Simone Weil

Interesting how we come to know great thinkers and writers. Several years ago, I was having lunch with Gary O'Malley at the Brookwood Grill when he told me about a (then) new book by Os Guinness entitled The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life. In only three brief sentences in chapter 2, "Seekers Sought," he introduces Simone Weil, "the Jewish philosoper and follower of Christ" (p. 10).

Why had I never heard of her before?

A trip to a local bookstore and a helpful clerk at the information desk yielded two titles: Simone Weil: A Modern Pilgrimage by Harvard psychiatrist and Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Coles, M.D., and Waiting for God by Simone Weil.

Coles calls her "an exceptionally brilliant scholar," who had "a thorough, assured knowledge of mathematics, physics, biology - the full range of natural science," and who "had a unique capacity to keep thinking politically, historically, and economically, at the same time embracing theology and religious philosophy. Most importantly she was "a solitary seeker of God's company."

Simone Weil (1909 - 1943). A brief life of 34 years. Died of tuberculosis in a sanitarium outside of London during WWII. Here is one sample of her thought:

"The infinity of space and time separates us from God. How are we to seek for him? How are we to go toward him? Even if we were to walk for hundreds of years, we should do no more than go round and round the world. Even in an airplane we could not do anything else. We are incapable of progressing vertically. We cannot take a step toward the heavens. God crosses the universe and comes to us."

- Simone Weil, Waiting for God