Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21
“There you have it: the love of God is an unconditional love, and only that love can empower us to live together without violence. When we know that God loves us deeply and will always go on loving us, whoever we are and whatever we do, it becomes possible to expect no more of our fellow men and women than they are able to give, to forgive them generously when they have offended us, and to respond to their hostility with love. By doing so we make visible a new way of being human and a new way of responding to our world problems.”
Henri Nouwen in Letters to Marc about Jesus: Living a Spiritual Life in a Material World (New York: HarperCollins, 2007). This excerpt comes from Letter V. The book contains seven letters Henri wrote to Marc van Campen.
Today you get a bonus. It’s like a doubleheader in baseball, which is fitting as I got to spend special time with my baseball-loving friend, Dan Busby, yesterday. When I drove up, he was sitting on the porch.
I got out of the car and sat down with him, “How are you, Gary?” He asked. I replied (quoting Scripture), “The righteous man has many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all.” He echoed the value of that verse.
I added that if I am good it is because I try to remind myself daily to focus on God’s love. This helps me stay centered in a crazy world much like the thinking from Henri. Then I turned to hear from him. We enjoyed hours together.
This book is a gem. It’s like a porch conversation with a giant in the faith. It inspires and instructs. It moves you to grow. As a bonus, here’s his entire Letter VII. May it nurture your spiritual life and empower your generous response.
Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. Luke 17:33
“Thursday, 18th September
My dear Marc,
It was more than seven months ago that I began writing these letters about the spiritual life. I sent you the first three from West Germany, the three later ones from France. That now seems far away and long ago.
In mid-August I went to Canada to live and work at Daybreak, the L’Arche community near Toronto. This morning I read through my letters to you once more, and I realized that I’d probably written them as much for myself as for you. My year in Europe was meant to be a period of searching for a new direction in my life. I had a vague notion that Jesus was calling me to leave the university and to go and live with mentally handicapped people. My meeting with Jean Vanier and my stay in the L’Arche community at Trosly awoke in me something new which I couldn’t continue to ignore. The burning question was, “How best am I to follow Jesus?”
In my letters I’ve tried to bring you closer to Jesus. But I now realize that I’ve also “used” these letters to get to know Jesus better myself and so become better able to hear the invitation to follow him. It’s good, I think, that these letters have a purpose for both of us, because it’s only with what touches my heart that I am able to touch yours.
In my first letter, I said that I could write to you only what I’ve lived through and experienced myself. In this final letter I can honestly say that everything I have written to you has sprung directly from my own search for God. I hope this will prove more of a help than a hindrance for you. My greatest desire was to awaken in you a deep love for Jesus. I’ve told you of the Jesus who liberates, of the suffering Jesus and his compassion; of the Jesus who in his humility chose the descending way, of the loving Jesus who challenges us to love even our enemies; and finally of the Jesus of Nazareth who reveals to us the mystery of God’s hiddenness. As you see, I’ve begun with the end of the gospel and ended with the beginning. In doing that I’ve tried to stay close to the church’s proclamation, which approaches the mysteries of God’s incarnation and redemption from the perspective of its faith in the risen Lord.
In the course of writing I’ve discovered for myself the great extent to which I’m inclined to “secularize” Jesus. Instinctively, I look to Jesus for a cheap liberation, a solution to my problems, help with my desire for success, getting even with my opponents, and a good measure of publicity. It’s not always easy to see Jesus as the gospel presents him: as the Lord who calls us to spiritual freedom, shares our suffering, shows us the descending way, challenges us to love our enemies, and secretly reveals God’s love to us. And yet, each time I catch a glimpse of the real Jesus, I’m conscious of a new inward peace, and it is again possible to recognize his voice and follow it.
So I can tell you that these letters have helped me to see the real Jesus and have strengthened my decision to go to Canada and live and work there with mentally handicapped people.
