The Cloud of Unknowing

My Church will be triumphant.  

Me:  I mean no offense Lord, but it doesn’t really appear to be…how will you bring this about?

Suffering.  Triumph comes from suffering.  When your suffering is offered freely to me without fighting or resistance, but as an offering, it will be followed by a resurrection.  And following the resurrection, there is always a Pentecost.  This happens at both a personal level and in the Church.  

In order for there to be a break through there must be an offering, freely given, a breaking, a darkness.  While on Mt. Tabor, Peter, James, and John saw Jesus in dazzling white, changed in appearance and conversing with Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets.  The disciples insisted on building a tent for each of them.  They had plans, good plans.  “We should do this for you God,” they decided.

God had other plans.  He wanted to offer a deeper revelation of Himself and His Son to the world.  While Peter was making suggestions about building tents, trying to figure out the best materials and location, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered the cloud.  Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my chosen Son; listen to Him.”  After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. (Lk. 9)

Often we look at the cloud of darkness we are in as something to be escaped.  We were in the middle of something else, and all of a sudden, we can no longer see and everything is discombobulated.  I had other plans.  But His ways our higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts.  Then very suddenly our lives are enveloped in a darkness we did not see coming.  We can no longer see ahead.  Our vision is gone and we’re disoriented.  It can be terrifying and unsettling. 

But it is out of this cloud of darkness and unknowing that the Uncreated One speaks.  And what He says often has very little do with our great plans.

Rather, it pulls us up into the plans and purposes of the One that cannot be seen.  It brings a revelation of something far greater.  It opens the eyes of our hearts to the eternal nature of God Himself and the covenant He has with His people, a covenant that He made in the very beginning. 

“I will come for you.  I will always come for you.”

Abram too was enveloped in a cloud of terrifying darkness.  “Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so, shall your descendants be.  I am the Lord who brought you from Ur to the Chaldeans to give you this land as a possession.”  

“How, how am I to know I shall possess it?”  Abram’s belief is credited to him as righteousness and He wonders how it will happen.  He tries to wrap his head around it all.

And then the darkness came.  God Himself made a covenant with Abram and revealed Himself to him, in the darkness, in the terrifying darkness.  (Gen. 15)

It is in this place that our beloved speaks, in the cloud of unknowing.  

Beloved, do not be afraid of the terrifying darkness you find yourself in.  It is God Himself that surrounds you.  It is Elohim Adonai.

He comes to remind you of His promises to you and to give you a hope and a future.

Remain in Him and He in you.  Like a breath, breathing in and breathing out.  He has made an everlasting covenant with you and with His people.  Do not be afraid.  

God Himself has spoken.

“It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” (Isa. 55)

In safety, in disguise, 

In darkness up the secret stair I crept, 

(O happy enterprise)

Concealed from other eyes

When all my house at length in silence slept.

Up that lucky night

In secrecy, inscrutable to sight, 

I went without discerning

And with no other light

Except for that which in my heart was burning…

Oh, night that was my guide!

Oh, darkness dearer than the morning’s pride, 

Oh, night that joined the lover

To the beloved bride

Transfiguring them each into the other…

(Excerpt of “Songs of the Soul in Rapture” by St. John of the Cross)

Whenever God allows you to enter the cloud of darkness and unknowing the purpose is to reveal a new aspect of Himself to you in a way you have not known before.  This speaks not only to the temporary here and now aspects of your life, but to the eternal ongoing purpose of God flowing throughout the generations, connecting you to all those that have come before and all those that will come after.

When St. Francis stood before the San Damiano cross and heard God speak to him about the restoration of the Church, God was not speaking just about that one particular church.  He was bringing forth a revelation of something far greater that He wanted to bring forth in his generation.

Allow yourself to remain in the darkness.  Stand steadfast and unmoving.  Allow God to stay asleep in the boat while the storm rages.  For He will arise at the perfect time and calm the storm.  And then you will see the power of God.