Toward Easter with Thomas Merton

Toward Easter with Thomas Merton April 11, 2009

seeds

In all the situations of life the ā€œwill of Godā€ comes to us not merely as an external dictate of impersonal law but above all as an interior invitation of personal love. Too often the conventional conception of ā€œGodā€™s willā€ as a sphinx-like and arbitrary force bearing down upon us with implacable hostility, leads men to lose faith in a God they cannot find it possible to love. Such a view of the divine will drives human weakness to despair and one wonders if it is not, itself, often the expression of a despair too intolerable to be admitted to conscious consideration. These arbitrary ā€œdictatesā€ of a domineering and insensible Father are more often seeds of hatred than of love. If that is our concept of the will of God, we cannot possibly seek the obscure and intimate mystery of the encounter that takes place in contemplation. We will desire only to fly as far as possible from Him and hide from His Face forever. So much depends on our idea of God! Yet no idea of Him, however pure and perfect, is adequate to express Him as He really is. Our idea of God tell us more about ourselves than about Him.

Thomas Merton, Trappist monk, 1915-1968
Thomas Merton, Trappist monk, 1915-1968

New Seeds of Contemplation


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