Symbolism of the Desert

8/10/2019 Symbolism of the Desert

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Donald Goergen:

Current Trends:The Desert as Reality and Symbol

Father Goergen, O.P., resident in Madison, Wisconsin, is currently engaged in writing a book on

Christology.

CHRI!I"# s$irituality, or li%e, in the conte&$orary world, as it atte&$ts to %ind its roots as well as readthe signs o% our ti&es, has sur%aced certain ways o% articulating s$iritual sel%'understanding that are at one

and the sa&e ti&e both conte&$orary and traditional, showing that there need not be a dichoto&y

between these two %acets o% any $ro%ound Christian li%e. One e(a&$le o% such a way o% s$eaking is )thes$iritual *ourney,) in which the Christian is en+isioned as a $ilgri& on his or her way at ti&es this

*ourney is correlated with li%e-s $assages as articulated %ro& a $sychological $ers$ecti+e./0 uch an

i&age could hardly be &ore traditional or &ore conte&$orary.

"nother such i&age is that o% the desert. Few words are heard &ore %re1uently in the language o%conte&$orary s$irituality, and %ew are &ore e($ressi+e o% the traditional roots o% the 2udeo'Christian

e($erience. !he desert e($erience was one o% the %or&ati+e e($eriences in Israel-s history as it was later

theologically re%lected u$on.304oth Moses and 5li*ah con*ure u$ i&ages o% the desert, and greater$ro$hets than this there could not be. Christian origins, too, cannot a+oid the role o% the 2udean

wilderness %or 2ohn, the ba$ti6er, and also %or 2esus. 5+en Paul s$eaks o% tra+eling into "rabia a%ter his

con+ersion Gal. /7/80. !he religious 1uality o% the desert has co&e ho&e to &e in a $ersonal way when I

ha+e had the o$$ortunity to be there, once at Christ in the 9esert Monastery in #ew Me(ico %or %ortydays in /:8:, and again on an e(cursion %ro& the Ecole Biblique de Jerusaleminto the #ege+ and inai

in /:;/.

!his 2udeo'Christian reality or sy&bol &ani%ests itsel% o+er and o+er. It is not only rooted in our

traditions it is a direction or trend in s$irituality today. We hear &uch talk about a )desert e($erience) ora )desert day.) usan Muto-sA Practical Guide to Spiritual Reading9i&ension 4ooks, /:8u&ran0 and in the 5gy$tian desert %or e(a&$le, #ag Ha&&adi0. "ni&$ortant contribution has been 5dward chillebeeck(-s discussion o% the wilderness background to 2ohn

and 2esus.?0Outside a s$eci%ically religious conte(t, aint'5(u$ery-s Wind, Sand and Starshas &o+ed

&any readers. !hese are only a %ew o% &any $ossible re%erences. 5+enari, hanan, and !ad&or in theirwork on !e "egev# !e $!allenge o% a &esertwrite7

It is no whi& o% history that the birth o% the %irst &onotheistic %aith took $lace in a desert, or that it was

%ollowed there by the other two great religions, Christianity and Isla&. !he $ro$hets o% Israel re$eatedly

sought and %ound ins$iration in the desert. Christian her&its %led to it to esca$e the $ollution o% the worldand to co&&une with God, and in &odern ti&es the secular literature o% the desert in the works o%

9oughty, =awrence, Philby, !ho&as, and &any other %a&ous tra+elers re+eals the $ower%ul in%luence it

e(erts on the &inds and s$irits o% all who seek its &ysteries.@0

!hus, gi+en its traditional and current a$$eal, I ha+e chosen to begin &y own contributions to Spiritualityodaywhere religious e($erience itsel% o%ten begins, whether $ersonal or collecti+e '' with the desert.
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When one thinks o% desert, one thinks o% desertedness and barrenness. Aet it is a barrenness balanced with

beauty. !he desert is not si&$ly one thing. In its utter si&$licity the desert is &ulti%aceted. #or can onesi&$ly say that a desert is a desert. !here are di%%erent kinds o% deserts. #or is a desert si&$ly a $lace

without rain%all. " desert can e($erience %lash %loods, as bedouin well know and %ear. It is a di&inished

rain%all, an un$redictable and irregular rain%all, yet a rain%all that su$$orts widely +aried and sur$rising+egetation.

