Notes from Brennan Manning's
The Furious Longing of God
[part one]
On the Furious Love of God
"I believe that Christianity happens when men and women experience the reckless, raging confidence that comes from knowing the God of Jesus Christ." [23]
"[In Matt 9.13 Jesus says he comes to call sinners, not the self-righteous.] This is a passage to be read and reread because every generation has tried to dim the blinding brightness of its implications. Those of us scarred by sin are called to closeness with Him around the banquet table. The kingdom of God is not a subdivision for the self-righteous or for those who lay claim to private visions of doubtful authenticity and boast they possess the state secret of their salvation. No, as Eugene Kennedy notes, 'it is for a larger, homelier, and less self-conscious people who know they are sinners because they have experienced the yaw and pitch of moral struggle.' The men and women who are truly filled with light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their own imperfect existence." [32]
"[The] God I've come to know by sheer grace, the Jesus I met in the grounds of my own self, has furiously loved me regardless of my state--grace or disgrace. And why? For His love is never, never, never based on our performance, never conditioned by our moods--of elation or depression. The furious love of God knows no shadow of alteration or change. It is reliable. And always tender." [35]
"The confession of John the apostle that God is love is the fundamental meaning of the holy and adorable Trinity. Put bluntly, God is sheer Being-in-Love and there was never a time when God was not love. The foundation of the furious longing of God is the Father who is the originating Lover, the Son who is the full self-expression of that Love, and the Spirit who is the original and inexhaustible activity of that Love, drawing the created universe into itself." [37]
On the Father
"Jesus revealed to an astonished Jewish community that God is truly Father. If you took the love of all the best mothers and fathers who have lived in the course of human history, all their goodness, kindness, patience, fidelity, wisdom, tenderness, strength, and love and united all those qualities into a single person, that person's love would only be a faint shadow of the furious love and mercy in the heart of God the Father addressed to you and me at this moment." [42]
"American child psychologists tell us that the average American baby begins to speak between the ages of fourteen and eighteen months. Regardless of the sex of the child, the first word normally spoken at that age is da--da, da, daddy. A little Jewish child speaking Aramaic in first-century Palestine at the same age level would begin to say ab--ab, ab, Abba. Jesus' revelation [of calling God 'Abba'] was nothing less than a revolution. From that moment on, no Christian can ever say one form of prayer is as good as another or one religion is as good as another. Jesus is saying that we may address the infinite, transcendent, almighty God with the intimacy, familiarity, and unshaken trust that a sixteen-month-old baby has sitting on his father's lap--da, da, daddy. Is your own personal prayer life characterized by the simplicity, childlike candor, boundless trust, and easy familiarity of a little one crawling up in Daddy's lap? An assured knowing that the daddy doesn't care if the child falls asleep, starts playing with toys, or even starts chatting with little friends, because the daddy knows the child has essentially chosen to be with him for that moment? Is that the spirit of your interior prayer life?" [43-44]
"Abba, I belong to you. It's a prayer of exactly seven syllables, the number that corresponds perfectly to the rhythm of our breathing. As you inhale--Abba. As you exhale--I belong to you." [45]
On Union with Jesus
"The invitation to union [with Jesus] is extended not only for Christians of iron will, austere seekers of God, those who preach the gospel and get doctorates in theology. It is not reserved for those who are well-known mystics or for those who do wonderful things for the poor... [It is for] those poor enough to welcome Jesus. It is for people living ordinary lives and who feel lonely. It is for all those who are old, hospitalized or out of work, who open their hearts in trust to Jesus and cry out for his healing love. [quoting Jean Vanier] I would add that the outstretched arms of Jesus exclude no one, neither the drunk in the doorway, the panhandler on the street, gays and lesbians in their isolation, the most selfish and ungrateful in their cocoons, the most unjust of employers and the most overweening of snobs. The love of Christ embraces all without exception. Again, the love of God is folly!" [59-60]
"While praying over [John 17.22-23], I came to the inescapable conclusion that the degree of Abba's love for me is in direct proportion to His love for Jesus. For example, I can love the mailman with twenty percent and my best friend with ninety percent. But with God, there is no such division, no more and no less. God loves me as much as He loves Jesus." [61]
"[Catherine of Siena prayed] When then, eternal Father, did you create this creature of yours?... You show me that you made us for one reason only: in your light you saw yourself compelled by the fire of your love to give us being in spite of the evil we would commit against you, eternal Father. It was fire, then, that compelled you. Oh, unutterable love, even though you saw all the evils your creatures would commit against your infinite goodness, you acted as if you did not see and set your eye only on the beauty of your creature, with whom you had fallen in love like one drunk and crazy with love... You are the fire, nothing but a fire of love, crazy over what you have made." [63]
"[Biblical scholar Thomas Brodie] argues persuasively that the starting point of John's theology [in the Gospel of John] is abiding restful union. The Irish scholar first establishes the union of Jesus with His Father. The prologue speaks of Jesus being 'in the bosom of the Father' (1:1, 18). As the gospel progresses, Jesus speaks not only of His oneness with the Father, but also of His union with us. 'Make your home in me just as I do in you' (15:4 MSG). The extraordinary picture of the beloved reclining on Jesus' breast (13:23-25) and John's surprising repetition of that intimate moment at the very end of his gospel (21:20) convey the intention that abiding restful union frames his gospel." [64]
"Words such as union, fusion, and symbiosis hint at the ineffable oneness with Jesus that the apostle Paul experienced: 'It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me' (Gal 2:20). No human word is even remotely adequate to convey the mysterious and furious longing of Jesus for you and me to live in His smile and hang on His words. But union comes close, very close; it is a word pregnant with a reality that surpasses understanding, the only reality worth yearning for with love and patience, the only reality before which we should stay very quiet." [64-65]
