More Merton
The mind that is the prisoner of conventional ideas, and the will that is the captive of its own desire cannot accept the seeds of an unfamiliar truth and a supernatural desire. For how can I receive the seeds of freedom if I am in love with slavery and how can I cherish the desire of God if I am filled with another and an opposite desire.
It is no easy to let ourselves wander into that which is not already under our control. By control I simply mean we've been there or at least know how to pretend that we have been there. By control I simply mean the ideas and experiences we have fenced in as being what is real and good and right. When this takes place within us, we also fence in our own lives. We become as trapped or "put away" as anything we would seek to put under our control. We become gods of our own making and we make ourselves without the freedom that God gives to us all. In other words, we reject God -even as we play the games of religious words and rituals- in order to establish and keep and protect what we want for ourselves. Thus, we become slaves. We are so tied to caring for what we have put together as our limited self, we cannot even entertain the life of vision and hope our God holds open for us.
Connection: Maybe we should make sure that we wander a bit today. When wandering...wonder...when wondering...be free.
Lord of Life, it takes so long for us to let go of that we think we have created and must sustain. It can be so long that we never turn to see the life you offer to us. We need a nudge...a pull...a call, to free us from ourselves. Free us, O God. Amen.
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