!hese two words, un$redictable and sur$rising, are the two words with which I would describe &y own

e($erience o% the desert. !he un$redictability can be %rightening, the sur$rise enlightening.

!he desert is si&$ly nature at its best, or at its worst, $erha$s at its $urest, and this 1uality it shares with&ountains and oceans or seas.

OhB that the 9esert were &y dwelling $lace,

With one %air $irit %or &y &inister,

!hat I &ight all %orget the hu&an race,"nd, hating no one, lo+e but only herB

Ae 5le&entsB '' in whose ennobling stir

I %eel &ysel% e(alted '' Can ye not

"ccord &e such a being 9o I errIn dee&ing such inhabit &any a s$ot

!hough with the& to con+erse can rarely be our lot.

!here is a $leasure in the $athless woods,!here is a ra$ture on the lonely shore,

!here is society where none intrudes

4y the dee$ ea, and &usic in its roar7

I lo+e not Man the less, but #ature &ore,Fro& these our inter+iews in which I steal

Fro& all I &ay be, or ha+e been be%ore,

!o &ingle with the Dni+erse, and %eelWhat I can ne-er e($ress, yet can not all conceal.

Roll on, thou dee$ and dark blue Ocean'rollB

!en thousand %leets swee$ o+er thee in +ain

Man &arks the earth with ruin '' his controlto$s with the shore '' u$on the watery $lain

!he wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth re&ain

" shadow o% &an-s ra+age, sa+e his own,When, %or a &o&ent, like a dro$ o% rain,

He sinks into thy de$ths with bubbling groan,

Without a gra+e, unknelled, unco%%ined, and unknowns.E0

Dntouched nature has a $urity to it that can raise one-s heart and &ind i&&ediately to God. One who is intouch with the land, with nature, does not create a so$histicated +iew o% secondary causes. !here is an

i&&ediacy about nature that takes one straight to its =ord. Its barren and +ast $lenitude signals

transcendence. !he desert continually &ade &e aware o% &y utter de$endency on the =ord. One li+esthere by %aith. One cannot harbor illusions o% sel%'su%%iciency. !he de$endency is too real, too ob+ious,
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too %rightening, or e+en consoling. Whether it be sal+ation %ro& heat, %ro& cold, %ro& thirst, %ro& %alling,

one-s hu&an assurances are o%ten out o% reach and one &ust rely on nature, on God alone.

!he e($erience o% the desert is %irst o% all an e($erience o% de$endency. Once one &akes this shi%t %ro&

sel%'reliance to reliance u$on God, %ro& inde$endence to de$endence, the desert is no longer %rightening

but re+eals an un$aralleled beauty. !he desert is a call to surrender it is also the o%%er o% delight. !he

aw%ul beco&es the awe'%ull. "nd neither o% these two sides o% nature can be dis&issed. 4oth are $art o%the reality and the e($erience. Its barren landsca$e and dry bree6e can ins$ire insecurity and %acilitate

%atigue. One can bake by day and %ree6e by night7 sur+i+al is an issue. "t the sa&e ti&e its +aried colors,its %antastic sha$es, its breathtaking +astness and staggering heights, its sole&n silence, es$ecially thisstillness '' these delight the senses, o+erwhel& the&, can lead only to a beauty that one cannot gras$. Its

unconta&inated and so&eti&es unthinkable $urity can easily lead to the descri$tion %ro& 9euterono&y

/7/: '' )that great and terrible wilderness.)

