Rediscovering the mystical depths of Christianity.

"Better to be cast out of the Church than to deny God."
Anne Hutchinson before her judges in 1638

Strangely enough, the Christian faith has long held a schizophrenic relationship with the mystical dimension of its own teachings. The very nature of this religion, which claims that God became a human being so that human beings could become godlike (as stated by one of the early teachers), is above all a teaching on mysticism -- linking the material and spiritual worlds in an intimate, interconnected bond.

Across every century, Christianity has given birth to some of the world's greatest mystics, people who have experienced a dimension of reality that is universal and true for all people, revealing some of the mysteries of why we exist and who we are beyond our culturally acquired identities. And yet, the Church has often condemned the very best representatives of its tradition. Why? The answer is painfully simple. The mystics were a threat to the authority and structure of the institution. When it is suggested that any person can have direct access to the dimension of the Holy, then what becomes of the priests and clergy who serve as professional intercessors? A lot of people would be out of work...and maybe should be if they are not true spiritual teachers.

There is also another reason, exemplified in the case of the great Meister Eckhart, one of the giants of the Christian mystical tradition. One of his students, John Tauler who was a mystic in his own right, stated that "he spoke to you from the point of view of eternity and you understood him from the point of view of time".

The sad fact is that the enlightened perceptions of these profound individuals could not be grasped by leaders of the Church who dealt in platitudes and superficial dogma. The Church excommunicated this German Master even though he claimed to be its loyal son to the end of his days because his experience of God soared so high that it transcended the need for priests and sacraments. Everything he wrote concerning the encounter with the Divine was based on immediate, personal experience and that is why he is as vital a guide at the end of the twentieth century as he was at the beginning of the fourteenth.

The times in which he spoke were very much like our own. A great spiritual upheaval was taking place. There was a movement called "Liberty of Spirit," ancestor to our New Age approach to awakening; a new "awakening" brought by the discovery of Arabic, Hebrew and Greek thought was causing people to found their beliefs on reason as well as on the heart; at the same time, universities were packed with pedantic, hair-splitting academics utterly insulated from the life-giving depths of the Faith; the Church itself had lost prestige as the Pope's authority was called into question and the selling of indulgences made grotesquely clear the financial lusts of the institution.

Finally, a great many lay movements were arising in reaction to the sterile teachings of Rome. Men and women who were seeking the living waters of spiritual consciousness came together to create loosely connected groups such as "the Friends of God" and magnificent works like The Imitation of Christ, Theologia Germanica,and Mechtild of Magdeburg's The Light of the Godhead. The visionaries born from the religious turmoil of the fourteenth century, Jacob Boheme, Hildegard of Bingen, John Ruysbroeck, Julian of Norwich, were all influenced by the mighty spiritual light of Meister Eckhart whose wisdom remains timeless and still enlightens contemporary seekers.

He left us with these words, which come close to a Zen koan, suggesting that in resolving the paradoxes, we find the answers:"You ought to sink down out of all your your-ness, and flow into his his-ness, and your "yours" and his "his" ought to become one "mine," so completely that you with him perceive forever his uncreated is-ness, and his nothingness, for which there is no name."

One of the highly respected personalities in the religious world of our time, the monk Bede Griffith, made this radical and prophetic statement late in his life:"If Christianity cannot recover its mystical tradition and teach it, it should just fold up and go out of business."

There is no question that should Christianity not recover the essence of its purpose -- which is the awakening of the spiritual depths of human beings in a way that utterly transforms their understanding of themselves and their relationship with life -- then it will have completely failed in its mission and will have nothing to offer to a world that desperately needs a unifying vision and a sense of common ground among people and cultures. It is the mystic first and foremost who reveals the spiritual home that we all share and the wondrous purpose of our presence in the universe.