{"id":1886,"date":"2022-12-24T08:47:12","date_gmt":"2022-12-24T14:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/?p=1886"},"modified":"2022-12-24T08:47:16","modified_gmt":"2022-12-24T14:47:16","slug":"abiding-in-the-still-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/?p=1886","title":{"rendered":"Abiding in the Still Point"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host\nwith the angel, praising God and singing:<\/em> \u201cGlory to God in the highest\nand on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests!\u201d (Luke 2:13).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was it like for those shepherds to hear the song of the\nheavenly angels in Bethlehem at midnight on that first Christmas?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are joyful moments or peaceful moments in which time almost\nloses its relevance. There are moments of stillness, moments of rest, moments\nin which we feel held by the embrace of eternity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then time presses on. The moment passes. The great poet\nT.S. Eliot reflects on those moments in which \u201cwe had the experience but missed\nthe meaning.\u201d It was almost<\/em><\/strong> within our reach! We can try to go\nback to it, try to recreate the moment, but it will never be the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love reading the poetry of T.S. Eliot. Every Good Friday I\nrecite aloud his Four Quartets<\/em>. Almost every December, I re-read his\nplay Murder in the Cathedral<\/em>, which tells the tale of Thomas Becket\u2019s\nmartyrdom. At many moments in both works, Eliot ponders these mysteries of\ntime, eternity, human freedom, and redemption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In both works, Eliot ponders \u201cthe still point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Burnt Nornton (the first of his Four Quartets<\/em>) he speaks\nof a moment in which all is \u201creconciled among the stars.\u201d I have little doubt\nthat he is speaking of the Incarnation, and of that Christmas mystery in which\nthe stars themselves paid homage to the newborn King of the Universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eliot puts it this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh\nnor fleshless;
\nNeither from nor towards; at the still point; there the\ndance is,
\nBut neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it\nfixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from\nnor towards,\n
\nNeither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the\nstill point,\n
\nThere would be no dance, and there is only the dance.\n
\nI can only say, there<\/strong> we have been: but I cannot\nsay where.\n
\nAnd I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in\ntime.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise in Murder in the Cathedral<\/em>, Eliot offers the\nimage of time as a turning wheel. The wheel ever turns. Some of us want to take\ncontrol of it, but we cannot. In the play, Becket faces four tempters. To the\nfirst he flatly says, \u201cOnly the fool, fixed in his folly, may think he can turn\nthe wheel on which he turns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are we then helpless victims, whipped around by the wheel of\ntime? Do we just passively accept things as they come? No, freedom is neither\nseizing control nor passively abdicating. It is something else:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know and do not know, what it is to act or suffer.\n
\nYou know and do not know, that acting is suffering\n
\nAnd suffering action. Neither does the actor suffer\n
\nNor the patient act. But both are fixed\n
\nIn an eternal action, an eternal patience\n
\nTo which all must consent that it may be willed\n
\nAnd which all must suffer that they may will it,\n
\nThat the pattern may subsist, that the wheel may turn and\nstill\n
\nBe forever still.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are actually the words of the fourth tempter to Thomas Becket \u2013 quoting Becket\u2019s own words and mocking him. He has easily dismissed the other temptations, but this one sickens him \u2013 to do the right deed (martyrdom) but for the wrong reason. Finally, he finds freedom in total surrender, abiding in the still point:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shall no longer act or suffer, to the sword\u2019s end.\n
\nNow my good Angel, whom God appoints\n
\nTo be my guardian, hover over the swords\u2019 points.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Becket discovers the very freedom of Mary\u2019s fiat<\/em> \u2013 \u201cLet it be done to me according to your Word.\u201d In one sense, Mary is incredibly active, asking the angel how this can be and pondering these Christmas mysteries in her heart. In another sense, she is totally passive \u2013 totally receptive of God\u2019s Word, so much so that he becomes flesh in her. She adds nothing, subtracts nothing, and alters nothing. Eliot appeals to Mary\u2019s fiat <\/em>in Dry Salvages, the third of the Four Quartets<\/em>. It is \u201cthe hardly, barely prayable prayer of the one Annunciation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I loved merry-go-rounds as a child. I loved having a strong\nuncle whip us around as fast as he could \u2013 even though I knew I would start\nfeeling sick. I curiously moved to the middle of the merry-go round \u2013 a much\ndifferent experience. At the outside, I had to clutch at the rails with all my\nsix-year-old strength. At the center, I could stand unaided \u2013 though I still\nmight grow dizzy. Were I somehow smaller, I could truly stand at the still\npoint, noticing the movement without being swept away by it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is humility that makes us small enough to stand at the\nstill point. Humility is neither an achievement nor a product of old age. There\ncan be young saints and old fools. T.S. Eliot reminds us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do not let me hear\n
\nOf the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly,\n
\nTheir fear of fear and frenzy, their fear of possession,\n
\nOf belonging to another, or to others, or to God.\n
\nThe only wisdom we can hope to acquire\n
\nIs the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Father knowns our fear, and he knows our frenzy. We get\nall spun up, and resist receptivity and rest. We get stuck in the past, trying\nto recapture a moment that is gone, and missing the moment of the present. Yet\nalways the invitation is there \u2013 the invitation of the angel Gabriel at\nNazareth, the invitation of the angel to the Shepherds at Bethlehem, and the\ninvitation of our own guardian angel right here and now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May we echo Mary\u2019s fiat<\/em>, again and again. We will\nlikely drift from the still point. Then we will feel whipped around by truly\nchallenging times. We may try to take control, pushing Jesus from the center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stillness of Christmas night is an invitation into the\nstillness of God\u2019s eternity. Granted, we are not fully ready for it. The very\ntime that imprisons us is the time in which we will be redeemed. But when we\nnotice we are drifting, we can surrender again and again, until at last we find\nour true home in the still point of God\u2019s eternal rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and singing: \u201cGlory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests!\u201d (Luke 2:13). What was it like for those shepherds to hear the song of the heavenly angels in Bethlehem at midnight … <\/p>\n

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