Why do we require Wisdom, Grace and Love in our lives?  We have no idea how much we rely upon the flow of grace in our lives – but we should.  And in this evening’s talk, we will explore a mystical perspective on the power of Wisdom and Love, and the nature of grace in our lives.  We need to understand that we are grace-dependent creatures, constantly in need of the many blessings that come to us through grace, such as healing, compassion, patience when we need it most, and kindness. Grace has endless expressions in our lives, but what all grace has in common is its mystical ability to transform a situation or a thought or an attitude from a negative to a positive in an instant. That is the handiwork of grace – to get you through a difficult situation – or even a desperately threatening thought – and move you to a safer inner place that you could not get to without an infusion of sacred light. Grace is a wondrous mystical force in our lives and among the graces we should appreciate the most are wisdom and love. It’s a delight to share an evening on this subject with you, as I always feel grace is contagious. 

Carl Jung has said that “it is to the mystics that we owe what is best in humanity.”  Today we struggle with coronavirus and climate change (and with those in public places actually denying climate change or refusing to do anything about slowing it down).  And with patriarchy and its exposed reptilian brain and authoritarianism rising in our midst.  Given this confusion, it would seem that we might call on the mystics to bring forth what is best in us as a species.  “Fight the worst with the best,” says mystic and prophet Wendell Berry.

We will call on two amazing but long neglected mystics of the past, Julian of Norwich and Hildegard of Bingen, for what they teach us about Wisdom, Grace and Love.  Both insist on justice being integral to love (a substantive teaching from the Hebrew Bible) and how eros and the passion for living are central also.  Hildegard compares God’s love of creation to the love between husband and wife; and Julian declares that love is what holds the entire universe together.  Both mystics begin their view of the world—not with the human—but with the whole, with the universe, with nature and creation and invite us back to nature to rediscover the beauty and the goodness that is found there and that arouses and nurtures our love.  Neither is weighed down with the burdens of modern consciousness which starts not with creation but with the human (“I think therefore I am” and other acts of species narcissism).  Hildegard and Julian are graced  by beginning with cosmology therefore and its sister ecology (“functional cosmology” according to Thomas Berry).   The first book of Genesis also begins with cosmology and the beauty and goodness of all of creation.

As Rabbi Heschel puts it, “To be spiritual is to be amazed.”   To be amazed is the beginning of Wisdom, Grace and Love.