The Incomprehensible
Contemplation is not discovering elaborate explanations or sophisticated conscious reasoning. Instead it is an opening to awe, wonder, and astonishment. It is a deep resonance with the incomprehensible (God by whatever name you know God; Mystery, Love, Universe, Ultimate Reality, etc).
“God is incomprehensible; in fact, with regard to our limited intelligence, God is the origin and final end of every being.” —Meister Eckhart
“Explanation separates us from astonishment, which is the only gateway to the incomprehensible.” —Eugene Ionesco
If this unitive, mysterious, incomprehensible stature and divinity of things kind of resonates and moves within us. (St. Teresa of Ávila)
“All the paradoxes about the contemplative way are reduced to this one: being without desire means being led by a desire so great that it is incomprehensible.” —Thomas Merton, The Climate of Monastic Prayer
The contemplative life then, may not be a journey in which one actually gets closer to God, but rather a gradual realization of the incomprehensible union that has always existed.
As we will explore further, Lectio Divina, contemplation, is not accessing the text in a more intellectual way, it is being internally accessed by the incomprehensible.
