Ecclesiastes – The Purgative Way
I learned something interesting this week. I received as a gift a copy of Dr. John Bergsma’s reflections on the readings. From him. I learned that today is the only time Ecclesiastes is read on a Sunday or a Holy Day.
But I learned something else, too. For many centuries, the Christian tradition has recognized that we grow and mature in our relationship with God. Just as we grow and mature physically we also grow and mature spiritually. The three principal stages of growth are the purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways to God. In the purgative way, we learn to let go of the things that separate us from God, and to stop clinging to even the good things of this earth. In the illuminative way, we begin to learn more about God, and to understand the mind of God. In the unitive way, we enter into the deepest kind of loving relationship with God.
What I learned is – the church has long understood that
- Ecclesiastes is the description of someone walking the purgative way, and coming to learn that, as that book so says – everything on this earth is vanity.
- Proverbs represents the illuminative way, in which we learn that God’s ways are not our ways, nor God’s thoughts our thoughts, because God’s thoughts are as high above ours as the heavens are above the earth.
- The Song of Solomon represents the unitive way, as it uses the language of nuptial love to describe our relationship with God.
I am looking forward to re-reading these scriptures with this explicit lense.