!he desert in+ites de$endency. !he desert re+eals its beauty. !he desert is also an alternating rhyth& o%co&$laint and $raise. One need not be in the desert %or long, whether it be &ild 2udean wilderness, the

stark southern #ege+, or the &ountains o% inai, be%ore the interior oscillation between %atigue%ear and

beautydelight &ani%est the&sel+es in two co&$laints. $iritual &aturity and sel%'surrender do notnecessarily re&o+e the rhyth&. It is like going u$hill and downhill. 4oth are ine+itable. !he Israelite

e($erience &akes all the sense in the world. 5+en 2esus- being tested called hi& out o% $eace%ul sel%'co&$osure. 4oth these, co&$laint and $raise, si&$ly show how readily one-s heart and &ind &o+edirectly to the =ord. !o who& else could one co&$lain Who& else should one $raise When it is hot in

the &idday sun, one longs %or the cool and $ro&ises ne+er to co&$lain again about being too cold. 4ut

when the &idnight cold co&es, one longs %or the sun that will thaw one-s li&bs. It is as si&$le as that ''

dissatis%action at e+ery turn, yet turns that o$en u$ and unra+el un%oretold beauty as well.

4ut the desert, and the &ountains and the oceans, where+er God-s $resence is &ore i&&ediate to &an and

wo&an, &ani%est not only two sides, but &any.


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lie in the +astness, the strength, the silence, the color, the sha$es, the +egetation, or any co&bination. 4ut

it is this beauty, as well as one-s de$endency, which turns one-s heart and &ind to God. !he beauty re+ealsa beauti%ul %ace o% God7 God is beauty.

My %irst clear i&$ression o% this was at Christ in the 9esert Monastery in #ew Me(ico, and it again

beca&e a$$arent to &e when I had se+eral days to s$end on Mount "thos, the Holy Mountain, in northern

Greece. One o% the e%%ects o% $rayer can be described as inner $eace. Aet the desert and &ountains do noti&&ediately $roduce this interior reality, $recisely because they cause one to %ocus one-s attention outside

onesel%. One can close one-s eyes and $ray. 4ut one cannot close one-s eyes and ca$ture what the desert,the ocean, and the &ountains ha+e to o%%er '' or when one does, it is %or a di%%erent reason, as we shall see.!hese settings o% beauty draw one-s attention outward. !hus, in contrast to other situations o% $rayer in

which I %elt a $eace within &e, I can describe the e($erience o% the desert only as &y beco&ing $art o% it,

rather than its beco&ing $art o% &e. It was &ore di%%icult to delineate the $ersonal boundaries. !he&ountains or ocean were too big %or &e to &aster like a $hysical or ascetical e(ercise. I could only

ad&ire, a$$reciate, be absorbed. Rather than seeing $rayer as $art o% &e, it was &ore akin to seeing &e as

$art o% $rayer '' which is why nature and beauty and sy&bol and liturgy are so closely related. We arecalled u$on to $artici$ate rather than control. 4ut $erha$s I a& *u&$ing ahead too %ar.

!here is a beauty in nature as well as the threat it $ro+ides to our +ery e(istence. !he beauty turns our

ga6e outward and beyond oursel+es. !his beauty is a share in the di+ine li%e. It is $recisely the &o&entduring which nature re+eals these &any %acets that it beco&es &ost real '' it beco&es sy&bol. !he desertbeco&es sy&bolic as it calls us %orth to $artici$ate in what it shares and re+eals. !here is no wonder that

the reality o% the desert includes the desert as a sy&bol, and that there is no se$arating these two into )the

reality) and )&ere sy&bol.) Reality is at its &ost $ro%ound here because one shares in its %ullness and not

only reacts to its sur%ace. !he reality is that it is also sy&bolic and it would ha+e no $ower as sy&bol i% itwere not %or the dee$er e(centration into reality. #atural beauty &ediates or re+eals this connectedness

between reality and sy&bol.

