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Filled to Overflowing
Communion of Life: Meditations for the New Millennium
by Chris Glaser.
Westminster John Knox Press, 1999. Illustrated.
Reviewed by Anthony Chiffolo
It seems that every business is trying to capitalize on what many people are calling "millennial madness," and the book industry is no exception. So it's no surprise that even in the genre of spirituality we find a book with the word "millennium" in its title. But Communion of Life: Meditations for the New Millennium by Chris Glaser is much more than a crass attempt to cash in on a once-in-a-lifetime milestone; it is a special book, for a number of reasons.
One might easily dismiss this book as another offering in an effete and outdated subcategory known as eco-spirituality. Eco-spirituality had its heyday a couple of decades ago, and most recent books purporting to reconnect us with the Great Spirit that animates all of life have been shallow efforts lacking true spirituality -- that is, a spirituality that not only reveals the Holy Spirit animating our souls but also enables us to establish loving relationships with our Creator and with one another.
At first glance, one might even aim this criticism at Glaser's book: he offers twelve cycles of meditations, each cycle consisting of a meditation on Earth, a meditation on Air, a meditation on Water, and a meditation on Fire. This might seem like mere nature-worship. But a close reading of the book reveals a spirituality that goes far beyond an awesome wonder at natural beauty. Consider this meditation on Fire:
You have been the center of our dance.
From bonfires ablaze to candles flickering,
Wildly we have swung around you,
Howling, shouting, singing, chanting,
Igniting our passion for uniting
For war, for the hunt, for community, for the gods.
Flame mesmerized by flame:
Our burning, restless insides
Stretch outside unfired clay
For flames of unity, at-one-ment in immolation:
The burning flash of bullets and bombs,
The stinging, fatal wound by carnivores,
The searing of the heretic at the stake,
The burnt offering of sacrifice.
Attacking the enemy,
Devouring our prey,
Excommunicating the stranger,
Slaughtering a scapegoat
Do not make us one.
We are one --
With one another and the gods,
With the enemy, the prey, the stranger, the scapegoat --
Clay lamps burning with the same divine starstuff
That prompts bowing in reverence and awe
Before one another.
What strikes me here is that by musing about fire, Glaser considers the essential questions of what it means to be human: Who are we, and what are we about? This is matter well worth contemplation.
Glaser's meditations on Fire appeal to me the most, perhaps because they are the most poetic. In this book, Glaser assays theo-poetry -- that is, theology expressed in poetic form -- because only poetry can even begin to adequately express Love and Truth. In this, he has much in common with other modern mystical writers. Glaser's meditations, at their best, are poetic, and combined with the stunning photographs from the National Geographic archives, the entire book becomes a poem that touches the heart with awe.
Glaser is well known to lesbian and gay community, having written a number of books from the point of view of one struggling for the religious inclusion of gays and lesbians. His books include Coming Out As Sacrament; Coming Out to God: Prayers for Lesbians and Gay Men, Their Families and Friends; Uncommon Calling: A Gay Christian's Struggle to Serve the Church; and The Word Is Out: Daily Reflections on the Bible for Lesbians and Gay Men. With his new book, however, Glaser transcends all societal divisions to engage with the Spirit that calls to all people.
Communion of Life helps us to understand that spirituality is grounded in the here and now. As we contemplate our experiences, we discover in them the extraordinary and the sacred. We discover Love. Once discovered, it will fill us to overflowing. And at that point, our mission as spirit-filled people is to bring Love to others. Glaser's writing, in this book and in his others, emphasizes the importance of our own actions: to be honest with ourselves and others and God, to tear down the artificial barriers, to reach out to the disenfranchised. And always, he emphasizes the need to accept God's love and to greet others with that same love.
Anthony F. Chiffolo is the author of 100 Names of Mary: Stories & Prayers, published by St. Anthony Messenger Press. He reviews books for WVOX Radio, 1460 AM, in New Rochelle, New York, and for community newsletters. Chiffolo is also the author of Be Mindful of Us: Prayers to the Saints, the An Hour with the Saints series of pamphlets, and other books from Liguori Publications. He lives in Hartsdale, New York.
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