Contemplation far from being opposed to theology, is in fact the normal perfection of theology. We must not separate intellectual study of divinely revealed truth and contemplative experience of that truth as if they could never have anything to do with one another. On the contrary, they are simply two aspects of the same thing. Dogmatic and mystical theology - or theology and "spirituality", are not to be set apart in mutually exclusive categories, as if mysticism were for saintly women and theological study were for practical, but alas, unsaintly men. This fallacious division perhaps explains much that is actually lacking both in theology and spirituality. But the two belong together. Unless they are unitied there is no fervour, no life and sporitual value in theology, no substance, no meaning and no sure orientation in the contemplative life.(T. Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, 244-5)
This is Thomas Merton at his opinionated best. Making allowances for gender stereotypes, his take on theology and spirituality says the important things. Theology rooted in divinely revealed truth as experienced in personal encounter with the Divine, and spirituality as experience of God with substance, meaning and 'sure orientation'. These are the guiding principles of one who was novice master for over a decade, charged with the formation of heart and mind towards study, work and devotion to God.
Again and again I have found Merton to be an honest, humane director of souls; his heightened awareness of his own needs, his habit of being too hard on himself, his struggle to be humble, his unmistakable love for God and desire for an authentic life of holiness and love, his instinct for the Presence of God discerned in the world, in other people, in the vacillations of his own heart - all of these are qualities of saintliness, the more attractive because he would have laughed at the idea of Merton the saint.
And rightly - for sanctity is not a destination now, but that to which we journey, in union with Christ; holiness is that which we seek, but it is grace and demand, free gift and grateful response, buth intoxicating invasion of joy and the lived out disciplined love for God and others in a life both cruciform and oriented by resurrection. Even then, we love because he first loved us, we are forgiven sinners learning to forgive, reconciled enemies learning the ways of peace, rescued runaways who have found our way home - or been found and brought home- only to be sent out to find others and bring them home too, new creatures in Christ living out of and towards the new creation.
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