Today is a continuation of Thomas Merton on the holy...specifically the saint.
A saint is capable of loving created things and enjoying the use of them and dealing with them in a perfectly simple, natural manner, making no formal references to God, drawing no attention to his/her own piety, and acting without any artificial rigidity at all. His/her gentleness and sweetness are not pressed through his/her pores by the crushing restraint of a spiritual strait-jacket. They come from her/his direct docility to the light of truth and to the will of God. Hence a saint is capable of talking about the world without any explicit reference to God, in such a way that her/his statement gives greater glory to God and arouses a greater love of God than the observations of someone less holy, who has to strain her/himself to make an arbitrary connection between creatures and God through the medium of hackneyed analogies and metaphors that are so feeble that they make you think there is something the matter with religion.
Witnessing without making any explicit reference to God...some would say that cannot be done. And yet, I find this to be refreshing and quite truthful. Too often, I think religious people can be like those who like to tag buildings with their initials or their "sign." Religious folk can be so into labeling things with God language that we are often left with no ability to imagine the greatness of God because of all the "tagging" going on. When we talk about the world around us with eyes that are open to the graciousness of God, we speak about a bold world that brings life out into the open and brings people together and creates moments of dialogue and exploration that can bring people to a simple and silent "amen." There is no pressure to make it fit. There is no expectation that certain words must be used in certain ways that will bring about certain situations. Rather, the day is left wide open and we, as saints, explore and share and question and become surprised at the utter joy that comes within God's Reign even as we let go our our language slip aside while we take on the day.
Connection: Rather than tag things with our religious words and boxes, it would do us well to let go and take the world as it is and spend some time listening and seeing its wonder.
Come, Lord of the New Day, and stir us up as you promise. When we attempt to put your Reign into a box, liberate us to see the glory of your Reign that keeps breaking into our lives and new ways and times unexpected. Amen.
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