Wednesday 2 July 2008

Here are some more insights about solitude - again, Thomas Merton.

True solitude is the home of the person, false solitude the refuge of the individualist. The person is constituted by a uniquely subsisting capacity to love - by a radical ability to care for all beings made by God and loved by God. Such a capacity is destroyed by the loss of perspective. Without a certain element of solitude there can be no compassion because when a person is lost in the wheels of a social machine s/he is no longer aware of human needs as a matter of personal responsibility. One can escape from people by plunging into the midst of a crowd!

Again here is that important distinction between a person and an individual. The person - the whole me and you - is complete within the play between solitude and community. In fact, the person is made whole by just such a movement. The individualist finds any journey to be a journey with one's self and for one's self - beginning and end of story! The key word is love. Love bring community into being. Love is the power the bridges the separation that is so easily established between us and is the very sin that fights against the love of God. The interesting and important move in today's piece is to establish that we lose our sense of self and the meaning of community when we simple choose to slip into the world of social activity that does not call forth relationship or the need for growth of self and others. Simply being with people is not being in community. Many churches know what that means. Sometimes we come together but never let ourselves be together as one body...only a mixture of individuals....church is so much more than that.

Connection: Some folks say it is important to go visit other countries and cultures because a brief visit can often open up our eyes to the expansiveness of our humanity. Well, this can also happen within this day...within the places we find ourselves....and, without leaving home. But...we must be willing to let go and let in.

Come, Living Water, and pour your life over us. When we are drenched with your presence and see that you pour yourself over all your people, we may then be liberated and find that in, with, and under the life of community, we each blossom and then flower into persons in your image. Amen.