Henri J. M. Nouwen - A Spirituality of Homecoming

A Spirituality of Homecoming

Henri J. M. Nouwen

John S. Mogabgab, Series Editor

NASHVILLE

THE HENRI NOUWEN SPIRITUALITY SERIES
A Spirituality of Homecoming
Copyright 2012 The Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust.
All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher and The Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust except in brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, write Upper Room Books, 1908 Grand Avenue, Nashville, TN 37212.

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The Henri Nouwen Society website: www.HenriNouwen.org.

UPPER ROOM, UPPER ROOM BOOKS, and design logos are trademarks owned by The Upper Room, a ministry of GBOD, Nashville,Tennessee. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The New Jerusalem Bible, copyright 1985 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. Reprinted by permission.

Scripture quotations designated JB are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, copyright 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Reprinted by permission.

Scripture quotations designated NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover and Interior Design: Sue Smith and Pearson & Co. Cover art: Gogh,Vincent van (1888). Mas at Saintes Maries de la Mer. Private Col-lection/Art Resource, NY. Photo on page 62 by Mary Ellen Kronstein. Used by permission.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nouwen, Henri J. M.

A spirituality of homecoming / by Henri J. M. Nouwen.

p. cm. (The Henri Nouwen spirituality series)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-8358-1114-9

1. Spiritual lifeCatholic Church. I.Title.

BX2350.3.N6924 2013

248.4'82dc23

2012027334

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

ABOUT THE HENRI NOUWEN SPIRITUALITY SERIES

H ENRI NOUWEN sought the center of things. Never content to observe life from the sidelines, his approach to new experiences and relationships was full throttle. He looked at the world with the enthusiastic anticipation of a child, convinced that right in the midst of life he would find the God who loves us without conditions. Helping us recognize this God in the very fabric of our lives was the enduring passion of Henris life and ministry.

The Henri Nouwen Spirituality Series embodies Henris legacy of compassionate engagement with contemporary issues and concerns. Developed through a partnership between the Henri Nouwen Society and Upper Room Ministries, the Series offers fresh presentations of themes close to Henris heart. We hope each volume will help you discover that in your daily round God is closer than you think.

PREFACE

H ENRI NOUWEN often wrote about moving beyond fear. I remember well the first time my husband Geoff and I met Henri. We felt a bit shy as he welcomed us into his Honda Civic, but as he started to drive our fear was swiftly transformedto terror! Henris active, expressive hands were rarely on the wheel, and he wanted eye contact as we chatted. I would have preferred him to have eye contact with the road. This was not our unique experience: a couple of years earlier Henri had famously totaled a new car within blocks of the dealership.

On that day with Henri we moved from fear to terror, then from terror to pizza. Henri happily introduced us to his favorite pizza restaurant, where the wait staff knew him by name. He made us feel at home with him, sharing very personally about his own life, his anxieties and fears, and he was deeply interested in our life choices and experiences. He warmly welcomed us into an intimate time together.

In this little book about homecoming, Henri describes the first disciples asking Jesus where he lived, and beginning to get to know him by spending time together. Ive often wondered how Henri Nouwen would function in todays world. He would quickly recognize a paradox: the worlds suffering, local news, and even personal relationships have all become more immediate with instant global communication, yet also more detached and controlled, represented on a screen. Henri urges his readers to dare unexpected relationships: If we want to find Jesus, we need to spend time with people who are not the same as we are. And we have to listen to them.

These reflections are adapted from a series of Lenten talks that Henri offered in 1985 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Henri spoke about following Jesus as a response to an invitation, a response that will lead us home. He explores the fears and wounds that can prevent us from hearing or responding to Jesus call, and the challenge of incarnating Jesus rather than simply imitating him.

At the time of these talks, Henri had been spending half of his time teaching at Harvard and the other half traveling, speaking to large audiences about the spiritual grounding needed to work for greater justice. This unsettled lifestyle had taken a toll. While former students fondly recall his welcoming home in Cambridge, Henri experienced his interior life as living in a very dark place. He explains: I found myself praying poorly, living somewhat isolated from other people, and very much preoccupied with burning issues.Within months of these Lenten talks, Henri would uproot his life, seeking again to respond to Jesus invitation to come and see where he lived. His recognition of LArche as a place for his heart was all about home:

When I visited the LArche community in France I experienced a sense of at-homeness I had not experienced at Yale, in Latin America, or at Harvard. The noncompetitive life with mentally handicapped people, their gifts of welcoming me regardless of name or prestige, and the persistent invitation to waste some time with them opened in me a place that until then had remained unavailable to me, a place where I could hear the gentle invitation of Jesus to dwell with him.

In these pages, Henri articulates the spirituality of someone who follows Jesus and is thus able to find home anywhere and everywhere, discovering joy hidden in being open to the reality of pain. This is a central theme of all Henris writing: do not be afraid of suffering, whether your own or others. Henri includes only one personal story, but it is powerful. He describes a time of depression, perhaps because he is feeling overwhelmed by the worlds many urgent issues, and he is feeling lonely and needy. Because he is in Flagstaff, he decides to go to the Grand Canyon. Interestingly, he isnt beset with an urge to leap in! Instead, the geologic layers, laid one by one over millennia, become a comforting metaphor that puts his life into perspective. In that vastness, Henris discouragement falls away.

A Spirituality of Homecoming is about the moments and choices that allow God to break through our blockages so that we can become free.

Carolyn Whitney-Brown

St. Jeromes University

Waterloo, Ontario

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T HE APPEARANCE of this fourth volume in the Henri Nouwen Spirituality Series is due, in no small measure, to the encouragement of my colleagues at Upper Room Books. Jeannie Crawford-Lee, Rita Collett, and Eli Fisher cheered me on as I wrestled transcriptions from the uneven original recordings of Henris meditations. Designer Nelson Kane has crafted a cover that conveys the spacious invitation contained in these pages. Nathan Ball, Judith Leckie, and Sue Mosteller of The Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust deserve deepest thanks for their penetrating comments on the penultimate draft of this book. Finally, gratitude greater than words can express belongs to Carolyn Whitney-Brown, a former colleague of Henris at LArche Daybreak in Richmond Hill, Ontario. She generously agreed to write the Preface in the midst of last minute preparations for teaching university summer school.