Here Comes Contemplation in the Mud: From Pope John Paul II to Pope Francis

Contemplation in the mud is, as far as I have always been concerned, a mode of contemplative life that involves focusing our prayer and thought processes on what Saint Charles de Foucauld intuited: Jesus in our neighbours, Jesus in the needy, Jesus in fellow human beings travelling these roads and not yet arrived. This, to be sure, is muddy in a lot of ways. For one thing, the cleanness isn’t there in ourselves; this isn’t the purified in heaven contemplating God! We’re muddy. But for another, the absolute impeccability isn’t there either; this isn’t contemplation of God or his Christ, but rather the dusty feet, splattered through the rain, of our fellow Christians and non-Christians in this world. There’s some discernment of God in muddy realities.

Contemplation of Christ at work in and present in others is not, however, something that the magisterium of the Catholic Church has been silent on. The level of discussion has increased, too.

This isn’t necessarily immediately obvious. It has taken me some time to realize the development of the ordinary magisterium on this matter. That, of course, is a hazard of being in the mud. You sometimes can’t see far. It’s not always easy to see the long term and how things are playing out. Coated in muck, our ears could even struggle to discern the most dominant notes that are sounding right now. Music plays over time. We need to pay attention and to exercise our memory.

I don’t want to propose a strong thesis on this development, starting with Pope Saint John Paul II and ending with Pope Francis. But I do want to point to some benchmarks that would allow such an interpretation. There is actually something going on which I think is rather interesting for any Christian living in the world. It affects the way we live our baptism, our mission, our life of prayer.

The theme of finding Jesus in everyone, particularly the poor and needy, is not of course foreign to the Christian tradition. It has been there from the beginning: “Whatever you did to the least of these, you did also to me” (Mt 25:40). It takes hardly much interest in seeing, hearing, contemplating, rather than always busily doing, to take from these words an invitation to look with the eyes of faith, and hear with its ears, the presence of Jesus in our neighbours, especially those vulnerable or in need.

Nonetheless, there are prudential and pastoral presentations of this kind of contemplation. Is it ever mentioned by a pastor? How frequently? To whom is it proposed? And so on. The questions are relevant for pastors of local flocks. They apply too to the pastor of the universal Church.

Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI

Pope Saint John Paul II has noted, for instance, the call “to contemplate God in every person” (Ecclesia in America 29; quoting bishops from the American continent, but evidently making the words his own). Elsewhere, this has been particularized by the former pope: “we must learn to see him especially in the faces of those with whom he himself wished to be identified”—the vulnerable and needy (Novo Millennio Ineunte 49). There are probably other instances of note, but they come up, let’s say, “here and there” in John Paul II’s writings. There’s a proposal, sometimes at the invitation of other Christians, to foster this kind of contemplative regard for others. But I wouldn’t exactly characterize it as a hallmark of John Paul II’s pontificate.

Pope Benedict XVI was perhaps less insistent on this theme. There are moments that strike a similar chord, like when he says that “closing our eyes to our neighbour also blinds us to God” (Deus Caritas Est 16). Seen in a kind of isolation from context, it would be difficult to interpret this as a passage about contemplation of God in our neighbour. Immediately preceding this section, though, is another sentence that contextualizes things a bit: “Love of God and love of neighbour have become one [in Mt 25:40]: in the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God” (DCE 15). In other words, the use of “sight” imagery could justifiably be seen as connected to love, and when that happens, we’re often in the realm of discussing contemplative prayer (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 2715). Contemplation of God at work in our neighbour, implies Benedict, cannot be altogether discarded without tossing out contemplation of the Trinity. Still, it would be hard to call Benedict XVI anything other than “less direct than his predecessor.”

Pope Francis

More recently, however, things have changed a lot. Within the lifetime of this blog (which started in February 2012, a year before Pope Benedict’s resignation), contemplation of Christ in others has thrown itself to the forefront of the Catholic Church’s teaching and pastoral office.

Pope Francis has repeatedly drawn our attention to the contemplation of God’s work in the people drawn to him. The subject is broached relentlessly. Here are the references that I have been able to find in encyclical letters:

• Laudato Si’ 233
• Fratelli Tutti 85

And in apostolic exhortations:

• Evangelii Gaudium 39, 71, 91–92, 154, 169, 198–199, 210, 288
• Amoris Laetitia 118, 127–129, 323
• Gaudete et Exsultate 7, 22, 61, 96, 139, 152
• Christus Vivit 164–165
• Querida Amazonia 63

This is a massive presence of the theme of contemplation of Christ in others: 21 references in seven different papal documents. I’d say that’s impressive. You wouldn’t be wrong to say it’s (almost) overwhelming. This is clearly one of the notes being hit most strongly by Pope Francis as teacher and pastor.

We mightn’t even stop there. Given the designation of the Church as a mystical body (CCC 791), we might suggest that giving due space and time to finding Christ in others forms part of the pope’s proposed restoration of a “mystical adherence to the faith” (EG 70). It is not just morality and ethics. There is something lurking behind and beyond. That something is contemplative prayer that takes in the presence of Christ in others.

Implications and Thoughts

There is, to be sure, a lot to unpack here. First, there is the apparent trend from Pope John Paul II to Pope Francis. This is not an unambiguous, uniform trend, since the earlier pontiff seems to be more interested in contemplation of Christ in others than does his successor Pope Benedict. But consideration of the long haul shows that the explosion of the theme in the current pontificate is both a moment prepared for and one that we shouldn’t ignore.

Second, though, there is everything that Pope Francis himself has said on this topic. This is an extensive catalogue of references.

In the coming weeks—maybe months, for there is, as I say, a lot to unpack—I will be diving into these papal documents. They are an integral part of the short book that I’ve been working on, and I’ve given them a lot of thought, time, and ruminating. I started this blog when “contemplation in the mud” was hardly on the radar of anyone I’d met. Now, it ought to be on nearly everyone’s radar.

Maybe others wouldn’t call all this being “contemplative in the mud.” That’s normal. The words don’t matter (though, I’d say the image is not untoward, since Pope Francis himself talks about the muddy streets of the world at EG 44; cf. AL 308). But the reality does matter—and that reality is the subject of insistent exhortation from the Bishop of Rome to the People of God today.

All this is coming. In the meantime, feel free to delve into these passages form papal documents yourself, shoot off a question about any of them (here, on Facebook or other social media), or make any commentary. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, but thinking in isolation is hardly the only way to go about anything—nor even necessarily the most helpful.