Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans

 


Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans


If you chase the wind, this is where the wind winds up; nowhere and everywhere.


We have to come to an end. Qoheleth is a master of assemblies. Ecclesiastes is an address to a community. Ecclesiastes' words are wise, but don’t continue your despairing journey. Instead find the way to transcend and rise above the wind. This is the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep his commandments (12:13). 


The last time we spoke, our conversation moved towards (the topic of) prayer. But now it has moved towards fear? The fear of God? Recall that in Ecclesiastes God is called Elohim (rather than YHWH). Elohim is a plural form of God, a plurality of communion. The scriptures teach that the Fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom. "Keeping God’s commandments" is the torah or teachings. In this case, the reference to commandments is mitzvah, like a bar mitzvah (or bat mitzvah) when a young person becomes responsible for keeping the teachings.


How can we move from drawing close through prayer to finding good in fear and trembling? Rudolph Otto created the term numinous to describe that sense of holiness experienced by humans when encountering the Divine. He wanted to find another way to express the Holy without the veil of familiarity that we bring to that word. He further developed this idea as mysterium tremendum et fascinans. That is, the trembling encounter with Divine holiness; fear, coupled with a compelling fascination to draw close.


This is the conclusion of Ecclesiastes: to be trembling in the face of Holiness, but drawn forward by the mystery, and bound by the beauty.*


The idea of mitzvah or commandments is more than just a rule of law. Historically, it speaks of connection or attachment, literally a “cleaving” to the Creator. This connection takes place on two intersecting planes: all of humanity, and the plurality of Elohim or Trinity.


Beatrice Bruteau, in her book Radical Optimism, suggests that the Trinity lives together in communion and feeds each other in a self-giving way, expressing the individual and the collective. We must learn to do this. This is imaging God-Elohim.


The numinous, the holy, trembling and fascination, this is where Ecclesiastes brings me: to a Christology, the study of the Christ.


Bruteau continues: “We must not be misled by the fact that many things in our traditions, in 'the way we were brought up,' are presented to us in the name of Jesus but do not exemplify his new principle at all.”


Further, Jesus “did try to start something quite revolutionary, something with a new principle at its foundation. He has a grand ideal, and if we pretend to take him seriously, we must take it seriously. It is not sufficient to be interested in him only for what he can do for us, create a religion about him and make him an object of worship.”


A reading of Ecclesiastes forces us to consider the idea of death, invariably. This brings to mind the communion of the saints. The Communion of the Saints is the members of the people of God, the body of Christ, both living and dead, resurrecting.

 

We must nurture and feed each other in Holy Communion, the communion of the saints, as the Trinity does. This becomes “our holy politic, a way of living together in the polis, the city.” 


Again, Bruteau: “Take pleasure in everything you do. Always be aware. Whatever we do should be just like our sacramental experiences. After all, the sacraments are there to teach us how to have daily experiences, daily bread, daily supersubstantial transcendent nourishing experiences. And daily wine that rejoices our hearts. It is not only when one is before the altar that one can feel this joy. It can be experienced when we are doing whatever trivial or tedious task is the work of the moment… Whatever you're doing, it is worship, it is divine expression, and it is joy.”


The value in Ecclesiastes is that a majority of people around you are leading this life. That is, trying to enjoy and understand life even though there is nowhere to go but death. “Everything is pointless.” Hevel. Qoheleth should help us to empathize with the world around us. Painstakingly, Qoheleth ‘accidentally’ uncovers the mystery of the Christ-Messiah and the end of death.


In the present, the spiritual life is the work of creating and naming, as did the Creator, and celebrating the work of co-creation, marvelling at the mystery that you don’t understand; wind, breath, spirit. A chasing of the wind. 


The fear of God, the end of the matter, is really an experience of raw and profound love. “Keeping God’s commandments” is not servitude, but participation in divine life, cleaving — a partnership in making the world sacred, trembling in the face of Holiness, but drawn forward by the mystery, and bound by the beauty.*



Bound by the Beauty* (Jane Siberry)


I'm bound by the fire

I'm bound by the beauty

I'm bound by desire

I'm bound by the duty


I'm coming back in 500 years

And the first thing I'm gonna do

When I get back here

Is to see these things I love

And they'd better be here, better be here

Better be here


And first I'm going to find a forest

And stand there in the trees

And kiss the fragrant forest floor

And lie down in the leaves

And listen to the birds sing

The sweetest sound you'll hear


And everything the dappled

Everything the birds

Everything the earthiness

Everything the verdant, the verdant, the verdant

The verdant dream


I'm bound by the fire

I'm bound by the beauty

I'm bound by desire

I'm bound by the duty


I'm coming back in 500 years

And the first thing I'm gonna do

When I get back here

Is to see these things I love

And they'd better be here, better be here

Better be here


And then I'm going to find an open field

And lie down in the flowers

And then I'm going to find a guitar

And play, play, play for hours

And then I'm going to find a river

To see what kind of body in


And everything the granite

Everything the kiss

Everything the earthiness

Everything the verdant, the verdant, the verdant

The verdant dream


I'm bound by the beauty

I'm bound by desire

I'm bound to keep returning

I'm bound by the beauty of the light


The slightest change, the constant rearrange

Of light upon the land

I'm bound by the beauty of the wind

That blows across the earth

The unfetteredness the wheatness


And through the flying hair

The slowness of the falling leaves

Across this warm November door

And the geese the flying southness

The arms out evermore, I'm bound by the snow


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