Part of the theology that studies the divine communications of God to pious souls and the advisable responses to the various gifts with which God gives to those who follow each other in intimacy and rewards with uniqueness in his designs.
Mysticism may be called “Mystical Theology,” but usage has simplified the concept of that art, science, or pastoral practice into the single word Mysticism.
As a science or pastoral art, it demands certain conditions, since divine facts cannot be submitted to empirical norms, nor do all those blessed with gifts experience the same realities or follow the same processes.
That is why mysticism supposes a certain singularity in the approaches, acceptance of everything that is discerned as coming from God, respect for the mystery of each soul and sincere reflection on them so as not to be disoriented by mirage, by illusions or by affective deviations without spiritual guarantee. .
Pedro Chico González, Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy, Editorial Bruño, Lima, Peru 2006
Source: Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy
(v. contemplation)
(ESQUERDA BIFET, Juan, Dictionary of Evangelization, BAC, Madrid, 1998)
Source: Dictionary of Evangelization
SUMMARY: I. Common elements of the mystical experience: 1. Rupture of ordinary consciousness; 2. Core experience; 3. Presence of something absolutely new; 4. Immediate presence; 5. Free presence; 6. Overpowering presence; 7. Experience and paradoxical expression.-II. Mystical and prophetic religions: 1. Mystical religions; 2. Prophetic religions; 3. Christianity, mystical-prophetic religion.-III. Mysticism and mystery of the Christian God: 1. Original unity of mysticism and Christian mystery; 2. Divorce between mysticism and mystery; 3. Christian mysticism as an ontological and psychological experience of the Trinitarian mystery.-IV. The “great” mysticism or: the infused contemplation of the Trinity: 1. Two forms of Trinitarian mysticism: a. Rhenish-Flemish mysticism, b. The mystique of Saint John of the Cross.-V. The “little mystique” or: the unfolding of the trinitarian presence in Christian praxis.
The word mystikós is derived from the verb myo, which means to close, and especially to close the eyes. Its pre-Christian use is related to the ritual celebrations of the mystery religions, secret initiation ceremonies closed to the uninitiated, and in which the mystes received a teaching that they could not communicate to anyone. Thus, originally the term mystikós carries with it the idea of a secret reality accessible only to a minority.
Both in paganism and in the Christian Church itself, until the 17th century, the term mystical was only an adjective that qualified a noun. In the 17th century, the noun mystique will appear for the first time in Western spirituality, and with this expression a certain inner experience will be directly indicated, the characteristics of which we will indicate immediately. From then until today, this subjective or psychological (experiential) aspect will be in the foreground when speaking of mysticism.
I. Common elements of the mystical experience
As an experience or phenomenon of consciousness, mysticism is for K. Rahner “the unitive interior encounter of a man with the divine infinity that grounds both him and every being.” It is a definition applicable to all mysticism, be it natural, theistic or specifically Christian.
Before speaking expressly of the latter, let us point out the elements common to all mystical experiences.
1. RUPTURE OF THE ORDINARY CONSCIOUSNESS. Ordinary consciousness or knowledge (even if it is the object of faith) is an empirical consciousness that a) moves in the world of phenomena; b) it works within the subject-object scheme; c) is equivalent to the consciousness of the empirical “I” as the center of gravity and subject of knowledge and action.
The mystical experience carries with it the rupture (and not only the deepening) of that consciousness: the mystical experience occurs in the midst of a situation of ecstasy of reason in which the mind transcends its usual state and, therefore, overcomes duality subject-object; reason, without denying itself and, therefore, without abandoning man to a pure irrational emotionality, transcends the normal condition of finite rationality, joins its infinite background and is seized, subjugated, invaded and shocked by the mystery of reality.
2. CORE EXPERIENCE. The rupture of ordinary consciousness and the consequent ecstasy of reason brings with it the appearance of a new consciousness: the intuitive one, in which man not only experiences the core or soul of Reality, but experiences himself as one with it. And from this experience of the core it is possible for him to make his life and his world a whole full of meaning.
3. PRESENCE OF SOMETHING ABSOLUTELY NEW. This rupture of consciousness-experience of the core is equivalent under the objective aspect to “the experience, in an overwhelming, irresistible and incontestable way, of the presence of Something or Someone that surpasses and overflows and that is more real than everything that is normally considered as reality. The world in which we live and that seems so real and solid to us, becomes for the mystic a transparent frame, because in it another definitive reality is announced.
