This post is designed answer some basic questions. The answers are how I see things, based on where I am. (If you want to comment, please do!)

Is every Christian called to contemplation?

Yes, by right. Maybe not right away, but it is supposed to be the flourishing of a life lived in, by, with, and through God.

Really? Why? In what sense?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus counsels, “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). God is perfect Wisdom itself, and God wants to give this to us. Contemplation is wisdom. Thus is follows that the fulfilling of a Christian vocation is in contemplation, in “suffering divine things”, in being transformed by Love to become love.

It may be that a lot of work is needed to get there, as a state of life or for a particular moment. But the call is universal. The Gospel doesn’t pick and choose some Christians more than others! We are all loved. We are all asked to receive love from God and really deeply love him in return.

Does this mean everyone must live a “contemplative life”?

Obviously that depends what is meant by a “contemplative life”!

• A life in which certain times of silence are sought to bring us closer to God, regardless of our daily tasks? Of course Christians must live such a life, according to what we’re given. Jesus told us to go to our room, shut the door, and pray (Mt 6:6). This has to fit in somewhere, sometime, somehow.
• A life in which contemplation, received as a gift of love of God is perpetuated by God in our soul, through all the ups and downs of life and which we are not to neglect by either mortal or venial sins? Of course that’s the goal of a Christian life.
• A life which is classified as “contemplative” as opposed to “active” or “active-contemplative”? No, not every Christian must live that way!

Do my two answers contradict one another: everyone must “be contemplative” but “not everyone must live a so-called contemplative life”?

No, there’s no contradiction.

The way God gives us wisdom is not through any strictly intellectual game or intellectual considerations. The contemplation of the Christian is not the same as the contemplation of the philosopher.* As Christians, we become wise through loving God and letting him guide us without intermediaries. That’s what is meant by the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1830)

The Holy Spirit leads immediately and we’re given particular Gifts to respond to particular leads.

As far as I can tell, these Gifts are like personal touches that let us know how our partner will lead a dance and we are to allow it, respond to it, and take the cue without resistance. We become docile to God’s promptings.

There are seven such Gifts. One of these Gifts is Wisdom. This is the Wisdom given by God to focus on him in a stable way through life’s ups and downs, torments, and troubles. Although each of the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit is necessary for us to be properly and immediately led by God, it’s Wisdom that sustains the bond of love (knowledge of God through love, through becoming like him).

All Christians are called to have that.

Meanwhile, with some Christians, the Holy Spirit dances a dance that predominantly (not exclusively) uses the “moves” or “dispositions” of Wisdom. Obviously, that’s a primarily contemplative vocation. It’s a primarily contemplative life. Why? Because the Spirit is mostly leading us by that contemplative Gift.

In point of fact, there are two other Gifts that don’t immediately aim at action, either: Understanding and Knowledge.

Then, the remaining four help govern passions or put us into action in the world: Counsel, Fortitude, Piety, Fear of the Lord. If the Holy Spirit leads our “dance” primarily with these movements, touches, and dispositions, then we’re led primarily into action.

Of course, some days are more of one or more of another – some weeks, some months, even!

But on the whole, there will be an overall melody and harmony. God has a plan. God has his ideas. God knows what he is doing. It’s about God. If we let him, God will lead us in some life-long dance. Is the tune predominantly contemplative or active? If we truly let God lead, there will be a definite direction: towards contemplation, towards action, or towards a particularly strong mix of the two – as many possibilities as there are people.

Every life left in God’s hands alone will use all seven Gifts. In other words, every Christian vocation is contemplative, because it requires and lives Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge. But, at the same time, not every Christian is led predominantly by the three contemplative Gifts. Some lives, taken as a whole and in the secrets of hearts, are more active; some are more contemplative; some are in between. That’s the marvel of our lives in Jesus and his Church: the variety, mixed together with the universal call to holiness, which means the universal call to contemplation according to our state in life and according to the Spirit’s free choices.

* Some philosophical thoughts on this topic can be found on Sylvie D. Rousseau’s blog, citing Aristotle, Jacques Maritain, and Kant.