February 12, 2006

Blessed

by Julianne Stokstad

"As the Beloved children of God, we are blessed," begins Henri Nouwen's second chapter in his book Life of the Beloved. This is the second in a series of sermons aimed toward inspiring and helping us live our faith on a daily basis in the midst of the secular world in which we live.

The word blessing is used in different ways. When the bread is blessed in communion, it is sanctified, made holy. When we say Bless this house, we are asking for God's favor. Nouwen chooses another meaning of blessing that comes from the Latin benedicere as in benediction, meaning to say good things of someone. We all need each other's blessing, to hear good things said about us. It is more than saying what good things a person does or has, though; it is affirming that which is of God in each other. It is touching the original goodness within each other. We all have had the experience of someone seeing something good in us that we don't see and then over time we begin to see it in ourselves. For me, blessings are those things, which lead us to a life good and true. All blessings ultimately come from God and are about our relationship with God and other people.

The opposite of blessing is curse. In our world, it is hard to believe in blessings when we see so many curses around us: good people we love get sick; wonderful kind and gentle people suffer often in silence from depression or other mental illnesses; many feel despair listening to the news or thinking about the enormity of suffering and need in our world; and there is the ever present threat of global terrorism, random violence and environmental degradation. But Nouwen has another way of looking at curses. He sees our the inner voice that calls us no good, bad, or stupid as a curse. Anything that leads us away from life towards death in our spirit is a curse.

Last week I spoke about the suffering I saw in India. But it wasn't all that I observed. There were many blessings for me also. Let me tell you about a few of them, because as time passes, I find these blessings stand out more and more. On our first day in Kolkata, I recall standing in a fabulously elaborate Jain temple and a school class of girls dressed in neat blue pinafores with white blouses filed past me. As I smiled, each one looked at me and smiled back. I felt profoundly blessed by each one of them. In Bodhgaya at the site where the Buddha became enlightened, there is a huge temple. It is a very important holy place for Buddhists. As we came to the tree, there were maybe a hundred monks, in bright orange robes, chanting in deep resonant voices. Our group sat down nearby and our leader began a short service. Just as we began, I was surprised as a leaf from the tree floated down into my hand. Then an Indian man came over and told me I was blessed. I felt greatly blessed by the leaf and the man.

One of my fears going was that I might get sick and indeed I did. All the women but one came down with severe food poisoning. We had all the awful symptoms and I became severely dehydrated. It's not the illness stands out, rather the tender nursing care I received from members of the group. Again I was blessed greatly.

The greatest blessing involved the evolution of my reactions to the unrelenting poverty, poisonous pollution and unsanitary conditions that assaulted our Western sensibilities. At first all I could see was the horror. But slowly I began to notice, for example, on the dirtiest of streets a basket of the most beautiful eggplant and cauliflower I'd ever seen. I began to look for beauty and surprisingly I could always find some, even in the worst of places: children's eyes, the beautiful people, Asian cranes, flowers, women in bright colored saris looking like butterflies in the fields. Our leader called it looking at the world with the eyes of Buddha. Blessings were everywhere, if I looked and received them.

All this has some very important underlying theology. Nouwen says blessing touches the original goodness of others. Blessing speaks the truth about us while curses speak lies. The underlying concept Nouwen is presenting is that there is goodness is all of creation, in all people. Do we live with the presumption of original blessing or original sin? We can choose because the Bible supports both. Genesis 1 tells us that everything God created, including humans is good. The second creation story in Genesis 3 tells of humans forever cursed by Adam and Eve's mistake.

The idea of human being originally evil and cursed is not a Jewish Old Testament belief. Rabbi Abraham Heschel states, "Just to be is a blessing, just to live is holy." The concept of original sin is not found in Jesus' teachings, but crept into Christian theology from Augustine's works. Matthew Fox tells us to embrace the concept of original blessing as the original goodness of all creation. This view creates a profound new religious paradigm and if it were accepted would change the way we treat each other and the earth.

Nouwen has two suggestions for how we can hear and claim the blessing God gives each of us. The first is prayer. The work of prayer is to be in relationship with God and listen. The movement of God's spirit is very gentle, not seeking attention, but it is persistent, strong and deep and it can change our hearts when we hear it. "The faithful discipline of prayer reveals to you that you are the blessed one and gives you the power to bless others," writes Nouwen. He suggests that we memorize a psalm (Be still and know that I am God) or a prayer, like the Prayer of St. Francis (Lord, make me an instrument of your peace) or our Dorothy's way of saying the Lord's Prayer over and over. Use it as a gateway into the silence of our prayer time.

Second, he recommends attentiveness to blessings that come to you day after day. For example, someone brings you a cup of tea, when you don't expect it, you might smile all day from the blessing. In order to be blessed we must learn to receive the blessings. "Often people say good things about us, but we brush them aside with remarks such as 'Oh, don't mention it, forget about it, it's nothing.' These remarks may seem to be expressions of humility, but they are, in fact, signs that we are not truly present to receive the blessings that are given. It is not easy for us, busy people, to truly receive a blessing." (p. 65) I have a long way to go in this area.

If we look around, we are truly surrounded with blessings. If you haven't noticed, take a walk, go outside and look at the blessings of the beauty of the blossoming trees and daffodils. Look and listen to the blessings of art and music in our lives. Listen to the words of gratitude and encouragement, words of affirmation and love spoken to you.

It is our choice, moment by moment to claim the blessings or not. Nouwen says very provocatively not claiming being blessed leads to the land of being cursed. There is no neutral territory. So, choose blessings, choose life, right now and each moment.

People want to be blessed, "no one is brought to life through curses, gossip, criticism, accusations or blaming. There is so much of that taking place around us all the time. And it calls forth only darkness, destruction and death."

We can walk in the world and offer blessings. It doesn't mean that there are no terrible troubles before us, there is much to concern us, but we choose what Jesus calls us to: to stronger hope; greater trust and deeper love. Claim your blessings and pass them on.