The Mystic To Come

Do not forget that the value and interest of life is not so much to do conspicuous things  (although we must have this ambition) as to do ordinary things with the perception  of their enormous value. This, I think, is the mystic to come.

Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Cited in Christian Mystics

Matt Fox adds these observations:

Teilhard proposes that “the mystic to come” is the one who is doing ordinary things while aware of their “enormous value.” I hear him endorsing a simple lifestyle– but to do so with zeal and generosity, with ambition. 

Are we there yet? What is holding us back? Are you the mystic to come?

I am not so convinced that Teilhard is right, although my objection might simply be centered on the word ambition, which in my experience has always been a more egotistical word than initiative, enterprise, or enthusiasm. More to the point, I see Teilhard’s words here are a rephrasing of the better known advice of Theresa of Avila, who remarked: “We are to do small things with great love”

The path of the mystic, as I have come to define it so far, and as I sincerely and earnest yet imperfectly try to practice it, requires an ongoing alliance between the virtues of humility and the necessity for courage. 

To walk one’s own path and yes, the well-worn Thoreauvian phrase of “walking to the beat of a different drummer” is also applicable here. It takes a willingness to abandon the need for social recognition or personal attainment in favor of being more constant, and being more anonymous; working quietly and consistently in one’s own neighborhood or in one’s local society practicing and experiencing the virtues and values that comprise the spiritual life.

Which means that we often have to take a stand for simplicity and gentility, which is in stark contrast to many of the prevailing attitudes and outlooks that our secular and selfish world supports and admires!

What holds any of us back as would be mystics is what has always acted as a barrier to our ethical progress and spiritual deepening: the battles with one’s own ego, with the powers and principalities of our culture, and its many, often daily dehumanizing demands.

Maybe most of all, it is realizing that aspiring to become a mystic has at its core, an ongoing loyalty to the God of your understanding, and to the divine presence that lives within you as soul.

It means going beyond the small self and its myriad of concerns, and serving gladly the aspirations and ideals, the values and the virtues of the spiritual path; and it means to live those values out wholeheartedly- however you can, choosing to live out your days with reverence, gratitude, and grace.