An Advent Calendar for my Friends – December 15

GRÃœNEWALD, Matthias: Concert of Angels (detail), c. 1515,
Oil on wood, Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar

The Angel of Serenity

by Anselm Grün

“To have nothing, to own nothing,” is a description that fits the attitude of wise men and women of all times and religions. Only whose heart does not cling to man-made things, who can let go of what others cling to, is truly free. Serenity was an important word for the mystics of the Middle Ages. Most of all Master Ekkehart speaks again and again of serenity. A person is serene, who has let go of her ego and given herself to God, who has grown calm within her heart and has allowed herself to fall into divine ground. Serenity means the mysticism of freeing men from their ego, letting go of all worries and fears about ourselves, so that God may be born inside our hearts, so that we may come to recognize our innermost being, our true self. Serenity is an attitude of inner freedom, of inner calm, a healthy distance to everything that assails us, that threatens to “occupy” and take “possession” of us; it’s not just a question of character. It can be practised. To achieve serenity, first I have to let go of many things.

First of all, there is the world that I have to let go of. Or say the mystics tell me. Antonios, one of the first monks, first let go of all his worldly possessions so that he would be free for living. We should let go of clinging to our possessions, our success, our recognition. Because who clings to earthly goods, becomes dependant on them. And dependency is contradictory to human dignity. We are sufficiently dependent on our wealth, our habits, on other people. A proverb tells about how we can enjoy life only by letting go. A child sees a mug with many nuts. It reaches inside and wants to get out as many as possible. But the fist clutching the nuts cannot pass through the narrow opening of the mug. First you have to let go off the bounty, then you can pick up one nut after the other and enjoy it.

Letting go is not an ascetic achievement that we have to painfully wrest from ourselves. Rather, it derives from a longing for inner freedom and from the inkling that our lives will only be truly fertile, if we are independent and free. If we are no longer dependent on what others think of us and expect of us, if we are no longer dependent on the recognition and devotion of other people, then we get in touch with our own true selves.

But serenity also demands letting go of myself. I am not to cling to myself either, neither to my worries, nor to my fears, nor to my depressions. Many people cling to their injuries. They cannot let go of them. They use them for accusations of those who have hurt them. But in the end they deny life with that. We are also to let go of our injuries and our insults. You need the Angel of Serenity who introduces you to the art of letting go of yourself and your past, who teaches you the ability to distance yourself, to step back and look at your life from a different point of view, from a point without yourself. Someone, who has let go like that, can react serenely to excited reports in the media. She can answer calmly to criticism and rejection. She does not get into a panic at every word of criticism. She does not feel threatened. She is not afraid that the ground will be swept away from under her feet. Because she has acquired distance to all internal and external troubles. She knows that she is being held by the Angel of Serenity who is telling her: “There is more than the opinion other people have about you. There is more than success and image. Let go of yourself into God. There you will find firm ground. From there you can look serenely on everything that assails you.”

Who has let go of herself, can react serenely to bad news. Reacting serenely is not reacting with composure to the news about the death of a person. Composure is an expression of inner discipline. Although a person is distressed inside, she does not show her shock to the world. She keeps her composure, she keeps control of herself. Serenity is not composure. A serene person does not need to keep her composure, because she has a different point of view, because she cannot be touched by bad news in her innermost self. Because she has let go of herself and her opinion how life should be, there is nothing that can throw her so easily. The Angel of Serenity helps her to see everything that she hears with the angel’s distance. This gives her inner freedom and space.

Many people get caught up in heated discussions. They believe that their conscience demands to pursue the truth. The Angel of Serenity shows you in such discussions that the truth is not only to be found in the correctness of words and arguments, but also on another level. Truth means also coherence, conformity with reality. That what we see as absolute truth is often only an expression of our own projections. We create images of reality for ourselves, we create images of God. The truth itself is unfathomable. It cannot be defined. Someone who knows about the most profound truth, enters a discussion serenely, not resigned, because we cannot recognize this truth, but instead knowing that there will always be different points of view, that the truth will probably be found somewhere between the contenders.

The philosopher Martin Heidegger put serenity towards things and the openness for secrets in contrast to calculating and usurping-dogmatic ways of thinking: “Both flourish only in unceasing, lively contemplation.”

I wish that the Angel of Serenity may help you not to get too “top heavy” in your way of thinking so that you may still be able to hear the voice of your heart.

© by Anselm Grün, 50 Engel für das Jahr, 1997;
translation by JunoMagic.

Song for December 15:

(Click pic!)

Das Rondo der Throne (“Rondo of Thrones”)
by Hans-Jürgen Hufeisen,
album “Das Engelskonzert”, (“Concert of Angels”)