Out of Solitude

Henri Nouwen is one of my favourite writers. He wrote a good number of books, and I have ready many of them. Recently I came across one that was new to me – Out of Solitude. It is a timely reminder of the value of the place where we can be alone with God. Nouwen reminds us of the great example that Jesus sets on this – “In the lonely place, Jesus finds the courage to follow God's will and not his own; to speak God's words and not his own; to do God's work and not his own.”

Of course, we can’t spend all our time in ‘getting away’, and Nouwen also reminds us of that – “The careful balance between silence and words, withdrawal and involvement, distance and closeness, solitude and community forms the basis of the Christian life and should therefore be the subject of our most personal attention.”

He also, in a telling reminder of the value of care, encourages us to be there for each other and to know that what someone else does, in the same circumstances, we might have done. 

However, perhaps the biggest value of these thoughts is in the encouragement to get alongside each other as human beings.

“To care means first of all to empty our own cup and to allow the other to come close to us. It means to take away the many barriers which prevent us from entering into communion with the other. When we dare to care, then we discover that nothing human is foreign to us, but that all the hatred and love, cruelty and compassion, fear and joy can be found in our own hearts. When we dare to care, we have to confess that when others kill, I could have killed too. When others torture, I could have done the same. When others heal, I could have healed too. And when others give life, I could have done the same. Then we experience that we can be present to the soldier who kills, to the guard who pesters, to the young man who plays as if life has no end, and to the old man who stopped playing out of fear of death. By the honest recognition and confession of our human sameness we can participate in the care of God who came, not to the powerful but to the powerless, not to be different but to be the same, not to take our pain away but to share it. Through this participation, we can open our hearts to each other and form a new community.”