are connected in that in arrogance we lift ourselves up to avoid being seen as we believe we are. He says, “Both self-rejection and arrogance pull us out of the common reality of existence and make a gentle community of people extremely difficult, if not impossible, to attain.” The idea that I am beloved by love itself is in striking contrast to the words that opened this essay. The fact that I am the beloved has infected my soul with a knowledge that is beautiful and painful all at once. It is beautiful because in many ways it forms a milestone in my soul’s journey to learning how to rest in the heart of God. Reading this book helps to move along my understanding of what St. Augustine means when he says “My soul is restless until it rests in you, O God.” Furthermore, this has led me whole-souledly into the writings of Ronald Rolheiser who is explicit in articulating the needs that all human hearts have to find a solution to their restlessness; their reach outwards for fulfillment. What this means not only for my own soul, but also the souls of my friends and communities is one of the most important questions I am currently seeking to answer. This is exactly why the knowledge is also painful. Nouwen even notes that understanding that there is a voice which tells we are beloved, makes us long for a greater and fuller experience of it. It is, I believe, the right direction to be travelling and for that I am grateful.
The idea of what this means for our soul is also exactly why my relationship to Nouwen becomes valuable. Nouwen taught as a brilliant professor at Harvard, Yale, and Notre Dame. I would think this is a rather successful way to find the voices of others telling us we are worthwhile. But it didn’t sooth his soul. Ultimately he found himself embedded in the L’Arche Daybreak community for people with intellectual disabilities in Toronto (my home city). The understanding that it is a beautiful place such as this that he began to further understand his own soul’s fulfillment in the Lord gives my own soul hope for growth in all of my, less than prestigious, situations.
Finally, the question begs itself, of what Nouwen’s interpretation of Scripture means for my understanding of culture. First I think it is valuable to note that the words quoted at the outset of this essay are in essence what our culture speaks to us. Leading us to “[hope] that some person, thing, or event will come along to give you that final feeling of inner well-being you desire?” Instead we must look at the example of how Jesus reacted to God’s simple declaration of his beloved status. Jesus owned it daily, sought after God rather than life, and ended up incarnationally affecting his own culture, and truly the culture of the entire world in a way that no one has done or ever will do. We are indeed called to nothing less. We must learn to own more and more of this truth, living incarnationally through God’s power in the Holy Spirit working through us to show our culture and community that they are beloved, and that they need not listen to any lies. Thus, Nouwen’s words lead me to the prayer that my culture would be able to seek first after God and his love rather than simply and only his creation, even as Dorothy Day once commented,
“… how much man would be capable of if his soul were strong in the love of God, if he wanted God as much as he wanted to penetrate the power and glory of God’s creation.”
I pray that knowing that I am the Lord’s beloved would lead me every day right back into his heart.
Works Cited
Day, Dorothy, Patricia Mitchell ed. A Radical Love. Ijamsville, Maryland: The Word Among Us Press, 2000.
Nouwen, Henri. Life of the Beloved. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2002.
The New American Standard Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002.
