Wednesday 11 June 2008

We continue with Merton as he looks at sin and our false self.

All sin starts from the assumption that my false self, the self that exists only in my own egocentric desires, is the fundamental reality of life to which everything else in the universe is ordered. Thus I use up my life in the desire for pleasures and the thirst for experiences, for power, honor, knowledge and love, to clothe this false self and construct its nothingness into something objectively real. And I wind experiences around myself and cover myself with pleasures and glory like bandages in order to make myself perceptible to myself and to the world, as if I were an invisible body that could only become visible when something visible covered its surface.

This is another wonderful picture of Luther's way of referring to sin as "turned-in-on-self." In this state, that comes so natural to all of us, the universe does become that which spins around me....and that is everything. Once again, we must remember that we are each beloved from before we begin our very first attempt to wind experiences around us that we thing make us somebody. Before our attempt to make something of ourselves, God has already given us the very rock upon which we are able to come to life without hesitation. And yet, to be standing out on that rock is not always what we want. So we cover it up with what we think will give us worth and power and all that will make us more than what we are now. Merton's notes that we each "cover myself with pleasures and glory like bandages." What an interesting way to look at the pleasures and glory we make for ourselves - bandages. What people then see about us is not the beloved of one God...but rather, that wounded one who at all costs will try to make more of who we are by gift alone.

Connection: Let's all take a look around today and see if we can see the bandages with which those around us are wrapped. It may come more easy to us as we look at our enemies. But then, take a look at those most beloved of us...and then...look in the mirror.

Bless us, O God, so that we will find again the simple word you address to us...a word of love and hope and joy and peace. For in your creative work, you have already lifted us up to life that is about to become brimful. And yet, we continue to be lost within ourselves so that we cannot hear your words of renewal and hope. Amen.