Grace without Measure: Experiencing the Lord's Prayer

Fifty years ago Karl Rahner, S. J., wrote that “The Christian of the future will be a mystic. Or he will be nothing at all.”

The future Rahner spoke of is here. It is now. And it is also the moment when many Christians sense that Rahner is correct. They sense that something is missing in their spiritual lives, that there is a need for greater depth and feeling. And while we may be among those who read Rahner’s words with recognition, a question appears. A mystic? How?

First of all it might be helpful to think about what a mystic is. A mystic is one who tastes, who sees, who drinks. In other words a mystic is one who knows by experience. Learning, mental knowing, is needed in spiritual life, but only experience truly informs and illumines us.

Where will we find the experience we need? It has been given to us by Christ himself, given as a response to his disciples when they asked him how they were to pray. “Go into your room,” he tells them, “and shut the door [they who have ears to hear], and pray to your Father who is in secret….”