The Wounded Healer
February 2, 2009
Henri Nouwen passed away a while back but his words never seem to do. In the Wounded Healer, he talks about the need to be healed since the onset of the nuclear age. Nucelar man must learn the inner way of healing the wounds of our age. He must also learn the revolutionary way of not accepting the evil of this present age. The Christian way, says Nouwen, is the third way. It is based on the “growing conviction that in Jesus the mystical [inner way] and the revolutionary [activist ways] are not opposites, but two sides of the same human mode of experiential transcendence [of experiencing the presence of God]. I am increasingly convinced that conversion is the individual equivalent of revolution.
Therefore every real revolutionary is challenged to be a mystic at heart, and he who walks the mystical way is called to unmask the illusory quality of human society. Mysticism and revolution are two aspects of the same attempt to bring about radical change. No mystic at heart, and he who walks the mystical way is called to unmask the illusory quality of human society. Mysticism and revolution are two aspect of the same attempt to bring about radical change. No mystic can prevent himself from becoming a social critic, since in self-reflection he will discover the roots of a sick society. Similarly, no revolutionary can avoid facing his own human conditions, since in the midst of his struggle for a new world he will find that he is also fighting his own revolutionary fears and false ambition.”
I am struck that what Nouwen is talking about is so similar to how we are thinking at missional order. His conversion as individual revolution is our life of continuous conversion (our second common commitment) based on a continuous life of seeking to understand the msytery of God (our first commitment to pray our life in a sacred rhythm in order to know God), and resulting in activism for the transformation of society (our third commitment to missio dei).
I am tempted to propose a name for our missional order: The Third Way. I don’t know if it’s taken. Do you have an opinion about a name for our order?
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Nouwen has meant so much to me in my spiritual growth. I think that “The Third Way” would be a great name!
I’m fascinated with your conversation about the 3rd way. I’m struggling with how to communicate it - the synergy of spiritual formation and missional living. I like how you say both lead to radical change. We can’t have one wiithout the other. Thanks for thoughts. Eric