Today December 2

Today is the feast of Blessed John Ruusbroec, known as "the Admirable", (1293 - 1381). Abbot Cuthbert Butler says, "In my opinion there has probably been no greater contemplative than Ruysbroec, and certainly there has been no greater mystical writer." Wow. John was a simple priest -- first secular, then Augustinian -- who wrote with a poetic depth and luster his books of spiritual union (with God): "Book of the Kingdom of God's Lovers," "Spiritual Espousals," and "Spiritual Tabernacle." He was a very able philosopher and theologian in Brussels, of modest background, whose devout and loving mother became a beguine, sort of a cross between a lay sister and a so-called deaconess. John was rather introverted, seldom talked about himself, was rather humble and self-effacing, and clumsy and unhandy when it came to household repairs. Oh, but his mind was sharp and his heart was big. He was often found in ecstasy. But even such an attractive man had enemies, notable the Brethren of the Free Spirit, a group John exposed for their dualism, pantheism and quietism. He wrote about REAL union, not the false pretense of union, where so-called "bare emptiness" supposedly reveals God. Their psychological quietism would lead them not only to eternal death but also to such "restlessness," "anxiety," and "despair," that they would "die like rabid dogs." Strong words, indeed.

Instead, he describes the turning of the heart and mind to God that leads to full union. First, union with God "through an intermediary" involves prayer, penances, good works and the Sacraments. Second, union with God "without intermediary" follows the "homeward-turning love" where God is experienced without images, but with a clear "essential distinction between the soul's being and God's being." Third, union with God "without difference" involves experiencing God in the "modeless abyss" of the Trinity's "essential Unity" and the essential oneness of all things in God.

Deep stuff, that. And not entirely new. But the WAY he put it, the accent on spousal love (modeling as it does union with God), and the fresh clarity of his writing -- reflected also in his life; it was not just a literary conceit -- was new and deep, at least for its time. Blessed John Ruusbroec, pray for us.