Spiritual life is life lived in the spirit of Jesus. I’ve spoken of the Eucharist as being the center of that life. Jesus is more, much more, than an important historical figure who can still inspire us today. In the Eucharist he sets us free from constraint and compulsion, unites our suffering with his, forms a fellowship in shared vulnerability, offers us a love that forgives even our enemies, and helps us to see God in the seclusion of the human heart. Where the Eucharist is, there Jesus really is present; there too the church really is a body, and there we really do share, even now, in eternal life.
You and I both are called to be disciples of Jesus. The differences between us in age, circumstances, upbringing, and experience are small matters compared with the calling we have in common. What counts is being attentive at all times to the voice of God’s love invit- ing us to obey, that is, to make a generous response.
How can we keep listening to this voice in a world which does its best to distract us and get our attention for seemingly more urgent matters? In this last letter I want to put before you, by way of a conclusion, three forms of listening that for me have proven to be the most productive.
First of all, listen to the church. I know that isn’t a popular bit of advice at a time and in a country where the church is often seen more as an obstacle in the way than as the way to Jesus. Nevertheless, I’m deeply convinced that the greatest spiritual danger for our times is the separation of Jesus from the church. The church is the body of the Lord. Without Jesus there can be no church; and without the church we cannot stay united with Jesus. I’ve yet to meet anyone who has come closer to Jesus by forsaking the church. To listen to the church is to listen to the Lord of the church. Specifically, this entails taking part in the church’s liturgical life. Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost: these seasons and feasts teach you to know Jesus better and better and unite you more and more intimately with the divine life he offers you in the church.
The Eucharist is the heart of the church’s life. It’s there that you hear the life-giving gospel and receive the gifts that sustain that life within you. The best assurance that you’ll go on listening to the church is your regular participation in the Eucharist.
Second, listen to the book. By that I mean read the Bible; read books about the Bible, about the spiritual life, and the lives of “great” saints. I know you read a good deal; but a lot of what you read distracts you from the way that Jesus is showing you. The secondary school and university offer you little in the way of “spiritual reading.” That’s why it’s very important for you to read regularly books which will help you in your spiritual life. Many people are brought to God through spiritual literature that they chance or choose to read. Augustine, Ignatius, Thomas Merton, and many others have been converted through the book. The challenge, however, is not to read a “spiritual” book as a source of interesting information, but rather to listen to it as to a voice that addresses you directly. It isn’t easy to let a text “read” you. Your thirst for know- ledge and information often makes you desire to own the word, in- stead of letting the word own you. Even so, you will learn the most by listening carefully to the Word that seeks admission to your heart.
Finally, listen to your heart. It’s there that Jesus speaks most intimately to you. Praying is first and foremost listening to Jesus, who dwells in the very depths of your heart. He doesn’t shout. He doesn’t thrust himself upon you. His voice is an unassuming voice, very nearly a whisper, the voice of a gentle love. Whatever you do with your life, go on listening to the voice of Jesus in your heart. This listening must be an active and very attentive listening, for in our restless and noisy world Jesus’ loving voice is easily drowned out. You need to set aside some time every day for this active listening to Jesus, if only for ten minutes. Ten minutes each day for Jesus alone can bring about a radical change in your life.
You’ll find that it isn’t easy to be still for ten minutes at a time. You’ll discover straightaway that many other voices—voices that are very noisy and distracting, voices which are not God’s—demand your attention. But if you stick to your daily prayer time, then slowly but surely you’ll come to hear the gentle voice of love and will long more and more to listen to it.
These three ways of listening will guide you to an ever-deepening spiritual life. They will help you to get to know Jesus in a very intimate way, make you aware of the unique manner in which he is calling you, and give you the courage to follow him even to places where you would rather not go. Living with Jesus is a great adventure. It’s the adventure of love. When you admit Jesus to your heart nothing is predictable, but everything becomes possible. I pray that you will venture on a life with Jesus. He asks everything of you, but gives you more in return. With all my heart I wish you much hope, much courage, and abounding confidence.
Affectionate greetings to your parents, and to Frédérique and Reinier.
Henri”
If you want a PDF copy of Letters to Marc about Jesus: Living a Spiritual Life in a Material World, just reply and I will share it with you.