By Sister Doreen, SSJD
“Each of us is a dancer in this cosmic dance. Each being, each human alive today is here to participate in the creative adventure that is the universe. There can be no spectators. Some deep longing – each one’s unique gift, a passion for belonging, our dream for the world of love and unity – is urging us to get up and dance!”
(From “Afterword” by Mary Southard, CSJ
page 127 in The Cosmic Dance by Joyce Rupp.)
When searching for the idea of “cosmic dance” in scripture it highlights for us that harmony and joyfulness flow from God’s love for humanity and all of creation. That love is seen as a sign of unity, and the interaction between God and the whole cosmos, and it encourages a shift from an inactive faith to an active faith of joy, renewal, and connection with each other, creation, the whole world, and God who is the source of all life.
There are many examples that might be used, scripture is full of occasions that fit the description of a cosmic dance, God acting in joy and laughter and love in continually reaching out for a relationship with us and the whole created universe – the whole cosmos. I have chosen just a few of my own ponderings.
The Transfiguration (Matthew 17): can be Interpreted as a moment of extreme happiness, marvellous light and joy—like a “cosmic dance” or celebration, rather than a solemn event. As I pondered the mystery and the ‘magic’ of this event, “sunlight pouring from Jesus’ face, clothes filled with light – a great moment, and the words ‘this is my Son, marked by my love, focus of my delight. Listen to him’ (message translation,) I began to feel that it was an invitation to all of us and the whole cosmos to join in this marvellous, joyful rhythm and dance, a celebration of a great moment. We too are God’s beloved, we too are marked by God’s love, the focus of God’s delight!
Great Love and Unity (John 17): Jesus’ prayer for oneness, “just as you God are in me and I in you so they may be of one heart and mind …” can be interpreted as an invitation to participate in the “dance” of unity, love and community. Jesus’ prayer for God to show bright splendor and the gift of being of one heart and mind, for the whole human community and all of creation, so that God’s joy is complete. How we long for this to be so … how the heart of God longs for this to be so. And we are called perhaps to just start the dance, just begin a little, and we might find ourselves being carried along, inch by inch, to a greater unity and new life.
God Rejoicing (Zephaniah 3:17-18): describes God as “being present among you, a strong warrior there to save you. Happy to have you back, God will calm you with love and delight you with song … “ As I pondered this Zephaniah story of God’s interaction with people, I could imagine God dancing with shouts of joy, a joyful interaction with humanity and with all of creation, all of the cosmos. God welcoming us home, longing for us to know that we are God’s home and the apple of God’s eye.
With Dancing, Tambourine, and Harp (Psalm 149:3-5): “Let them praise God’s name in dance; strike up the band and make great music! And why? Because God delights in us, adorns us plain folks with salvation garlands!”. The psalms are full of singing, rejoicing, and dancing – all of creation, the whole cosmos, and everything in it, gives praise, sings and dances in the joy of God’s creative love. We are held within the circle of God’s inclusive and unconditional and tenacious love! O Praise and Praise!
This I believe – God’s relationship with us and the whole of the created cosmos is one of tender love and joy, the energy of new life. In the midst of our broken world and the crisis’s we find ourselves in, both in our relationships with each other and with our world, creation and the cosmos, we need to rediscover God as the source of new life. Ilia Delio in her book The Emergent Christ said “To see another and not respond is like looking into a mirror and not recognizing ourselves.” To see our times as the best of times and the worst of times (Charles Dickens – Tale of Two Cities) and to believe in a God of love that is scandalous, deeply desiring of a newness in love – and our knowing that love will endure, that love is stronger than hate, good is stronger than evil … this I believe and join the cosmic dance!
Thomas Merton reflects in his book ‘New Seeds of Contemplation’ on the fact that adults tend to take themselves too seriously, when all along God invites us to dance, invites us to join in the cosmic dance with humility and the freedom of a child. He wrote: “What is serious to humankind is often very trivial in the sight of God. What in God might appear to us as “play” is perhaps what God takes most seriously. At any rate, the Lord plays and is amused in the garden of creation, and if we could let go of our own obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear God’s call and follow in God’s mysterious, cosmic dance.”
The mystics often danced as an expression of their spiritual joy. St. Teresa of Avila praised God with her body, not just her mind and soul; she was known to express her joy in the Lord by dancing while playing castanets: “May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.”
When I allow God’s presence to sink into my physical body, right to my bones, it gives me a sense of harmony and unity that is much deeper and stronger than the forces of the brokenness, wars, violence and distress of the world today. When we set our souls free to dance: our trust that good shall stand is deepened and our joy in experiencing beauty is strengthened. As Joyce Rupp writes in her book Cosmic Dance: “The energy that leaps and twirls in each part of existence commands my attention and draws me into a cosmic embrace. I sense again the limitless love that connects us all. I come home to that part of myself that savors kinship, births compassion and welcomes tenderness. I re-discover that I am never alone. Always that dance joins me to what ‘is’.”
Three saints of old speak wisdom to ponder;
St. Philip Neri, the patron saint of joy, used humour and performed impromptu dances so others would snap out of false solemnity. This made me smile as I thought of how serious some of our worship together seems from time to time.
St Basil, 4th Century Mystic: “Could there be anything more blessed than to imitate on earth the ring-dance of the angels and at dawn to raise our voices in prayer and by hymns and song glorify the rising Creator?”
St. Augustine: “Learn to dance, or else the angels in heaven will not know what to do with you. Dance engages the whole being, spirit, emotions, and body. So let us relax and join in the cosmic dance with the saints and angels.”
This I believe – each of us is a dancer in the cosmic dance! Allison Burns-LaGreca in one of her blogs wrote: “Somewhere beneath the headlines, beneath the constant urgency, beneath the pressure to react to everything all at once, there is still a quieter truth waiting for us. Human beings are still loving each other. Still feeding each other. Still praying. Still showing up. Still lighting candles in dark rooms. Still laughing at kitchen tables. Still planting flowers. Still believing that kindness matters … Joy is not the absence of sorrow. It is a posture toward God that sorrow cannot finally dislodge. It is the quiet insistence, even in the dark, that God has not abandoned the field. That love is still the final word … {This beloved cosmos} can rest in the faithfulness of the One who has never once let us and the whole universe go.”
There is a poem in a book called May I have This Dance by Joyce Rupp that I would like to share as a closing to this reflection – “For this I Believe”:
Thus says God to these bones: “I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live” Ezekiel 37:5
“There I am in Ezekiel’s valley, one heap among many, just another stack of old, dry bones.
Some Mondays feel this way, and Tuesday too, to say nothing of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Lost dreams and forgotten pleasures, sold like a soul to a gluttonous world
feeding on my frenzy and anxious activity.
But just when the old heap of bones seems most dry and deserted,
a strong Breath of Life stirs among my dead.
Someone named God comes to my fragments and asks,
With a twinkling eye: ‘May I have this dance?’
The Voice stretches into me, a stirring leaps in my heart, lifting up the bones of death.
Then I offer my waiting self to the One who’s never stopped believing in me,
And the dance begins.”
This I believe.
Yes! Yes! “Arise shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.” Isaiah 60:1.