Discovering Me

I have only a cursory familiarity with Father Thomas Merton. I read this excerpt of his in Magnificat's Meditation of the Day (today)

The secret of my identity is hidden in the love and mercy of God.

But whatever is in God is really identical with him for his infinite simplicity admits no division and no distinction. Therefore I cannot hope to find myself anywhere except in him.

Ultimately the only way that I can be myself is to become identified with him in whom is hidden the reason and fulfillment of my existence.

Therefore there is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace, and my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering God. If I find him I will find myself and if I find my true self I will find him.

But although this looks simple, it is in reality immensely difficult. In fact, if I am left to myself it will be utterly impossible. For although I can know something of God's existence and nature by my own reason, there is no human and rational way in which I can arrive at that contact, that possession of him, which will be the discovery of who he really is and of who I am in him.

That is something that no man can ever do alone.

Nor can all the men and all the created things in the universe help him in this work.

The only one who can teach me to find God is God himself, alone.

Closer to Catholocism?

I have been enjoying Father Longenecker's blog Standing On My Head. He's a Catholic priest converted from Anglicanism to which he converted after attending Bob Jones University. He recently wrote about traditional, evangelical and charismatic Catholics (Charismatic Tridentine Mass). Both what he writes and the comments i have found fascinating. Sounds like there may, indeed, be a place in the Catholic Church for me, after all!!

Now, if only they would do something about the goofy hats some of them wear.

Still in Easter

In general, I tend to be rather melancholy and, often, depressed. I recently read something by a Spanish priest of the earlier part of last century. He wrote as if God were speaking. Part of what came out of that reading for me was the recognition of an assumption i have held but never realized before - I assumed that my melancholy, my grief, and my despair were all greater than God's grace. I had grown comfortable in my various miseries. They've become something familiar and even comfortable for me. I have let those things define me. But, according to the scriptures, those things don't really define me - not since Christ did on the cross for my redemption and rose from the grave to give me life. What i need to do - actually and not just figuratively - is to give them up as a sacrifice to God. It sounds kind of weird to put it that way. After all, isn't a sacrifice supposed to be about giving God our best? No... sacrifice has more to do with giving God what we most cherish. And i have cherished my melancholy.

I love the whole Easter season - including Lent which precedes it and the weeks of Easter after Easter Sunday that lead up to Ascension Day and Pentecost. I am reminded of who i truly am in Christ. I am encouraged to recognize more and more of who i thought i was, leave it behind, and live in concert with who i truly am in Christ.

Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24 RSV)

Christians are people who have been transformed... and yet, at the same time, they are still going through the transformation process. That transformation does not occur apart from the Christian's cooperation with God's Spirit. Part of that cooperation is learning to think differently. Christians are to set their minds, as well as their hearts, on things above. (Colossians 3:1, 2) The Christian mind is to be in a state of constant renewal. (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23)

Easter is a powerful reminder that, although the Christian's transformation is not yet complete, it is taking place with the guaranteed result of total Christ-likeness. That process for Christians does not occur apart from participation in every facet of the life Christ himself lived. In other words sacrifice, servanthood, humility, grace, mercy and love are more than just words in the Christian vocabulary. They are the
marks of spiritual transformation. Christians participate in the Spirit's work as they intentionally give themselves to acting in these ways thus giving the Spirit "room" to transform heart and mind. Easter is the historical mark that reminds us God has already provided us with everything necessary for life and godliness. Easter reminds us that, through Christ, God already is victor over all - including death. Easter further reminds us that there really is nothing that exceeds God's grace and mercy - even the melancholy, fear and guilt that used to define me.

The Lord is risen. Alleluia!

Easter

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!

Today is a day of rejoicing! Today we celebrate our Lord's rising from the dead. The power of sin has been vanquished. Death is destroyed from the inside out. Today is the day that both fulfills the promise and confirms all the promises of God.

For nearly 2000 years, the Church has celebrated the resurrection of Christ who, although slain, did not remain so. Not only that, but when he died he took sin to the grave and, by his resurrection, defeated it.

Sinners crave to know the reality of the resurrection in their own lives; in their hearts they instinctively know there is something there they desperately need and want. The Church must show them. Christians must become the reality sinners crave by living the resurrection every day, in every situation, in every moment.

O God, you are my God, for you I long;
for you my soul is thirsting
My body pines for you
like a dry, weary land without water.
So I gaze on you in the sanctuary
to see your strength and your glory.

For your love is better than life...

May Christians, sinners who have received the gifts of death and life from the crucified and risen Christ, share the life Christ has now given them with those who have not yet received it. May their single purpose be to glorify the Lord in their own lives as he has been glorified in the resurrection.

The Lord is risen, indeed! Alleluia!!