Day 4 and still going strong! Thanks for visiting!
Got through another 10 pages today. Thomas is traveling in France with his dad looking for inspiration for painting for his father. He gives a lists of towns then states:
"This land was long wild with heresy, and with the fake mysticism that tore men away from the Church and from the Sacraments, and sent them into hiding to fight their way to some strange suicidal nirvana." pg 38
So yesterday, one page earlier in the book if you are paying real close attention, Merton is talking about how great the land and all the structures are. How everything is, according to its nature, ordered to God. Now all of a sudden the land was wild with heresy? Dude, make up your mind!
I
think to understand this we have to talk briefly about intent. While
by its nature everything is ordered to God, man can mess this up.
Let's take a knife for example. A knife is a good thing. It can cut
food and carve wood into art which makes people happy. But man can use
this good and useful object to ill intent to stab people. This stabbing
can kill and maim. Make sense?
What strikes me in Thomas' statement is how much wonderful stuff we have been blessed with often turns to fake mysticism. It is so easy to be tempted to use these things to move the world away from God which to me would be the definition of a "strange suicidal nirvana". [ not the band Nirvana though, I liked them!] We have cell phones, internet, social media, 24/7 productive schedules, stuff that should make this world a much better place but I am not sure it is. Loneliness is on the rise, as is suicide. So what can we do? WE make a difference where WE can. Let's not give in to fake mysticism that our current culture is trying to sell us. The truth has been with us for thousands of years and will be with us till the end of time. All we need to do is stop and listen, even if just for a moment.
My prayer for today Lord; Help me hear Your voice through all the clutter of today.
Pax
Joe
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