Today\u2019s Monday Merton is a chapter in Thomas Merton\u2019s No Man Is An Island<\/em> that talks about \u201cpure intention,\u201d which is the term Merton uses for coming to a place where our will is synchronized with God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n Our happiness consists in doing the will of God. But the essence of this happiness does not lie merely in an agreement of wills. It consists in a union with God. 52<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n When we do God\u2019s will, we are better able to love and understand God and the closer we grow to God. Intimacy with God is the ultimate happiness that we\u2019re really seeking in all our fleshly activity. I think it was G.K. Chesterton who said that every man caught in a whorehouse is really looking for God. The problem is that we usually look for this primal intimacy in all the wrong ways.<\/p>\n There are religious men who have become so familiar with the concept of God\u2019s will that their familiarity has bred an apparent contempt. It has made them forget that God\u2019s will is more than a concept. It is a terrible and transcendent reality, a secret power that is given to us\u2026 to be the life of our life and the soul of our own soul\u2019s life. It is the living flame of God\u2019s own Spirit, in Whom our own soul\u2019s flame can play, if it wills, like a mysterious angel\u2026 The will of God is not a static center drawing our souls blindly toward itself. It is a creative power, working everywhere, giving life and being and direction to all things. 53<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I think the word \u201cwill\u201d is almost misleading, because it makes us think that all we\u2019re talking about is obeying a \u201cThou shalt\u201d or a \u201cThou shalt not.\u201d The mistake of religious legalism is to reduce God\u2019s will to a finite set of rules which can be followed to the letter in a way that often betrays their spirit. When we talk about God\u2019s will, we\u2019re talking about the way that His creation most naturally flows. He is constantly reconciling the world to Himself and bringing it into a more perfect state of harmony. His will is the rhythm of the universe. To follow God\u2019s will is to discover the beautiful song of creation and clap in time with it or sing in harmony with it; to not follow God\u2019s will is like making a bunch of dissonant noise that disrupts the cosmic song.<\/p>\n Our intentions are pure when we identify our advantage with God\u2019s glory, and see that our happiness consists in doing His will because His will is right and good. In order to make our intentions pure, we do not give up all idea of seeking our own good, we simply seek it where it really can be found: in a good that is beyond and above ourselves. Pure intention identifies our own happiness with the common good of all those who are loved by God\u2026 An impure intention is one that yields to the will of God while retaining a preference for my own will. It divides my will from His will. 54<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I would add the word beautiful to \u201cright and good\u201d to complete the classical triad of truth, goodness, and beauty. What\u2019s \u201cright and good\u201d doesn\u2019t have to be ugly. Many Christians today think that unless something is harsh and austere, it\u2019s not \u201cright and good.\u201d Modernity has given us the false impression that being \u201cobjective\u201d or \u201caltruistic\u201d must involve a renunciation of my own subjectivity or advantage.<\/p>\n Obviously when you\u2019re doing a science experiment, you need to put parameters on it to make sure that you don\u2019t manipulate the results to support whatever conclusion is most advantageous to you; the problem occurs when we apply this attitude about \u201cobjectivity\u201d universally throughout life so that I can only trust that something is God\u2019s will if it goes against my will.<\/em> This is actually a subversive form of maintaining a preference for my will, even though I begrudgingly go against my will.<\/p>\n People who need for God\u2019s will to be onerous see following God\u2019s will in sacrificial\/transactional terms: they give up what they want to do so that God will reward them<\/em> with salvation as compensation for their sacrifice. God wants us instead to discover the beauty of His will and actually desire what He desires so that we view doing His will as a gift<\/em> that is its own reward rather than expecting some other form of compensation like greedy little capitalists.<\/p>\n He does not need our sacrifices, He asks for our selves. And if He prescribes certain acts of obedience, it is not because obedience is the beginning and the end of everything. It is only the beginning. Charity, divine union; transformation in Christ: these are the end. 63<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Some Christians love the word \u201cobedience\u201d and hate the word \u201clove.\u201d There\u2019s a \u201cyes but\u2026\u201d on the tip of their tongues every time someone says anything about God\u2019s love. Such people reveal that they are stuck in a sacrificial\/transactional paradigm for doing God\u2019s will. And God says to them, \u201cI desire mercy not sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n Johannes Tauler somewhere makes a distinction between two degrees of pure intention, one of which he calls right<\/em> intention, and the other simple<\/em> intention\u2026 When we have a right intention\u2026 we seek to do God\u2019s will\u2026 to please Him. But in doing so we still consider the work and ourselves apart from God and outside Him\u2026 When the work is done, we rest in its accomplishment, and hope for a reward from God. But when we have a simple intention, we are less occupied with the thing to be done. We do all that we do not only for God but so to speak in Him. We are more aware of Him who works in us than of ourselves or of our work\u2026 The man of right intention makes a juridical offering of his work to God\u2026 The man of simple intention\u2026 works always in an atmosphere of prayer\u2026 A simple intention rests in God while accomplishing all things. It takes account of particular ends in order to achieve them for Him: but it does not rest in them. 70-72<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is another way of narrating the distinction between thinking of God\u2019s will as a sacrificial duty to obey and thinking of it as a harmonious delight to embrace. My friend Jonathan Martin talks about worship as our delight in the Father who delights in us. To have what Merton calls simple intention is to trust that God really does delight in us before we do anything to demonstrate our delight in Him. We want to please Him not because we\u2019re anxious about His approval but because we love Him and believe in His plan.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today\u2019s Monday Merton is a chapter in Thomas Merton\u2019s No Man Is An Island that talks about \u201cpure intention,\u201d which is the term Merton uses for coming to a place where our will is synchronized with God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1934,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[1082,1101,2464,2741],"class_list":["post-7207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","category-monday-mertons","tag-god","tag-gods-will","tag-sacrifice","tag-thomas-merton"],"yoast_head":"\n