Our spiritual attitude, our way of seeking peace and perfection, depends entirely on our concept of God. If we are able to believe he is truly our loving Father, if we can really accept the truth of his infinite and compassionate concern for us, if we believe that he loves us not because we are worthy but because we need his love, then we can advance with confidence. We will not be discouraged by our inevitable weakness and failures. We can do anything he asks of us. But if we believe he is a stern, cold lawgiver who has no real interest in us, who is merely a ruler, a lord, a judge and not a father, we will have great difficulty in living the Christian life. We must therefore begin by believing God is our Father: otherwise we cannot face the difficulties of the Christian way of perfection. Without faith, the "narrow way" is utterly impossible. -Thomas Merton, Life and Holiness
Underlying attitudes are huge. The way we think about things will "rule" how we are able to live in certain areas. If we believe God is a "stern, cold lawgiver," we will act accordingly. We will have a very hard time indeed being able to live in the Love that Jesus came to bring us. If we have the kind of faith that sees God as loving Father, then we will be working with Him in His own reality - see how that works? Working "against" Him or working "with" Him - which is it?
What's unfortunate is that many of us have learned the poor lesson of "God as lawgiver" and lawgiver and judge alone. We have been crippled from the get-go. The Holy Spirit, though, is still able to come in and warm our hearts - to enlighten us as to His real identity - to lift us out of our prison into the freedom of His Love and Mercy.
February 18, 2010
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