" sy&bol is a way o% knowing which is not i&&ediately either discursi+e or intuiti+e but $artici$ati+e.For us, in both the discursi+eob*ecti+e or intuiti+e$ersonal &odes o% knowing, the knowledge is &ine,

&y understanding, &y insight but sy&bolic knowledge ne+er beco&es )&in) in this sa&e way. I beco&eits I $artici$ate. I a& in the gri$s o% what I thought I could gras$ in so&e other way. " sy&bol is not only

a way o% knowing which draws &e e+er dee$er into sharing its reality a sy&bol is a reality that alwaysre%ers &e beyond itsel%. !he reality o% the sy&bol is uncon%ined. !o $artici$ate is to go dee$er into reality.

"s sy&bol it is not *ust )this water,) )this height,) )this desert,) but this desert $artaking o% and

&ani%esting a beauty in which it too $artici$ates and which is essential to it. 4eauty is not con%ined by)$lace) but re+ealed )within) it. #ature and sy&bol &ediate reality to us and allow us to share in it.

4ut why &ediation at all 4ecause the hu&an being can only take so &uch. "gain, beauty is the best way

to e(e&$li%y this. I &entioned earlier, when one is %irst struck by nature, one does not close one-s eyes.

Aet o%ten one does, but not in order to $ray or %acilitate inner $eace, but si&$ly because one can take only

so &uch. !oo &uch beauty can beco&e aw%ul. I re&e&ber distinctly an e($erience in #ew Me(ico whichwas so breathtaking that I had to turn away %or a &o&ent. " co&&on e(a&$le o% this, o% course, is that

one seldo& looks %or long directly at the sun. 4eauty is $recisely so&ething that I cannot control, &aster,&ani$ulate to it I can only surrender. It can be a$$reciated it ne+er beco&es &ine in the sa&e way as

knowledge. 4ut sy&bols allow &e, ne+ertheless, to $artici$ate and share in the&. 4ut I can ne+er own

the&, %or they transcend &e and a sy&bol is that reality within which i&&anence and transcendencebreak down and &ani%est %alse dichoto&ies, %or the e($erience o% the height o% Mount "thos o+erlooking


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the sea is si&$ly a reality in which that which is so i&&anent is transcendence. Here reality need not be

broken u$ it re&ains whole.

Perha$s one can see &ore readily now &y earlier re%erence to liturgy. For liturgy and nature are so &uch

alike in this $articular way. !he liturgy is a sy&bol which I a& not called u$on to gras$ %ully but in which

I $artici$ate, so that reality can o$en itsel% u$ to &e &ore and &ore and I can enter into that contact with

the 9i+ine who will ne+er be &ine, I only his and not I his as &uch as we his, %or like beauty, liturgy is$ublic, co&&on. !ruly no one owns the desert it is e+eryone-s. !hus, liturgy is called u$on to create that

sa&e realitysy&bol. !his relation between liturgy and beauty is a %actor well e&$hasi6ed in Orthodo(theology. 4ut here I go too %ar, e(ce$t %or the need to &ake this connection. It is the desert which we areatte&$ting to $robe, but in $robing it the reality that it re+eals is the sa&e reality that liturgy re+eals

albeit in di%%erent ways0. One can easily see why Christian &onks and solitaries who thirsted %or God

were drawn into its ar&s the ar&s o% nature and o% liturgy0.

4ut this wordsolitary&ust cause us to $ause. It is $ossible to ha+e a solitary e($erience o% the desert,e+en i% not a $ossessi+e one. =iturgy, howe+er, can ne+er be a solitary e($erience. !hus we &ust $ause

and see another %acet o% this )great and terrible wilderness.)

THE DESERT AS TEMPTATION

!he beauty and cal& o% the desert, once $ercei+ed, once %elt, be co&e an alluring and char&ingte&$tation as well as a source o% di+ine $resence '' the te&$tation to re&ain. !his does not i&$ly that

so&e are not called to a li%e there %or the sake o% the larger Christian co&&unity, but rather i&$lies that

one ordinarily does ) '' not go out into the desert as a ho&e o% $er&anence. !hat is only %or a certain %ew.!he Hebrew $eo$le wandered in the desert and ne+er &istook it %or the $ro&ised land. !hey did not settle

it as later her&its and &onks would do. 5li*ah did not stay on Mount Horeb that was not its $ur$ose. #or

did 2ohn the 4a$ti6er re&ain in the wilderness. #o &atter how long he $re$ared hi&sel% in the

wilderness, his &ission brought hi& %orth %ro& it. "nd so with 2esus, one o% whose te&$tations we couldinter$ret as the te&$tation to stay in the desert. 4ut be%ore long he co&es %orth $reaching the good news

o% the co&ing reign o% God.

