Thomas Merton's Dark Path: The Inner Experience of a Contemplative - Softcover

Shannon, William H.

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9780374520199: Thomas Merton's Dark Path: The Inner Experience of a Contemplative

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0374520194 ISBN 13: 9780374520199

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1987

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A study of Merton's unpublished writings examines his opinions on contemplation, redemption, and the nature of grace

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Thomas Merton's Dark Path
IWhat Is ContemplationA small booklet, What Is Contemplation, represents Merton's first attempt to put into writing what he had read, studied, and experienced about contemplation in his early years as a monk. Written in 1948,6 six or seven years after his entrance into the monastery of Gethsemani, it deals with traditional material on the contemplative life and shows how thoroughly he had absorbed the Western Christian tradition about contemplation. He scarcely breaks new ground on the subject, as he draws his material from the Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, and writers on the mystical life like his Cistercian Father, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and especially St. John of the Cross.The booklet is divided into nine sections (numbers added): (1) What Is Contemplation; (2) The Promises of Christ; (3) St. Thomas Aquinas; (4) Kinds of Contemplation; (5) Infused Contemplation; (6) The Test; (7) What to Do; (8) The Danger of Quietism; (9) Prayer. I propose to discuss it in terms of three basic topics that I believe summarize the main content and thrust of the work; namely, the call to contemplation; the two kinds of contemplation; and the three kinds of Christians. The discussion of these three topics will be followed by a brief reflection on the contribution this work makes toward clarifying Merton's understanding of contemplation in his early years in the monastery and also toward indicating directions in which his thought on contemplation might be expected to move.Merton begins his booklet with a lament that so many Christians have practically no knowledge of God's immense love for them and the power of that love to make them happy. These people do not realize that the gift of contemplation, which is the deepest experience of God's love, is not "something strange and esoteric reserved for a small class of almost unnatural beings and prohibited to everyone else." They do not see that it is the work of the Holy Spirit whose gifts are part of the normal equipment given to all Christians in baptism--gifts that presumably God gives because he wishes them to be developed. Merton's answer, therefore, to the question "Who can desire the gift of infused contemplation?" is: Everyone.He finds justification for the claim that everyone is called to infused contemplation in the words of Jesus at the Last Supper, in which He promises union with God to the disciples and through them to us. Jesus said that He would send the Holy Spirit to us and that He and the Father would love us and come to abide with us. The abiding presence of God that Jesus promises is in a very true sense an experience ofheavenly beatitude on earth. For the knowledge and love of God that comes from the abiding presence of the Trinity within us is "essentially the same beatitude as the blessed enjoy in heaven."Thus, Merton says, the seeds of perfect union with God --the seeds of contemplation7 and sanctity--are planted in every Christian soul at baptism. But it is a sad fact that in thousands of Christians these seeds lie dormant; they never grow. The reason is that so many Christians do not really desire to know God. They are content to remain "surface Christians" whose religious life is largely restricted to external practices. Because they lack any real desire to know God, He will never manifest Himself to them.Merton quotes St. Thomas Aquinas on the absolute necessity of the desire to know God as a prerequisite for a true life of contemplation. In his commentary on the fourteenth chapter of St. John's Gospel, St. Thomas says: "Spiritualia non accipiuntur nisi desiderata." But he also adds: "nec desiderata nisi aliqualiter cognita." This is to say that there can be no desire for union with God, unless, in some measure at least, one has begun to experience such union. The paradox of the spiritual life is that you cannot know God unless you desire Him, yet at the same time you cannot really desire Him unless, to some degree at least, you have already come to know Him. One cannot have an appetite for a particular food unless he has first tasted it; so one cannot have the desire for God unless he has first in some way tasted the joy of His presence. As Merton puts it: "The only way to find out anything about the joys of contemplation is by experience. We must taste and see that the Lord is sweet."How do we acquire a taste for the things of the spirit? The only way is love. Jesus makes it clear that the interior life depends on love, when He says in the discourse at the Last Supper:If you love me ... I will ask the Father and He will give you another paraclete ... He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest myself to him.The love Jesus is talking about is not primarily feeling or sentiment; it is