“True
contemplation is not a psychological trick but a theological grace.”
— Thomas Merton
GRACE pervades life in and through an obedient, surrendered
soul.
It would be hard to believe the witness of a work of God’s grace
through someone not surrendered and disobedient.
But the obedience we speak of is not simply obedience at the
level of sin; it’s an obedience at the level of virtue.
The busy, cluttered soul probably has
no problem with the initial graces — the reconciliation of hurts and the
ability to go at depth with the soul. But they perhaps are at a loss to explain
how to enter what they truly need — a true contemplation.
A true contemplation is a special
kind of surrender in this day and age of busyness.
It is an obedience to throw it all
away for just God alone.
Obedience that sees nothing ahead of
it but God — not one distraction prevailing — is an obedience often required,
especially regarding contemplation.
***
What are the
practical graces of a truer contemplation?
We have
discussed the actual need of drawing aside from the world, from people, from tasks,
and from distractions, but the practice of grace of the inner life is even a
negation of our very selves.
It’s not simply
about making time, but aggressively pairing away from every care.
It’s not just
about finding sources for direction and nourishment, but embodying these
contemplations in every fissure of our being.
It’s about
jettisoning the important things for a time. It’s about departing from our
routine selves.
Practical graces
of true contemplation are moments in time strung together in series. Such
moments transcend the ordinary, and in such moments the true imperatives of
life are seen unadorned but kingly as they are.
It is amazing
how our losses and the depth of our grief — as moments of eternality — speak of
the truer contemplations our souls are desperate for. See how those massive
disappointments of life come back in our defence? See how those dark nights we
endured come back as God speaking into us from eternity?
***
Our dark nights of endurance are our
truer contemplations where God’s Presence is manifest.
Those very times of soul bitterness
and contempt, worked through, become the very fuel for praise.
For the depths endured in sullen
contemplation there are the heights scalable for spiritual contemplations of
bliss.
For every abyss descended there is a
spiritual peak to be ascended.
© 2015 S. J. Wickham.
No comments:
Post a Comment