When the new year has begun, we traditionally wish each other a Happy New Year.  That sounds nice—but these days you have to wonder whether that wish is still realistic.  Actually, we already know, don’t we, that the new year won’t be as happy as we wish it for each other.

Our future is overshadowed by the ballast of the past, by unfinished business, by lingering conflicts and crises.  We bring all of that with us into the new year without much prospect of improvement, let alone miracles.  At best we could wish someone happiness with unhappiness for the new year, in the hope that the damage will remain limited.

Or does perhaps the unhappiness, which has our entire humanity in its grip, still have something else in store for us?

A century ago, Michael Bauer, one of the most prominent modern mystics, described a memorable encounter with the angel of suffering, who came to bring him unhappiness.  He writes:

“Once, when I was visited by suffering, I was so awake that I could see the messenger of God.  To my surprise I noticed that he was holding his right hand behind his back, as if he was hiding something in it.

‘May I know what you are hiding?’ I asked.

‘Not yet entirely,’ he answered. ‘But what I can tell you is that it is something precious that gives joy.’

‘Are you then not only the angel of suffering, but also of joy?’

‘Certainly, how could I be an angel if I would only bring suffering?’

‘For whom is the joy intended that you are hiding in your hand?’

‘For you.’

‘For me?  O, when can I get it?’

‘As soon as you trust and your soul is stilled.’”

Perhaps that is the best thing we can wish each other for the future: trust in the spiritual world, in order to welcome the angel of joy and suffering with a stilled soul.  For also in suffering, also in unhappiness, yes, even in ill fate the angel of destiny goes with us, all the days, to the end of the world.

 

Rev. Bastiaan Baan January 2, 2022

The Key Power of the I

At all possible times the world, with all that goes wrong in it, pushes itself into our lives and demands our attention.  Illness, famine, climate crisis, conflicts, and wars—we cannot escape from alarming reports.  Closing ourselves off from them is of course not the solution.  That would in the long run make us unsociable outsiders.

But from time to time, we do need a key to close the door, so we are not inundated by the tidal wave of misery the world pours over us every day.  The more we are confronted with this, the more does a feeling of impotence threaten to paralyze us.

The Apocalypse has a name for this key that can create boundaries for us: “The key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens.” (Rev.3:7)

To keep our footing in the whirlpool of events we have to close the door time and again and check in with ourselves before we let the world come into us again.  Only in that way can we let life penetrate into us without losing ourselves in it.  This holds true for everyone and everything that comes to meet us from outside.  Out of self-preservation we often have to say: “Not right now.”  “The key of David, … who shuts and no one opens.”

It is not only needed to shut out the world, but also to open our own inner space and check in with ourselves.  “The key of David, who opens and no one shall shut …”  What should I do?  What is being asked of me right now?  When we want to serve the world it is more than ever necessary to take ourselves in hand, to become lord and master over ourselves as kings in our own realm.

In this kingdom, Christ wants to continue His creation on earth—as “King of kings and Lord of lords.” (Rev.19:16)

 

-Rev. Bastiaan Baan, October 24, 2021

Letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 6

The first Christians had a remarkable saying with which they distinguished themselves from their contemporaries: “We Christians stand above destiny.”

Was it courage, presumptuousness, or hubris that led to this saying?  One thing is certain: even when they had to die a horrible death, they faced their lot with unwavering trust.  Bishop Cyprian of Carthage wrote in a letter to his congregation where that trust came from:

“We do not leave the martyrs unarmed, but we provide them with the shield of the body and blood of Christ.  For those who are not armed for the battle are incapable of martyrdom, and the soul becomes powerless when it is not fired by the holy meal, the eucharist.” *

The first Christians knew from their own experience: a day will come when evil will reign.  Every day they prepared themselves for this day with the sacrament of bread and wine, knowing that a time would come when they would have nothing to lose anymore and would make their last stand.

Paul, with his foresight, described in his letter to the Ephesians the time when evil would reign.  In his own language, he called it literally “the evil day.” (Eph.6:13)

Although it is a long time ago that Christians were thrown to the lions, in our time the powers of the adversary, perhaps more than ever before, are having free play.  The evil day—we are in the middle of it.

Whoever thinks they can handle the battle on their own power are the real presumptuous ones and will get the worst of it against the demons that are lord and master in our time.  But whatever happens, whatever befalls us in the trials, those who make the Lord of Destiny their Lord and Master stand with Him above destiny.

 

–Rev. Bastiaan Baan, October 10, 2021

* 57^th letter of Bishop Cyprian of Carthage (app. 210-258 AD).