For &any, o% course, the desert $resents no te&$tation at all. For others it is a genuine +ocation. 4ut %or

others it can be an allure&ent to a &ore $eace%ul and di+ine li%e than the call to &inistry to which we areall called. For these the te&$tation is diabolical.

!he other as$ect o% this te&$tation is to see those whose li+es are li+ed there as the holy ones, rather than

seeing the holiness o% God &agni%icently &ani%est in the $oor and the alienated, the stranger and widowand or$han o% the Hebrew cri$tures, the hungry and the thirsty with who& 2esus identi%ies. !his was

again clear to &e during &y +ery brie% so*ourn on Mount "thos, the Holy Mountain. For the &any

$ilgri&s there, one &ust ask7 What did we co&e out to see 2ust as we can s$eak o% the $resence o% God

in the holy &onks, and certainly in their celebration o% the di+ine liturgy, and also in the holy &ountain

itsel%, so we &ust s$eak o% the $resence o% God in the %isher&en and laborers, &entioned but in $assing inbooks on "thos, at the $ort in 9a$hne where $ilgri&s %irst land. Few o% us co&e to see the&, &ake the

tri$ to "thos in order to +isit 9a$hne. Aet this re$resents the &istake and the te&$tation '' to con*ure u$an illusory +iew o% holiness as withdrawnness %ro& other hu&an a%%airs. "s i% our God, the li+ing God o%

"braha& and arah, the Father o% our =ord 2esus Christ, the Word Incarnate, e+er saw nonin+ol+e&ent in

the a%%airs o% his $eo$le, o% hu&anity, as anything other than te&$tation. God is 5&&anuel. We cannot bete&$ted to celebrate or recogni6e his $resence only in a class o% holy ones '' whether these be $riests,

$ro$hets, sages, kings, &onks, nuns, ascetics, &artyrs his $resence is e+erywhere and &ust be recogni6ed


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in all his brothers and sisters. For, in the end, e+en Paul su&&ari6es the =aw as lo+e o% neighbor, and the

=ucan $arable o% the a&aritan indicates who is our neighbor '' anyone who is in need. o this is wherethe *ourney into the desert leads us '' back out again.

4ut, %irst, we &ust go there, not in a %utile e%%ort, but %or what the =ord has to re+eal to us there, so that

our lo+e o% neighbor is indeed a res$onse to our encounter with the li+ing God and not the $ro*ection o%

our own ego needs. !he desert %or&s us it ought not detain us yet we ought not too 1uickly re*ect whathistory has taught us it has to o%%er. =et us not be too 1uick to inter$ret the desert and one-s e($erience o%

it in nongeogra$hical ways. #ot e+ery e($erience is a desert e($erience, e+en though the desert &ay$ro+ide a +alid analogue. "lthough the desert is an e($erience as &uch as a $lace, it is an e($erienceenriched by a $lace, and an e+ent tied to an en+iron&ent.

My re%lections here are si&$ly one res$onse, &y own, to a +isit to the desert. Other res$onses $ro+ide

other $ers$ecti+es or di%%erent e($eriences. For e+eryone-s e($erience o% the desert is his or her own, as is

e+eryone-s e($erience o% God. Aet there is so&ething co&&on and shared in these e($eriences. 9o wenot all need to return in so&e %ashion to this e($erience o% God in nature that ci+ili6ed li%e so easily

conceals

NOTES

/. 5.g., Walter Hilton, )!he Parable o% the Pilgri&,) Spirituality oday, ?? /:;/07 3E'E

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Symbolism of the Desert