"I decided that if I had my life to live over again, I would not only climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets; I wouldn't only jettison my hot water bottle, raincoat, umbrella, parachute, and raft; I would not only go barefoot earlier in the spring and stay out later in the fall; but I would devote not one more minute to monitoring my spiritual growth. No, not one. Gerald May is incisive and humorous: The entire process (of self-development) can be very exciting and etertaining. But the problem is there's no end to it. The fantasy is that if one heads in the right direction and just works hard enough to learn new things and grows enough and gets actualized, one will be there. None of us is quite certain exactly where there is, but it obviously has something to do with resting. In retrospect, my ponderous ponderings on the purgative, illuminative, and unitive stages of my spiritual life, my assiduous search for shortcuts to holiness, my preoccupation with my spiritual pulse and my fasts, mortifications, and penance have wrought pseudobliss and the egregious delusion that I was securely ensconced in the seventh mansion of spiritual perfection. What would I actually do if I had it to do all over again? Heeding John's counsel, I would simply do the next thing in love." [65-66]
"John McKenzie explains: We recognize that the person whom we have encountered speaks to our innermost being, supplies our needs, satisfies our desires. We recognize that this person gives life meaning. I do not say a new meaning simply, for we realize that before we encountered this person life had no real meaning. We recognize that this person has revealed to us not only himself, but our own true self as well. We recognize that we cannot be our own true self except by union with this person. In him, the obscure is illuminated, the uncertain yields to the certain, insecurity is replaced by a deep sense of security. In him we find we have achieved an understanding of many things which baffled us. We recognize in his person strength and power which we can sense passing from him to us. Most certainly, if most obscurely, we recognize that in this person we have encountered God, and that we shall not encounter God in any other way." [66-67]
"While praying over [John 17.22-23], I came to the inescapable conclusion that the degree of Abba's love for me is in direct proportion to His love for Jesus. For example, I can love the mailman with twenty percent and my best friend with ninety percent. But with God, there is no such division, no more and no less. God loves me as much as He loves Jesus." [61]
"[Catherine of Siena prayed] When then, eternal Father, did you create this creature of yours?... You show me that you made us for one reason only: in your light you saw yourself compelled by the fire of your love to give us being in spite of the evil we would commit against you, eternal Father. It was fire, then, that compelled you. Oh, unutterable love, even though you saw all the evils your creatures would commit against your infinite goodness, you acted as if you did not see and set your eye only on the beauty of your creature, with whom you had fallen in love like one drunk and crazy with love... You are the fire, nothing but a fire of love, crazy over what you have made." [63]
"[Biblical scholar Thomas Brodie] argues persuasively that the starting point of John's theology [in the Gospel of John] is abiding restful union. The Irish scholar first establishes the union of Jesus with His Father. The prologue speaks of Jesus being 'in the bosom of the Father' (1:1, 18). As the gospel progresses, Jesus speaks not only of His oneness with the Father, but also of His union with us. 'Make your home in me just as I do in you' (15:4 MSG). The extraordinary picture of the beloved reclining on Jesus' breast (13:23-25) and John's surprising repetition of that intimate moment at the very end of his gospel (21:20) convey the intention that abiding restful union frames his gospel." [64]
"Words such as union, fusion, and symbiosis hint at the ineffable oneness with Jesus that the apostle Paul experienced: 'It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me' (Gal 2:20). No human word is even remotely adequate to convey the mysterious and furious longing of Jesus for you and me to live in His smile and hang on His words. But union comes close, very close; it is a word pregnant with a reality that surpasses understanding, the only reality worth yearning for with love and patience, the only reality before which we should stay very quiet." [64-65]
"I decided that if I had my life to live over again, I would not only climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets; I wouldn't only jettison my hot water bottle, raincoat, umbrella, parachute, and raft; I would not only go barefoot earlier in the spring and stay out later in the fall; but I would devote not one more minute to monitoring my spiritual growth. No, not one. Gerald May is incisive and humorous: The entire process (of self-development) can be very exciting and etertaining. But the problem is there's no end to it. The fantasy is that if one heads in the right direction and just works hard enough to learn new things and grows enough and gets actualized, one will be there. None of us is quite certain exactly where there is, but it obviously has something to do with resting. In retrospect, my ponderous ponderings on the purgative, illuminative, and unitive stages of my spiritual life, my assiduous search for shortcuts to holiness, my preoccupation with my spiritual pulse and my fasts, mortifications, and penance have wrought pseudobliss and the egregious delusion that I was securely ensconced in the seventh mansion of spiritual perfection. What would I actually do if I had it to do all over again? Heeding John's counsel, I would simply do the next thing in love." [65-66]
"John McKenzie explains: We recognize that the person whom we have encountered speaks to our innermost being, supplies our needs, satisfies our desires. We recognize that this person gives life meaning. I do not say a new meaning simply, for we realize that before we encountered this person life had no real meaning. We recognize that this person has revealed to us not only himself, but our own true self as well. We recognize that we cannot be our own true self except by union with this person. In him, the obscure is illuminated, the uncertain yields to the certain, insecurity is replaced by a deep sense of security. In him we find we have achieved an understanding of many things which baffled us. We recognize in his person strength and power which we can sense passing from him to us. Most certainly, if most obscurely, we recognize that in this person we have encountered God, and that we shall not encounter God in any other way." [66-67]
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