August 13, 2005> 10:53 AM
the power and meaning of love > 2
More from the depths of Merton - well, not really "his" depths, as if all this wisdom came from him, his own self, without God. You know what I mean. Anyway, here's more to chew on...
...the function of spiritual love is much greater still - to give man possession of eternity. This it does not merely by "saving man's soul" as an individual, but by establishing in time the eternal kingdom of God.
A love that merely enables man to "enjoy himself," to remain at peace in a life of inert comfort and to bring into being replicas of himself is not to be regarded as true love. It does not represent a renewal, a progress, a step forward in building the kingdom of God.
All true love is a death and a resurrection in Christ. It has one imperious demand: that all individual members of Christ give themselves completely to one another and to the Church, lose themselves in the will of Christ and in the good of other men, in order to die to their own will and their own interests and "rise again" as other Christs. A love that does not tend to this transformation does not fulfill the exacting requirements of true spiritual love, and consequently lacks the power to develop and perpetuate man in his spirituality.
I think we all sort of know by both Scriptural external knowledge and instinct, to a degree, this selfless nature of love. We understand that real love will make us into persons who do not so much focus solely on our own needs but on those of others in concert with our own. Love will transform us into Jesus. Really. This is what we're talking about - other Christs - other anointed people on earth who live and fully experience the life of God, and through whom the life of God is transmitted to those around us. And that doesn't happen outside the actual spiritual transformation that goes on inside us as we walk the journey of union with Him.
Now, all this is not about what it may have been about for many of us a while ago - guilt. It's not about pointing out how horrible we are in order for us to cry and lay in the dust, beating ourselves in God's presence so that He will look with pity on us and forgive us - only for us to go on living with this undercurrent guilty conscience which cripples us. Do we need to examine ourselves in some way? Of course, but not only ourselves, but in community, we examine one another. And that doesn't mean, in keeping with what I already said, that we go around looking to point out one another's faults. That generally does no one any good. It means we learn together as we walk together. It means we're watching out in front of our siblings' feet for holes and other obstacles in the path as much as we're watching out in front of our own. If we are not doing that then we are not fully loving. Are any of us fully loving? Probably not, but that surely does not mean we give up on the possibility of transformation and sit down in the woods. Get up and keep walking! This term, "open yourself," to me, is a very good one. It's a very good way to understand what it is we have to do in this life, on this journey. If we close in our ourselves, we only have ourselves. We hear nothing. We see nothing. We sit alone, not growing, not moving. Darkness, and not the good kind. Open yourself to hear and see and understand and be transformed by God, not only in the individual temple of your own private self, but in your siblings, in the community, as well as in the world in general. When you have opened yourself, you might then be able to give yourself. Then you will be like God.
August 13, 2005
> 10:53 AM
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