Thomas Merton: Hidden andMore Subtle Imperfections

The experimental "awareness" of the presence of God is just as truly a created thing as a glass of beer. The only difference is that recollection and interior peace and the sense of the presence of God are spiritual pleasures and the others are material. Attachment to spiritual things is therefore just as much an attachment as inordinate love of anything else. 

The imperfection may be more hidden and more subtle: but from a certain point of view that only makes it all the more harmful because it is not so easy to recognize. And so, many contemplatives never become great saints, never enter into close friendship with God, never find a deep participation in His immense joys, because they cling to the miserable little consolations that are given to beginners in the contemplative way.

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) in New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions, 1979) 205-206.

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As God turns us all into contemplatives this week, today I pray we also become great saints. What makes a great saint? They are contemplatives who do not cling to miserable little consolations.

Some cling to material pleasures like a bottle of wine or a glass of beer. Others cling to spiritual pleasures like interior peace and the sense of the presence of God. We must cherish God and not His gifts.

We become like children that never leave a sandbox because we like the toys we have there. And so our participation with God in his world appears as a bike that still has its training wheels.

Speaking of training, today we commission and deploy the workers we have trained to spread the Stations of Generosity and Journey of Empowerment trainings across Ghana. I don’t want this week to be a consolation they cling to! It’s a turning point.

And by God’s grace, in just a few hours, we will officially Launch the new Generosity Monk website to help more stewards receive the Daily Meditations and access resources for faithful generosity.

Has this week marked a turning point for you? As you focus on God and attach to Him, I pray it impacts your giving. I pray it leads you to reflect on the generosity you experience from Him.

I also pray that the Spirit will reveal to you hidden and more subtle imperfections in your life. Ask God to show you what people, pleasures (material and spiritual), power, and/or possessions captivate you.

An example comes to mind worth sharing. Remember the Mount of Transfiguration scene recounted in Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8, and Luke 9:28-36. Do you remember that the disciples wanted to build tents and stay on the mountain?

Jesus wanted that experience to bless them and send them on their way, not to be an end in itself. Do not cling to miserable little consolations. Go be great saints, radically generous ones!