Henri Nouwen and an Epiphany

 This week I've read Henri Nouwen's very short book, really almost a tract, In the Name of Jesus, or Reflections on Christian Leadership. If you can get a copy, you should. You can read it in one sitting, but you'll want to come back to it multiple times. 

Essentially he explicates three temptations for the"Christian leader" (which is a very broad term and I don't think it necessarily applies only to pastors or in his case priests). These are tied to the temptations of Jesus: popularity, relevance, and power. From his outline anyone could go deeper. 

By the way, you might be able to find a free download on some Internet site, but the ones I found were "problematic." This is a good review of it, though.

There are many passages I would like to quote here, and perhaps I will in the future, but I had a few reflections on his reflections. 

He emphasizes the centrality of contemplative prayer. I'm not entirely sure what that is. Wikipedia quotes St. Teresa "Contemplative prayer [oración mental] in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us. ' Contemplative prayer seeks him 'whom my soul loves'." 

I think it is meant to be prayer that focuses on worship in addition to, but I hope not to the exclusion of, intercessory prayer. For a person like me who is very task oriented, prayer as sitting in a room feeling the presence of God is a struggle; in fact, it seems a little self-indulgent. It is not, of course, unless it overtakes what the New Testament seems to put as the first place of prayer, attention to the needs of others. 

Second, I laughed at myself this morning. After marking a great quotation, I said, "I need to put this on Twitter." Well, duh. That was sort of the point he was making (and he wrote before the social media frenzy). Why did I want to put it on Twitter? I "interrogated" it, as one of my doctoral professors would say. 1. Because I wanted to get likes or whatever you get on Twitter. 2. So people on Twitter know I read high-brow stuff, and 3. I wanted to share it because it was meaningful to me. What irony. So, I waited. I will eventually, when my motives are cleared of the "look at me" ethic of Twitter and other social media. 

Third, his story in the end of going to a big conference accompanied by one of the clients (or I should say community members at L'Arche) is priceless.  It's worth the cost of the book. Mine was given to me, but the price on this less than 100-page volume is almost $15.00, which seems odd. 

Anyway, L'Arche required him to take the mentally disabled young man with him to D.C., and the young man stood beside him when Nouwen gave his talk because he thought that was what it meant to "do it together. " It struck me that that is how we work for Christ. We have little contribution but our presence; He's doing the work but allows us to work "together."

Finally, the book does have a Catholic ethic and worldview, and as a priest he took a vow of poverty, so that might go sideways of our Protestant work ethic. I don't think we have to be poor so much as content with enough, but that would be a personal choice and I won't preach here on choices regarding homes and cars. And I am aware of the L'Arche controversy but I don't think it has anything to do with Nouwen, who also confessed at the end of his life to same-sex attraction within his celibate life.  And I do have a little poke: he taught at Harvard, and he does mention that a lot. A little pride, maybe, that he didn't see? Aren't we all that way? Pride is so deep within us (especially in academic and professional accomplishments) that it's going to show up sometimes, and in those sometimes we might want to give the person some slack rather than judge or be annoyed. Sometimes it's just something to smile about and love the person all the more.