Michelangelo, detail from Sistine Chapel ceiling
Spiritual Sunday
I am just back from visiting my grandson in Manhattan so receiving this dazzling Rainer Maria Rilke poem and accompanying message from my good friend Sue Schmidt was timely. Here’s her wonderful letter:
Dear Robin,
I came across this poem a while ago and thought of your post on “Trailing clouds of glory” about your grandchildren. I’ve recently been wondering if we are all souls sent from heaven, each of us asked if we would like to be born in a certain way, to a certain family, and with a certain mission. Then we are plunged into our bodies, where the physical or “real” experience can make us forget our connection to God. We can come to think that we are just physical beings rather than “embodied souls.” As I read Julian of Norwich, this is borne out in her final vision where Adam’s “fall” seems to be caused by the disorienting experience of being embodied, rather than a lack of wanting to serve God.
Rilke’s poem plays with this idea of “embodied souls” by suggesting that while God gives us life, we give God the experience (both good and bad I suppose) of what that life feels like. We “clothe” God, who as Spirit, cannot know what it is like to be human. Jesus, “in whom all the fullness of God dwelt in bodily form” (St. Paul) came as the full incarnation of God. But Jesus did not experience every facet of human life. The apostle Paul at another point talks about “sharing in or completing the sufferings of Christ.” which I’ve understood as bearing the burdens of those who are in need. When I read this poem I imagine that we are also sharing and completing the joys of God, as we engage in loving relationships, appreciate/participate in nature, and create meaningful work, to name a few.
I appreciate that Rilke honors our senses and longings as gifts from God. As my daughter says, behind every longing is a deeper, truer longing. At this stage in my life, I trust these deeper longings are what direct me. And I agree with Rilke that we connect with God through our emotions. Even when my encounters with God have been intellectual in nature, an accompanying sense of joy affirms a connection has been made.
Here’s the poem:
God Speaks to Each of Us
By Rainer Maria Rilke
God speaks to each of us before we are,
Before he’s formed us — then, in cloudy speech,
But only then, he speaks these words to each
And silently walks with us from the dark:
Driven by your senses, dare
To the edge of longing. Grow
Like a fire’s shadowcasting glare
Behind assembled things, so you can spread
Their shapes on me as clothes.
Don’t leave me bare.
Let it all happen to you: beauty and dread.
Simply go — no feeling is too much —
And only this way can we stay in touch.
Near here is the land
That they call Life.
You’ll know when you arrive
By how real it is.
Give me your hand.