Emptiness

reflection on All Saints’ Day by Fr Earl Allyson Valdez

Blaise Pascal’s experiment on Puy de Dôme, Clermont-Ferrand

Sketch from the Linda Hall Library

Nature abhors a vacuum. 

This was a belief that circulated more than 1500 years back, ever since the philosopher Aristotle postulated that whatever empty space we have is always filled with something else. His version of this rule was that what we see as an empty space was actually filled with elements that are invisible to us. Up until present, we know that to be true, for the space around us are filled with air molecules.

The theory seems to apply in all conditions, until a young French mathematician named Blaise Pascal challenged this scientific notion in 1648. With the help of his brother-in-law Florin Périer, he prepared two measurement tubes invented by Evangelista Torricelli that were used to measure air pressure. He left one at the monastery at the base of the Puy de Dôme, and had Périer walk all the way to the top of the mountain just to demonstrate that there was a change in the level of the mercury that was inside the tube. 

As Périer ascended, he took note of the readings of the tube, and proved that as one ascends, the level of the mercury inside the tube decreases. In other words, due to pressure, the air inside the locked tube was responsible for pushing the mercury level downwards. And because there wasn’t any increase in air inside the tube, that not only proved that air has weight and is subject to atmospheric conditions, but it could create a space in which there is literally nothing. Thus, it is possible to have spaces that are truly empty, with nothing that would fill it furthermore.

Muqi, “Six Persimmons”Image from Wikipedia

This became the foundation not only of the modern barometer, but also of our notion of air pressure that varies in varying circumstances. And perhaps, the most important conclusion of this rather daring experimentation was that emptiness is a real thing. It does not exist as a “thing” in the strictest and proper sense, but it is possible to conceive of space that is completely empty in this world. 

This rather significant experiment also speaks to our lives. As much as we have the conception that nature really does not leave even a little space empty, we try to fill what we do not have with things that satisfy us. If we think that we are lacking in material things, we go on a whim to purchase and procure them for use. If we think we lack in recognition, then we do all means for people to notice us and make us feel important, more than what is necessary. If we think that we lack a certain purpose in life, we try many important things at the expense of even greater satisfaction. 

Like our conception of nature, we abhor vacuums in our lives, spaces for emptiness that we think could be satisfied by what we find valuable. However, this is the complete opposite of the Christian, exemplified definitely by all the saints whom we celebrate today. Our gospel reading today provides us a blueprint for sainthood, one that is characterized by emptiness. 

How so? The poor in spirit recognize that despite having so much, there is nothing among them that would satisfy their poverty except the richness of the God who gave them everything. The peacemakers are those who do not cling hardly to any ideas of progress, much less to people who promise to bring peace and prosperity; rather, they are the ones who continuously strive for earthly peace in whatever good means possible, knowing that it is God who grants it to them and prepares them for a peace that succeeds this earth. The merciful and the clean of heart do not hold any grudges or desires that weigh down and make it difficult to respond selflessly to whatever the Lord tells them to do. Certainly, the meek and the persecuted are those who literally have nothing in life, and they see their deaths not as spectacles for becoming praised, but as silent gestures of faithfulness and martyrdom. 

“Christ Full Standing with Saints”

Image from Orthodox Icons

All of the blessed ones are characterized by the embrace of their empty hearts and minds, only to allow the Lord to fill them up with His presence and His grace that truly makes life meaningful. The blessed ones are empty of any attachments in this world, seeing them as valuable only as means for following the Lord. The blessed ones, finally, are empty of any self-centered attention that seeks fame and popularity; instead, he raises his head as a person who is ready to die for his faith, if it means sharing in the death of Christ, the one who has always left space for the Father’s will, in the Cross, only to be risen again in three days. Most of the saints were never essentially influencers or affluent persons. At the base of their hearts, which see the value of the Lord, we can only say: they are the ones who have truly seen and felt the love of the Lord filling up their lives!

Brothers and sisters, All Saints Day is all about this inner emptiness, which only points us to the search for God to fill up these in our lives. It is a disposition that trusts in the Lord’s accompaniment in their lives especially when they do His will. And finally, their lives remain a call and reminder to the Christian way of living, one that is identified by complete emptiness and a refusal to cling on to no one else but to the Lord and His promise. 

With these, let us reflect: How can then we be saintly and holy? Are there things that we should willingly give up and entrust to the Lord, knowing that wherever He sends you, He would not abandon you? Are there options that we should take in view of growing in faith, especially with the things (properties, attachments, and disposition to wealth) that we have to let go? And finally, how willing are we to become empty so that Christ and His Presence fills us up and grants us a direction in life that leads back to the Father?