The Point of Nothingness in the Center of Our Being

As I was reflecting this morning on today’s Gospel from St. Luke, in which Jesus drives the moneylenders and sellers from the temple, my focus was not on the external temple, but the reality that we are the temple of God.

I was reminded during my reflection of a beautiful passage of Thomas Merton’s:

At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is so to speak His name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence, as our sonship. It is in everybody, and if we could see these billions of particles of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely….I have not program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere.

In the words of 1 Corinthians, “Do you not know tat you are the temple of God and that God dwells within you?

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You Are a Dwelling Place of God in the Spirit

This week we held a Taize prayer service at Summerwood Assisted Living facility in Chanhassen. I always enjoy these gatherings; the residents are grateful for our presence and really seem to enjoy the time spent in communal worship.

As we always do at these services, we intersperse the chants and periods of silence with several readings and then a reflection. I offered the reflection at this service, on the theme of God dwelling within us.

I began by talking about how important it is for us to get deeply in touch with the reality of God’s indwelling. Without confidence that God desires to dwell within us, we can’t take seriously and engage wholeheartedly in the task of preparing ourselves for ultimate and complete union with God. Henri Nouwen wrote, “We can only wait if what we are waiting for has already begun for us.” Thomas Merton says we turn to God where God is already present. I then talked about the Incarnation as that which gives us confidence that we always carry God with us.

You can listen to a podcast of my reflection here. (The podcast runs for 9:39.) A copy of the three readings we used for the service the is here.