I thought over the course of the decades (ok, centuries) I have been around that I had seen many seemingly uncommon words. But then I read a reflection by Richard Rohr OFM on Liminality, and said “Wow. What a powerful, insightful word!” I had never hear it before. I suspect for many of you it is a new word too.
The latin root of the word is “limen” which means threshold. It is used a lot in anthropology (the study of what makes us human) – and is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the rite is complete. We usually experience liminal space at times of loss, or at times of significant change like the birth of a child, and other major shifts in our life and behaviours.
I can’t think of a better word to describe what we are going through right now. It is a time where we are very much aware of having left an old way of being, but not yet entered into a new way of being. It is difficult to be caught in the midst of this global pandemic and not feel that we are caught between two worlds … the world of the past, and the future yet to be revealed. The world has changed. We too have changed.
As uncomfortable as this transition time – this liminal space – is for us, it is also a time to discover and live from broader perspectives and with a heightened awareness. A time to prepare to enter the future with freedom and new creative approaches to life.
In that way, it is very much like the experience of the early Christians, as they were in the liminal space created by the resurrection.
Like the early Christians, you and I are standing at the threshold of a door. And while we will likely have little direct impact on what that future will look like, we do have total control of how we will respond to that future.
Many of the learnings from this “Threshold” time can be applied to our personal futures. Having experienced isolation, we will be more aware of those who are lonely. Having felt fear for our health, we are more sensitive to others who struggle with fear and anxiety. Having had to be creative in how we relate as families, we will carry forward the best of these experiences into our future ways of relating.
Having been unable to worship God in the same ways as in the past, this liminal time provides us with a profound opportunity to discover, (and rediscover) prayer. When we look at the great teachers of prayer in our tradition, we see how they lived their life on the thresholds of existence. The rediscovery of the importance of our spiritual lives may well be the most profound impact that this liminal time will have.