Saturday, August 29, 2009

(36) Great Needs

"Is there some new possibility, some other opening for the
Christian consciousness today? ...If there is, it will doubtless
have to meet the following great needs of man:

"First; His need for community, for a genuine relationship of
authentic love with his fellow man...

"Second; Man's need for an adequate understanding of his
everyday self in ordinary life...

"Third; Man's need for a whole and integral experience of his
own self on all its levels, bodily as well as imaginative,
emotional, intellectual, spiritual..."
[Thomas Merton, ZEN AND THE BIRDS OF APPETITE, New
Directions, 1968, p. 30.]

Comment: The late great monk, Thomas Merton, was a Trappist
who followed the Rule of St. Benedict. He was also a mighty
spiritual writer who inspired multiple generations. In this
particular book, he hit the nail-on-the-head when it came to
spelling out our deep human needs. These great needs of ours
follow us right into the present day. They seem rarely to change.
It's not just a "Christian" concern, either!

Regardless, Church has been perceived as the "Body of Christ,"
nearly like an organism of different parts, participants, building-up
Christ on this Earth. It seemed a magnificent promise, and some
still put their faith in it. Church is still perceived by its adherents as
a community, but I do wonder over its focus. Is it now more social
than spiritual? That remains a question for some. And what of
deep relationships in Church? For some, perhaps; for others,
barely a brush of human touch.

But Merton gets down to basics when he narrows down to the
individual. About this business of every day living, Merton seems
to be asking whether we really think it through. Do we dedicate
our self in some way to the way we live, react, respond, give, etc.?
Maybe some do, but I doubt very much that we start our day really
giving it much thought. Cynical? No, just human. I'm guilty, not
focusing as seriously as I should when it comes to the "daily."

As for the "ideal" self on all levels, well some of us surely have a
clue who we are. Sometimes it is simply experience and time that
brings us to this understanding. Sometimes it is deep thought and
contemplation, more the monastic orientation I suspect. But even
here, can most of us make our "ideal" real?

The answer would be, I imagine, by inputting our "ideal" into the
"daily." And surely some of us really do try. Monastics have been
trying for centuries. It's about what they call *Conversio Morum,*
a slow, hopefully steady conversion into the Christ Life--an Imago
that represent the finer, greater human qualities of our existence.
Others may hold different imagery that represent this inner "Ideal,"
if you will. But spelled out, comparatively speaking, it's about our
best qualities.

In the end, our "great needs" likely can only be alleviated by us--with
the help of God.

1 comment:

  1. Speak in the language of servanthood, charity and forgiveness.

    Teresa of Calcutta used to say. The harvest, too, is far more precious: growing warmth that makes one ever more gentle, more open, more loving and glad to be so. The harvest is joy and love, not the lie of possession and bitterness. It attracts, rather than repels others.

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