It is not properly the presence of a reality or object added to the realities or objects already known, but what we could call the deep dimension of those same realities or objects. To call it in some way we could call it the “mystery”, the “miracle” or the “ecstasy” of reality. And it is an experience of such a cognitive and qualitative category that it is inexpressible, ineffable; the mystic collides with language.
4. IMMEDIATE PRESENCE. The presence of that reality, or rather, of that deep dimension of reality is immediate: without medium, without image, without representations, without concepts. The normally unavoidable wall of intermediaries between man and reality (Ideas, affections, reasoning, etc.) collapses, and the mystic perceives that presence with a certainty that is only paralleled in sensible perception; the mystic comes into direct contact with the invisible, and the Other or the Other is for him an unquestionable reality.
5. FREE PRESENCE. In all mysticism the cause-effect relationship between the preparation of man and the mystical experience is denied. In all of them, the character of a gift that it has is affirmed. It can happen unexpectedly or in the greatest dryness and anguish (frequent case); It is normally the end of a long and patient path, the crown of a continuous effort and, if possible, a reward or prize for a continuous exercise, but never the price or the fruit of it.
6. SUBJUGATING PRESENCE. As a consequence of what was said in the previous point, the best preparation for the mystical experience is the not at all easy attitude of receptivity, which is the humble and open silence of ordinary reason and will in which it predominates, if it does not exercise the exclusive one, the empirical active self. As, in patient exercise, receptivity gains ground, the activity of the center of being awakens, before which man can only be open and receptive. When this has become pure receptivity, everything can happen (but always freely, as a pure gift). What can happen is that man feels invaded by the Being or the Whole, he lives the Whole and lives in the Whole, he stops feeling separate individual reality and therefore egocentric, and is snatched away by the force of the Being that now it is revealed as unlimited power, irresistible impetus, numinous, loving and holy reality, as lo fascinosum et tremendum, according to the well-known expression of R. Otto.
Everything changes then: man feels a Reality that speaks without words to his intimate essence, from substance to substance (Saint John of the Cross), that “touches” him in depth, makes him “captive” and transforms him. There is nothing in that experience that resembles a neutral contemplation of something that does not affect one’s own existence or does not change it, nor is there anything that resembles a contemplation of oneself or an evasion of responsibility in the world. In it, one experiences total self-forgetfulness, one’s own problems become insignificant and one experiences a liberation from all personal burden and a spontaneous surrender to love in all its manifestations.
7. EXPERIENCE AND PARADISE EXPRESSION. In the mystical experience, which works immediately in the being of the mystic, an inexpressible world appears in the language with which ordinary experience or rational-logical knowledge of reality is translated. The ineffability of experience, the impossibility of translating it linguistically, and at the same time the need and duty to communicate it, forces the mystic to create a new language through the paradox in which, to the rupture of the logical mind, the rupture of language corresponds. logical. Expressing himself based on the dialectical relationship of opposing concepts applied to the same thing, the mystic, even more than saying his experience, says its ineffability, thus opening the reader to an attitude that is equally mystical and of admiration before the inexpressible.
II. Mystical and prophetic religions
1. MYSTICAL RELIGIONS. Mystical religions are characterized by a conception of God or the divine as the inner, infinite and impersonal foundation of man and the world and consequently, by a conception of these as a pure manifestation or epiphany of the divine. The “revelation” is equivalent to an “inner word” that makes conscious what normally remains unconscious and ignored in man: the inner ground or foundation of his being, that is, his unity and identity with the divine; revelation that is normally accompanied by that of the foundation of the universe itself, equally one and identical with the divine.
The mystical religions are also characterized by the pre-eminence given to the element “is” as a definition of the divine as opposed to the ethical “must be” The ethical or moral is only a preparation or means for the mystical experience of unity with the divine, but it is overcome in this; it is also a criterion of authenticity of said experience, but never an essential element or place of it; in a word, it is an element that precedes or follows the mystical experience, but is not itself, considered to be of a higher quality than the ethical experience.
The mystical religions do not grant any meaning to history as such, and even less so as a means of revelation; It is considered as a symbol of the archetypal divine reality towards which it points and towards which it is necessary to go through.
2. PROPHETIC RELIGIONS. The prophetic religions, which correspond to the three great monotheistic religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, are characterized by their conception of God as will, person and personal power that freely reveals itself in history and transcends it.
The prophetic religions accentuate the ethical element of the divine person: the…