Treasure In A Field

Contemplative experience does not justify itself. It never has. It just is. It is like the discovery of a treasure hidden in a field as taught by Christ. You sell everything in order to buy that field. But the treasure is not in keeping with the riches that most people think of when they hear the word. Instead, the treasure is nothing other than authenticity. The treasure is the ordinary...a life lived directly and with minimal artificiality. And there is no doubt that at first such a life from the beginning seems woefully artificial itself, because it is so unlike the lives of other people around them. I does not mean to be this way. And it is certainly not rebellious in any way. Contemplative Christians will be accused of being a highly contrived person simply because they do not get carried away on the tide of artificiality and distraction along with everybody else.