Seán Walsh: It is expedient for you that I go away
“IT IS EXPEDIENT FOR YOU THAT I GO AWAY…”
Master Eckhart sees Christian growth as a constantly deepening
attention to the pure, simple, singleness of God, an increasing
readiness to ‘let go’ of self-directed thoughts and pictures.
It means, as he says, letting the soul become a ‘desert‘,
an emptiness
in which there is space for God to work.
All external devotions are merely adjuncts to this…
In an Ascension Day Sermon (P/E LXXXV I 1) on the text,
“It is expedient for you that I go away,” he boldly describes
the seven sacraments and
the ‘human shape’ of Our Lord Jesus Christ
as obstacles to spiritual growth –
the sort of remark which won so much odium
from some of his contemporaries
and so much admiration from woolly Romantics
in the nineteenth century!
But in the context of the sermon, it is clear that he is not
in the least questioning the saving efficacy of
Sacrament or Incarnation,
but rather objecting to facile,
limited and materialistic ideas of grace.
Some souls are trapped in a sacramental theology
entirely preoccupied with outward forms and regulations
and need to be reminded that the
sacraments are there to point beyond themselves.
As for devotion to Christ’s humanity,
Eckhart associates this with a
piety which is unhealthily interested
in visions, messages and
assurances of God’s special providence;
and this is to limit and confine God.
The true following of Christ
is the following of the whole Christ,
the eternal Word,
as well as the historical figure.
“It is expedient for you that I go away.”
Salvation and sanctification are not worked
by the recollection of a historical character,
but by entry into the whole life of the Son,
into “the union of the whole Trinity.”
(- abstracted from The Wound of Knowledge – Ecstasy and Understanding, by Dr. Rowan Williams, (retired) Archbishop of Westminster.) – (S W)
A thought-provoking piece by a renowned theologian. It is good to be reminded that the sacraments are gateways to the Lord and not ends in themselves. The reserve regarding ‘devotion to Christ’s humanity’ I am a little uneasy with. According to John’s gospel, the ‘eternal Word’ shines through the ‘flesh’ of Christ’s humanity, and continues to do so through the glorified humanity of the risen Lord. However, I may be misreading the piece, which is easy to do when it is a short excerpt from a longer work.