The New Year is a time for creating spaces

By Mary Regina Morrell
Catholic Online

"Be holy for I am holy." 1 Peter 1:16

One trait my father passed on to me, for which I am eternally grateful, is the love of reading, which would explain why one room in my house has bookshelves lining all four walls. They are all filled and, for the most part, every book has been read in whole or in snippets.

Of course, when I discovered how quickly the computer allowed me to change from one reading venue to another, my books began to get a rest and I began to discover some very interesting information that I may never have had the opportunity to read.

During one of my recent forays into the study of the Hebrew alphabet, I came across the writings of Dr. Gerald Schroeder, a world renowned scientist in the field of radiation control who has combined his research with his vast theological studies, particularly those of ancient biblical interpretation.

In one of his articles I read the following: "The floor upon which you stand and the bedrock that supports a skyscraper are 99.999% empty space."

Without going into reams of scientific explanation, suffice it to say that the statement is a mini-exposition of the findings of Einstein and, later, French physicist Louis de Broglie.

What fascinated me was the idea of empty space.

We live in a culture and an era when empty space is seen as a lifeless void to be filled. Whether it is land not yet fallen to construction or time not yet filled with activity, our inclination is to fill it up with whatever we can, even if these things are of little or no value.

We fail to see the empty space in our world, and in our lives, as the marvel upon which all else rests and against which all else takes its form.

Imagine a song without space for the rests and the breaths that give it feeling, or a poem without the artistic pause, or a garden without space between plants for the flowers to grow.

In the Hebrew tradition there is a metaphor from rabbinic literature that describes the writing of the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, as "letters of black fire upon a background of white fire."

The black letters, which inevitably keep our human attention, represent the obvious teachings, those which can be understood by the limited human intellect. The white fire of blank space represents the deeper, unlimited, revelations of the divine presence, not readily understood by all.

Black and white, limited and unlimited, full and empty - there is a need, say the rabbis, for an appropriate balance of both. And in reality, the white fire, the empty space, is more important because it is in the white fire that we encounter God, that we are immersed in holiness.

Holiness, wrote one rabbi, "is the space we make for the Otherness of G-d - by listening, not speaking; by being, not doing; by allowing ourselves to be acted on rather than acting. It means disengaging from that flow of activity whereby we impose our human purposes on the world, thereby allowing space for the divine purpose to emerge. All holiness is a form of renunciation . . ."

If we allow ourselves to learn from this teaching than we can begin to see the value of creating empty spaces in our lives by discarding all that serves as an obstacle to our physical, spiritual and emotional growth, whether those things be attitudes, relationships, habits or places.

The New Year is an appropriate time to create some space in our lives and to remember that holiness is the space we create for God.

____________________

Mary Regina Morrell is a syndicated Catholic columnist and the author of Angels in High Top Sneakers from Loyola Press.

Contact

Diocese of Metuchen
http://www.diometuchen.org NJ, US
Mary Regina Morrell - Associate Director, Office of Religious Education, 732 562.1990

Email

mmorrell@diometuchen.org

Keywords

New Year, space, holiness

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