Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation.
“Every moment and every event of every person’s life on earth plants something in his or her soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of invisible and visible winged seeds, so the stream of time brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of human beings.”
The love of God comes to me bridging an infinity I cannot describe. An ocean of transcendent potentiality is offered as silently as a calm rising tide. Should I believe and welcome this gift of love into my heart, my true self would germinate and, perhaps a bit unsteadily, grow. A harvest of unutterable joy would be mine as I become in each of my moments the love that He is.
The joy that is mine in God’s love is not meant for me alone. If my joy in genuine, it will spill over from my life into the lives of others, so that they too may feel something of its essential warmth.
Through kindness and goodwill, I bring my encounter with God to everyone and everything that fills the space-time of my life. For I gaze upon God’s beauty, as a religious sister once told St. John of the Cross, and are made glad that He has it.
So, whether in heat or snow, blue skies or rain, God waits. He is waiting for me, by my yes, to receive Him as His gift. This is something that cannot be adequately explained, let alone precisely taught. Trust and awareness must break it open to be experienced personally as God is intimately personable in all of His relations.
By consenting, I ascend. I must first believe, before I can know. New horizons are seen as old valleys are left behind. This is movement and life, not the cage of abstraction. “For He Who is infinite light is so tremendous in His evidence that our minds only see Him as darkness.”
The darkness of God is not to be feared, nor fled, but is the promise of delightful surprise. The crushing lust for certainty gives way to understanding as faith proves to be the one needful thing for letting it all go (Luke 10:42). With gentleness, God empties us. By His Word, He simplifies us. All the complications of what has become an unbearable life are brought to an end. You have only just begun, says Thomas Merton, to exist.
“But in all that happens, my one desire and my one joy should be to know: Here is the thing that God has willed for me. In this His love is found, and in accepting this I can give back His love to Him and give myself with it to Him, and grow up in His will to contemplation, which is life everlasting.”
