Spiritual life is not mental life. It is not thought alone. Nor is it, of course, a life of sensation, a life of feeling...It needs both...Living is not thinking. Thought is formed and guided by objective reality outside us. Living is constant adjustment of thought to life and life to thought in such a way that we are always growing, experiencing new things in the old and old things in the new. - Thomas Merton
I regularly share poetry with a friend, both my own and poems I come across in my travels. For the poems that are by other authors I occasionally go to a bookstore or library on a poetry search. I’ve noticed over the years of doing this, however, that the poems and poets I’ve gotten the most excited about are the ones I was led to by someone, even if I didn’t know them personally, and not the ones found by going through the shelves randomly. What I’ve come to realize is that I like the story behind my learning about a new poem or poet as much, perhaps even more, than the poem itself. There’s a connection for me this way that takes the discovery to a different, better level that then makes it part of the story of who I am and who I am headed to be.
Case in point—earlier this year I discovered the Mexican poet Octavio Paz when Pope Francis was visiting Mexico. The story begins with me standing in the deli area at Ranch Market in Redlands. Bag of fresh tortilla chips in hand I was heading to the produce area on the other side of the store when I glanced at the TV that is in the deli area. Seeing it was tuned to Pope Francis’ last minutes in Ciudad Juarez before he boarded his plane to head back to Rome, I paused, along with a half dozen other folks, and watched until the Pope’s plane left Mexican soil. Not being able to keep up with the Spanish, later, when I had a chance, I Googled Pope Francis’ Juarez visit in English coming across his speeches. In one speech he used a poem by Paz, “Hermandad” (“Brotherhood”), which I thought was quite wonderful. This led to Google-ing Paz, discovering he is a well known Mexican poet, which brought me to more of his poems that I like. And sure enough, the next time I was at the bookstore there were his books of poetry that I had overlooked many times. It took a story to capture my attention.
Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz has been my latest discovery, someone who I probably would have overlooked if it wasn’t for Senora Downey saying something after Spanish class in 4th grade. The 4th graders had been given an assignment to come back with a Spanish author for the next class. I piped in saying Paz was my favorite. She concurred about Paz, then added that I might also be interested in Sor Juana, which I checked out further by the end of that day.
I haven’t been as interested in the poems of Sor Juana, a brilliant Hieronymite nun of colonial Mexico, but I have been fascinated by her strength and courage at overcoming the various obstacles to learning and changes she faced during that time. Again, it was as much the story behind how I found out about Sor Juana, as what I discovered about her, that made me find her inspiring. These poetic discoveries eventually made me see how our faith grows richer and stronger when there is more to our faith than merely facts and rote behaviour, that we connect and thrive when there is a story.
If all Saint Paul had known about Jesus were facts passed along by the Apostles I seriously doubt he would have gone all over Asia Minor and Europe with such great energy and enthusiasm, relaying this to everyone along the way. No, Paul was telling the story of Jesus and how our Lord impacted his life. Paul was giving people a real connection to this God-man, Jesus, and drawing them into the story so they, too, would want to live in the light of the Gospel. The facts alone about Jesus don’t draw us into His mystery and love. Our faith in Jesus takes root when He becomes an intimate, living story that has come alive in our own lives through His story in the lives of others who have witnessed to Him in some way.
Stories do involve a certain amount of risk as we have to engage with others allowing ourselves to let our stories mesh, merge and be joined together and that takes trust and faith. But faith is both personal and communal and overlapping our stories with those of others ultimately strengthens us in our relationship with God even with all our faults and limitations. Like me passing over, and missing out on, some beautiful poetry until I had a story, a connection through someone else that led me there, so too, does our faith flourish when we are connected with the story of others and grow in that intimacy.
1 November 2016
link to some of Octavio Paz's poems.
http://www.poemhunter.com/octavio-paz/poems/