Outright Lies

If one thing is true when it comes to the direct experience of God, and one thing alone, it is that there is no place for exclusivity in the church. That is the bottom line. The reformations occurred in the 1500's because of the exclusivity that developed for centuries within the rank and file of the faithful. The problem is that all of the reforms and counter-reforms since that time have all been exclusive themselves. And none of them have taken into account that God acts in God's own time and at God's behest; and no one questions the degree to which their reactions to the abuses of the church are simply that, namely, reactions, and as such , yet again another exclusivity. We dig ourselves more and more deeply into our own blindnesses. And if one blind man leads another they will both fall into a pit.

The church expects its contemplatives to have attained a greater depth of prophetic wisdom, writes Merton in Contemplation In A World Of Action. That book is an exceptional foil for anyone serious about better understanding their own direct encounter with God...what it takes to get there and how to maintain that. But in this case his words are anathema, which for those who have ears to hear, let them hear. For God is not a tame lion (CS Lewis). God will act as God will act. God does not need the church - any church - to detail and micromanage what makes for valid faith. To strip oneself of oneself, and to wait, like a weaned child at its mother's breast (Psalm 131), is the only attenuation needed in order to learn to be attentive to the presence and movement of God in daily life. That is why it is so essential to be steeped in scripture (which historically promotes simply this) and in the Psalms in particular. There is no need to try and interpret these pithy reflection. Read. Just read. Set your thoughts aside. The world rushes on (including the-church-as-principality (Stringfellow)). Silence, self-emptying, mediation, attentiveness, listening, sacrifice, seeing the natural world, being in the natural world, serving the great chorus of living creatures. Anything else is nothing but a damned distraction, if not an outright lie.

Oh love that fires the sun keep me burning...