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mystical union in God
I wanted to share with you a quote from an old book I have. It was actually the first book I ever bought about Thomas Merton - while I was in college, about 1985 probably. It's called Thomas Merton on Prayer by John J. Higgins, S.J. (he's a Jesuit Priest). Very helpful book actually published in 1971. Here's a great quote about our union with Christ - the heart and core of what our Christianity is about. Read it at least twice.
...every Christian is capable of perfect assimilation to Christ in a union of loving faith. Every man, then, must become spiritually identified with Christ Who is the principle of his union with God. However, this very identification implies a responsibility to develop and to grow in one's new life. Hence, the union with God, which is at the basis of Merton's spirituality, is of necessity something dynamic. It implies growth and development in the individual Christian in that such a person must continuously learn to live more fully, more perfectly, and more completely in Christ in order that the Spirit of Christ might carry out in his life actions worthy of Christ. This, Merton notes in an article about his own conversion:There's some meat for you. Chew on it for a while. Peace.
If they [Christians living in the world] are to live as true members of Christ and radiate the divine influence among the men with whom they are in contact, they will be obliged to develop rich interior lives of union with God, and this union will have to be deep enough to weather the demands of hard work and constant contact with things that would defile a weaker spirit.
In view of this, one can say that man's purpose in life is to grow continuously, through a participation in the life of the divine Spirit, in union with the risen Christ, toward the complete maturity and perfection that is the full manifestation of Christ in one's life, namely, Christ living in man and uniting men to one another in His own life and unity.
| posted by + Alan | 6:57 PM |
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