Downward Mobility

The first time I heard the term downward mobility is from my New Testament professor at Gordon-Conwell. He learned it from Henri Nouwen when he was a student at Yale. When I recall my professor's teaching style, i realize that he reflected Nouwen's. Since I heard downward mobility, I have been using it to interpret the Scripture and ministry.

The way of God is a downward way. "The Word became flesh" is self-explanatory. Around the area we stay, I purchased a book The Selfless Way of Christ: Downward Mobility and the Spiritual Life (Orbis, 2007), written by Henri Nouwen. He said,

"When our ministry does not emerge from a personal encounter, it quickly becomes a tiring routine and a boring job. On the other hand, when our spiritual life no longer leads to an active ministry, it quickly degenerates into introspection and self-scrutiny, and thus loses its dynamism. Our life in Christ and our ministry in his name belong together as the two beams of the cross...The Word of God came down to us and lived among us as a slave. The divine way is indeed the downward way" (pp. 16, 29).     

Ministry can be driven outwardly without any personal engagement; it can be also turned into an inward activity without any concrete, communal participation. I have oscillated between the two poles from time to time.

There are many ways to encounter and engage with people. Writing, as I recently discover, is one of my ways to do so. William H. Shannon and Christine M. Bochen wrote about Thomas Merton, a monk:

"We have a variety of ways of keeping our friendships in good order. We can visit our friends, share a meal with them, attend a concert together, and still have many other possible avenues of contact open to us. Merton's one and only way of reaching his friends was, normally, through his writing. It is true that he did have his share of visitors, considerably more than most other monks. More than once he made the resolution that he would curtail the number of visitors he received. Although he chose a solitary life (and reveled in it), he loved people and craved human contact. His letters helped to fill that need and, in the process, created an extraordinary record of Merton's life and the development of his thoughts" [Thomas Merton: A Life in Letters, The Essential Collection. Edited by William H. Shannon and Christine M. Bochen (Ave Maria Press, 2008), p. viii.].