love at its deepest level, namely, loving obedience to His word. "If anyone loves me he will keep my word." St. Thomas puts it clearly and simply: "It is obedience that makes a man fit to see God."Thus, desire based on some experience of love, love feeding desire and leading toward union, together with total uncompromising obedience to the will of Jesus--these are the dispositions needed in order to respond to the invitation, issued at baptism, to achieve union with God in the experience of contemplation.After discussing the call to contemplation (pp. 3-9), Merton devotes the rest of his booklet (pp. 9-25) to an explanation of what contemplation is. He makes it clear that there is only one kind of contemplation in its strict and correct sense; namely, infused or pure or passive contemplation. This is a gift of God that we simply cannot achieve by our own efforts; it is a pure gift of God that involves a direct and experimental contact with God as He is in himself. It means emptying oneself of every created love to be filled with the love of God. It means going beyond all created images to receive the simple light of God's substantial presence.There is a second type of prayer, analogous to infused contemplation, which Merton, following the tradition of Western mystical literature, calls active contemplation. Active contemplation, which is something that anyone canachieve by cooperating with God's ordinary grace, means a number of things to Merton. It is not restricted to a particular exercise or a single type of experience. It includes the use of reason, imagination, and the affections of the will. It draws on the resources of theology, philosophy, art, and music. It may involve vocal prayer, meditation, or affective prayer. It introduces a person to the joys of the interior life, showing him how to seek God in His will and how to be attentive to His presence. It builds in him the desire to please God rather than to enjoy the satisfactions of the world. It leads toward love and toward union with God in love.The highest expression of active contemplation is the liturgy, which, with its rich fare of scripture, theology, music, art, and poetry, teaches one to be contemplative. Indeed, it may become the point of transition from active to passive contemplation. For, in the liturgy, Christ draws us to Himself. But Christ is, quite literally, the "embodiment" of contemplation, since His humanity is perfectly united to the Godhead. Hence, by drawing us to Himself, inevitably He draws us toward union with the Godhead and, therefore, toward infused contemplation.8What makes active contemplation similar to infused contemplation is that the goal of both is union with God in love. What differentiates the two is that active contemplation is union with God in the liturgy of the Church or in the activities of one's life, whereas infused contemplation is union with God as He is in Himself. One way, perhaps, of expressing Merton's thought is to distinguish the immanence of God from His transcendence. The immanence ofGod is His presence in all reality; the transcendence of God is His very Being, as He is in Himself. In infused contemplation, one experiences both; in active contemplation, one ordinarily experiences only the first.Infused contemplation, therefore, because it involves experiencing God as He is in Himself, is contemplation in the strictest sense of the terms, while active contemplation deserves the name of contemplation only by way of analogy. It must be pointed out, however, that the experience of the immanence of God in active contemplation can lead to a very deep love of God. Indeed, it could happen, in particular situations, that active contemplation could generate a deeper love of God than that achieved by some who may be pure contemplatives. "Such Christians as these," Merton says of those who live lives of active contemplation, "far from being excluded from perfection, may reach a higher degree of sanctity than others who have been apparently favored with a deeper interior life." Infused contemplation, while it is the experience of God at a deeper level, does not necessarily mean a deeper love for God than that which can be achieved in active contemplation.It would seem correct to say that, in speaking of the interior life, Merton would distinguish three types of "practicing" Christians, namely (1) those who obey God but do not really love Him ("surface Christians"); (2) those who love God and are united with Him in the activities of their lives ("quasi-contemplatives");9 (3) those who love Godand experience Him as He is in Himself (pure contemplatives).First of all, there are the "surface Christians," whose interior life, if indeed it may be called that at all, is "confined to a few routine exercises of piety and a few external acts of worship and service performed as a matter of duty." Their predominant symbol of God is that of One who rewards and punishes. They seek not Him but His rewards. Their spiritual goal in life is to achieve heaven and to avoid hell. They respect God as a Master; but their hearts belong not to Him, but to their own ambitions, cares, and concerns. They are not contemplative in any sense of the word; in no way do they taste the joys of union with God. They have no thought of seeking His presence. They willfully remain at a distance from Him. They live lives of divided allegiance, allowing God to maintain