One of the best expressions of the way, I hope, we live the Christian life is found in the introduction of a little book by Henri Nouwen. This expression has walked and inspired me for over a decade and continues today.
The little book, “Clowning in Rome: Reflections on Solitude, Celibacy, Prayer, and Contemplation”, is mostly a transcription of four talks that Nouwen gave while in working in Rome. The profound realization comes in the introduction as he sets the stage for his work while in Rome and context of these talks.
During these five months in Rome it wasn’t the red cardinals or the Red Brigade who had the most impact on me, but the little things that took place between the great scenes. I met a few students of the San Egidio community “wasting” their time with grade-school dropouts and the elderly. I met a Medical Mission sister dedicating all her time to two old women who had become helpless and isolated in their upstairs rooms in Trastevere. I met young men and women picking up the drunks from the streets during the night and giving them a bed and some food. I met a priest forming communities for the handicapped. I met a monk who with three young Americans had started a contemplative community in one of Rome’s suburbs. I met a woman so immersed in the divine mysteries that her face radiated God’s love. I met many holy men and women offering their lives to others with disarming generosity. And slowly, I started to realize that in the great circus of Rome, full of lion-tamers and trapeze artists whose dazzling feats claim our attention, the real and true story was told by the clowns.
Clowns are not in the center of the events. They appear between the great acts, fumble, and fall, and make us smile again after the tensions created by the heroes we came to admire. The clowns don’t have it together, they do not succeed in what they try, they are awkward, out of balance, and left-handed, but… they are on our side. We respond to them not with admiration but with sympathy, not with amazement but with understanding, not with tension but with a smile. Of the virtuosi we say, “How can they do it?” Of the clowns, we say, “They are like us.” The clowns remind us with a tear and a smile that we share the same human weaknesses.
I love this. So much.
Lord, make me a clown in your army
May my works for the Kingdom bring your people
joy, peace, and connection
-Amen
Henri Nouwen, Clowning in Rome: Reflections on Solitude, Celibacy, Prayer, and Contemplation
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