I was reflecting with my spiritual director the other day some more thoughts on the Paraclete. (Our Lenten study at church is on the Holy Spirit, by the way, which is why our recent musings have been geared towards the Third Person of the Trinity).
Our reflection brought me to one of my favorite passages in Scripture, Isaiah 6, where Isaiah is commissioned by the LORD. I was drawn to Isaiah’s language of being ‘undone’ in the presence of the LORD. He is faced with God’s holiness and ‘otherness’ and can only say ‘Woe is me!’ This is not the experience of a ‘worm’ or someone who needs to ‘get over’ his guilt. This is man naked before the numinous.
In our world, we treat the spiritual life the same as everything else. Spirituality is something to be ‘consumed,’ we get what we want from it, and we move on to the next fad. Certain ‘gifts of the Spirit’ or emotional responses to God are as deep as we want to go.
How about being ‘undone?’ How about being naked before the numinous?