His rights over the substance of their souls, but with their thoughts and desires turned not toward Him but toward the world and external things. As far as experiencing God is concerned, they are in the same condition as men and women who refuse to acknowledge God at all.Very different from "surface Christians" are those whom Merton describes as "quasi-contemplatives." These are Christians who truly love God and are united with Him in the activities of their lives. They serve God "with great purity of heart and perfect self-sacrifice in the active life." Their vocation to the active life does not allow them thesolitude and silence required for a life of infused contemplation; nor do their temperaments suit them for such a life. They would probably be uncomfortable if they gave up all activity for a life of solitude.This does not mean that they cannot live interior lives or that the only alternative for them is a life of "surface Christianity." On the contrary, the promise of Christ that the three divine Persons will manifest themselves to all who love them is meant for them as well as for pure contemplatives. Though they may not be able to empty themselves of created things to lose themselves in God alone, as the pure contemplative tries to do, still they serve God with great purity of heart, expressed in fraternal charity, self-sacrifice, and total abandonment to God's will in all that they do and suffer. They serve God in His children on earth. They learn to find Him in their activities, living and working in His company, remaining in His presence and tasting the deep peaceful joy of that presence.Their prayer life may be very ordinary, not rising above the level of vocal and affective prayer. Yet, because they are conscious of God's presence, their humble prayer may result in a deep interior life that brings them to the threshold of contemplation. Hence, though they are living active lives in the world, they may be called "quasi-contemplatives." They are not unfamiliar with graces akin to contemplation. Indeed, they may experience moments of true contemplation in their simple prayer life, in the liturgy, in the consciousness of God's presence in their lives as they go about fulfilling their daily responsibilities. They have fleeting moments, perhaps sometimes even prolonged periods of time, in which their intuition of oneness with God becomes a very vivid experience. Because of this union with God, immanent in their lives' activities, they may achieve a high degreeof sanctity--even, perhaps, higher than that of some who may have a genuine vocation to infused contemplation.Besides the "surface Christians" and the "quasi-contemplatives," there is a third group of Christians who may be called pure contemplatives. It is about them and for them that What Is Contemplation is especially written. These pure contemplatives, who, Merton believes, will always be a small minority in the Christian community, are the people of the "desert," whose sole goal in life is to search for God and who find their sufficiency in Him alone. They live lives of solitude and silence in which they can empty themselves of all things outside of God, so that their emptiness can be filled with His transcendent presence. They alone are contemplatives in the strict sense. Merton writes: "In the strict sense of the word, contemplation is a supernatural Love and Knowledge of God, simple and obscure, infused by Him into the summit of the soul, giving it a direct and experimental contact with Him as He is in Himself."Following the tradition of the Fathers of the Church, Merton stresses the purity of love that is at the heart of true contemplation. It is pure in that it empties the soul of all affection for things that are not God. It is pure in that it desires no reward, not even the reward of contemplation. This is to say that the reward of pure love is not something outside of love itself; it is simply the ability to love. In the words of St. Bernard of Clairvaux: "I love simply because I love and I love in order to love." Amo quia amo, amo ut amem (Serm. 83 in Cantica).This disinterested love of God always brings peace and strength to the soul. Yet it would be a mistake to think "that infused contemplation is all sweetness and understanding and consolation and joy." There are times when the peace it brings is almost buried under pain and darkness andaridity. There are times when the strength it gives seems to be shrouded in an extreme sense of helplessness and incapacity.The reasons for this darkness and helplessness are to be found in the very nature of the contemplative experience. For contemplation is the Light of God shining directly on the soul. But because the soul is weakened by Original Sin, the Light of God affects the soul the way the light of the sun affects a diseased eye. It causes pain. The soul, diseased by its own selfishness, is shocked and repelled by the purity of God's light. The brightness of this Light shatters the ideas of God that one has formed by his own reason. God as He is in Himself is not the God we imagined Him to be. It also shatters the ideas one has formed of himself; the flame of the divine light attacks a person's self-love and he no longer knows who he is before God.Thus, "infused contemplation sooner or later brings with it a terrible revolution." The God we thought we...

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