NO GREATER LOVE: CONTEMPLATING ESSENCE AND EXISTENCE

Understanding the two poles of created reality, essence and existence, helps us in our contemplation of scripture.  Essence deals with what something is, whereas existence has to do with the fact that this essence is really there, it’s very being.  Theologian Hans Urs Von Balthasar, in his book Prayer, guides us in recognizing the two poles of essence and existence in scripture and see how contemplation of essences leads to direct adoration (existential contemplation). It is worthwhile reading the Gospel of John with this in mind. In all its major scenes we are shown the breakthrough from contemplation (an attitude which is somehow preliminary and neutral, as is appropriate to its abstract content, provisional, reserved and even distant) to direct adoration, at the point where truth suddenly moves toward the person contemplating and overwhelms him, not from outside but from inside, since Truth is a Person. Even the Prologue of John's Gospel depicts this movement: first of all the Word is with God; it is the absolute ground of everything in the world. But then it "comes", approaches the world, approaches man; it becomes flesh and thus can be encountered directly "among us", bringing grace upon grace out of its "fullness" and so showing itself to be the Word of the Father whom no one has seen. Von Balthasar then points out several instances in John’s Gospel where an encounter with Jesus leads to adoration (existential contemplation). 

An example of this is where the Apostle Nathanael encounters Jesus and ends up saying “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (Jn 1:49) Another example, among many others, occurs when Jesus restores the sight of the man born blind. At the end of the episode, Jesus asks the man He had cured if he believed in the Son of Man.  The man then asks Jesus who he is, and Jesus tells him “You have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you.” (Jn 9:37).  The cured man ten says “‘Lord, I believe’; and he worshipped him.” (Jn 9:38).  In both the encounter of Jesus with Nathanael and the man born blind, learning about Jesus (essential encounter) leads to worship (existential encounter).

Von Balthasar tells us that these two poles of tension (essence and existence) do not only occur in John’s Gospel, but in the others as well.  It is worthwhile to look at some examples. In chapter 1 of Luke’s Gospel, we learn that Zechariah and Elizabeth had no children since Elizabeth was barren.  Since they were both advanced in years, they probably had stopped having sexual intercourse.  However, the angel Gabriel visited Zechariah and told him to resume sexual intercourse. “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call him John. (Lk 1:13) Gabriel gave Zechariah an existential revelation that he who was childless would have a son.  However, what does this mean?  Gabriel quickly answers the question.  “And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth; for he will be great before the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”  (Lk 1:14-17).  Gabriel gave Zechariah an essential revelation about who his son John would be.  He would be John the Baptist.  John existed as John the Baptist from the very moment of his conception in the “barren” womb of Elizabeth.  The poles of existence and essence are quite evident here.  When John was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth, people wanted to name him Zechariah after his father, but both Elizabeth and Zechariah make an existentialist declaration about John.  “But his mother said, ‘Not so; he shall be called John.’ And they said to her, ‘None of your kindred is called by this name.’ And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And they all marveled.” (Lk 1:60-63)

Mary also gets an existential and essential revelation from Gabriel. “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.” (Lk 1:30-33) The human Jesus was the Christ from His Conception.  We cannot separate the existential revelation from the essential revelation.  In other words, we cannot separate who Jesus Christ is from what He did. The Man Jesus was the Christ from the moment of his conception in the womb of Mary.

In addition, Gabriel also gives Mary Divine Revelation about herself.  The first sentence of the “Hail Mary” prayer reads “Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee.”  This first sentence comes from Gabriel’s initial communication to Mary: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” (Lk 1:28) Gabriel addresses her as Mary a little later (Lk 1:30), but here her name is omitted.  It seems as though “full of grace” is her title.  It is easy to understand why Mary was “troubled” by this greeting.  “But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be.” (Lk 1:29) Being “full of grace” was an existential revelation.  It did not just reveal something about Mary, it revealed who she was.  Christian theology says that “full of grace, the Lord is with you” means that Mary was full of the Holy Spirit.  If John was the Baptist from his conception and the man Jesus was the “Son of the Most High” from conception, it is reasonable to suppose that Mary was also full of the grace or the Holy Spirit from conception.  We should notice that John the Baptist was “filled” with the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:15) whereas Mary was “full” of grace, the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:28).  According to a footnote to the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, Pope Pius IX used this Annunciation narrative to support the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in 1854. Gabriel gave Mary an existential revelation about her very being, but then explains the meaning of it when he tells her what is to happen (essential revelation).

We need to realize that not every existential encounter leads to adoration. At the trial of Jesus before the Jewish leaders we read: “Again the high priest asked him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?’ And Jesus said, ‘I am and you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.’ And the high priest tore his clothes, and said, ‘Why do we still need witnesses? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?’ And they all condemned him as deserving death. And some began to spit on him and cover his face, and to strike him, saying to him, ‘Prophesy!’ And the guards received him with blows. (Mk 14:61-65)

The essential and existential poles need to be together but can come in either order.  The essential can come first as in the case of Nathanael and the man born blind, but the existential revelation can also come first as it was with Zechariah and Mary as well as St. Paul when he was knocked from his horse on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9).  Von Balthasar warns against the danger of falling away from prayer and the love which nourished that prayer after we have had an existential encounter of adoration and worship with the Lord.  It is easy to prefer to keep our prayer at the essential level and not risk an existential encounter. We must include both poles in our prayer.   Von Balthasar tells us that …….. the endless interplay between "essential" and "existential" thinking and praying is something ongoing. Each pole is indispensable, since God wants to approach and treat man as a partner. Adoration by itself, without the effort on the part of the reason to accept and digest the word, would tend toward mere servility; and if we merely reflect upon revealed truth with our reason and try to match its power with our will, we will be misconstruing God's fundamental purpose, which is to disclose himself to man in every way that he can. The dynamic rhythm flowing between the two poles makes contemplation into a fellowship with God in which, through worship, man's spirit is liberated, resulting in an ever more profound, adoring participation in God's own freedom. Even if we come to a genuine existential worship and adoration, we can never be satisfied with that. We must continually seek fellowship with the Lord because He always has more to give up. – Jim Nugent, CFP