The Silent Cry
A while ago in one of Father Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations, he referenced a book entitled The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance by Dorothee Soelle. The title appealed to me and I purchased a copy, read it, studied it, and read it again. Dorothee Soelle (1929-2003) was a remarkable human being. She was a social activist, a theologian, and an erstwhile professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York. And, oh, yes, she was a mystic!
Dorothee Sölle (1981)
In fact, this book boldly promotes the democratization of mysticism. Yes, she puts forth that all of us can become mystics. She is quick to qualify this assertion by stating that becoming a mystic is not something we can go out and achieve like an advanced degree or certification. It is something that is done to us – it is a gift of tremendous price to our egos. It is gained through a process not of addition but subtraction. It is a marathon with no visible finish line. And we’d probably think why would we ever want to sign up for that?
Well, one reason that she refers to multiple times harkens to a line from Rumi, “Why, when God’s world is so big, did you fall asleep in a prison of all places?” This “prison” is where we find ourselves in most of the waking hours of our day. When our mind is hopping about like a squirrel from one topic to another, controlling relationships, defeating political rivals, solving the pressing issues of the day and having little success in the real world doing any of that, are we not a prisoner to our thoughts and desires? If our “true center self” could step outside ourselves sit down beside us, look deeply into our eyes, and recite that line by Rumi, would not the idea of being free from that hectic prison be appealing? Of course, that might be the very reason we took up contemplative prayer sits or similar disciplines. Though these practices are an integral ingredient to becoming a mystic, Dorothee Soelle goes far beyond this as she describes three basic stages that mystics must continually journey to open themselves to a “different seeing.” Christians would call it putting on the “mind of Christ” while other wisdom traditions know it by other words signifying enlightenment or unitive consciousness.
“Why, when God’s world is so big, did you fall asleep in a prison of all places?””
Dorothee Soelle does a terrific job of integrating the words, stories, and scriptures of many mystics from different wisdom traditions as she defines these three stages of being a mystic. Simply put, the three stages are being amazed, letting go, and healing/resisting. The first stage being amazed will call us back to our childhood when we looked upon the world in wonder. Surely we remember a time as a child when we gazed upon a sunset, a fresh-fallen snow, a flower blooming, or a deer leaping, and felt strangely warm with wonder. As we grew up, worldly demands discouraged these moments; but every once in a while, we still experience instances of nature mysticism where our bodies disappear and we feel we are just part of what we behold. The Psalms are loaded with descriptions of these experiences, and this gratitude for all that is created is the beginning of mysticism. We must nurture a return to this mystical outlook, but this is not a mere Pollyanna view of the world; it includes everything. What I learned from this was that I have been missing out on mystical experiences because I have not been aware, not operating on the right frequency to receive the ecstasy, as Dorothee calls it, which we’d notice more often if we looked for it.
The second stage letting go will sound familiar because most of us recall the scripture “unless the grain of wheat dies…”, but this stage introduces an even more sober requirement, the desire to be nothing – to give up everything. I think of Henri Nouwen who gave up a successful teaching career to care for the disabled at the L’Arche community, but Dorothee gives even better examples. This complete annihilation of the ego is probably the most difficult gate to pass through. What struck me in this stage was the Christian mystic strove to unite not with the risen Savior, but to embrace the crucified Christ and share in his suffering. Recall the stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi. The mystics worship a suffering God. God is not up there somewhere away from the suffering down here; God is with us suffering too. This explains Dorothee’s title for the book that she got from a 15th century letter; Dorothee’s permanent name for God is The Silent Cry who holy men and women hear and respond to. The Silent Cry is God suffering with all those unjustly oppressed human beings throughout history.
Now the third stage healing/resisting is transforming the world with compassion and justice. If Dorothee’s first motive of this book was to announce that anyone can be a mystic, her second motive was to show the relationship between mystical experience and social and political behavior. For her there is no distinction between a mystical internal and a political external. In the first two stages are primarily between God and the mystic; but the closer the mystic comes to God, the closer the mystic begins to see how God sees, to hear how God hears, and to think how God thinks. This is when the Christian mystic puts on the mind of Christ and realize there is work to be done – healing those who are suffering and resisting injustice in non-violent ways on behalf of the oppressed. I like the story of Teresa of Avila when she said if you are deep in prayer and a hungry man interrupts you, stop praying and pour him a bowl of soup because you were just praying to Christ and he actually showed up. As I look at all three stages, I think they mirror exactly how Christ Jesus spent his life on this earth; his words and actions speak to his amazement, his letting go, and his healing and resisting. The momentary mystical experiences of feeling one with God’s vast creation that began as amazement in the first stage, has now matured in this stage into strongly held feelings of love and compassion for everyone and everything in “God’s world so big.” And Rumi himself would tell you that is what true freedom from your prison feels like!
I have read many books on the mystics and mysticism, but I feel this book spoke to me in these hard times better than any other. I highly recommend this book!
