April 13, 2009> 2:24 PM
re-post > 02-07-2002 > worthiness Note: I didn't have titles back then, so my title above is what I'm calling it now - no permalinks either, or comments, so here it is, one of the earliest blogger posts in my archives - featuring, who else, Thomas Merton - classic. ...
"To serve the God of love one must be free, one must face the terrible responsibility of the decision to love in spite of all unworthiness whether in oneself or in one's neighbor... In the true Christian vision of God's love, the idea of worthiness loses its significance. Revelation of the mercy of God makes the whole problem of worthiness something almost laughable: the discovery that worthiness is of no special consequence (since no one could ever, by himself, be strictly worthy to be loved with such a love) is a true liberation of the spirit." Thomas Merton -New Seeds of Contemplation
I went to a bar last night. I was there till 12:30am, drank 2 beers, listened to a friend's band (a George Harrison tribute). I sat there and observed people, as always, between sets - there was a decent crowd. Of couse I "observed" a few of the female people a little too much, had some unsavory thoughts, and went back to listening to music. I came home with that imbedded smokey bar smell in every fiber of my clothing and hair and skin, to my wife, waiting up for me.
Why do I say all that? Worthiness I guess. Am I unworthy? Probably - oh, and so are you. Is my mind too weird sometimes? Yip, pretty funky. But when I read that quote above, I remember, I realize that it doesn't really matter. Whoooah charlie! Well, it "does" matter I suppose in some sense, but not in the great sense that we all seem to try and make it matter.
God's love for me, for you, for anyone is not predicated upon whether or not we are "worthy" of that love - of course we're not! It is in spite of our unworthiness. The matter of worthiness is, as Merton says, "of no special consequence." Liberation! To be buck wild and nasty? No, but to know that He doesn't love me because I don't go buck wild and nasty - that's not the issue.
And we probably need to get past these views of things which we think "stain" us - Christians I mean - these words like "bar," "beer," etc. This is simply superficial and stupid - we need to grow up, as individuals and as a community.
April 13, 2009
> 2:24 PM
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