Day 27 Merton has a close encounter with God

 I feel better today but not 100%.  That happens sometimes with my migraines.  They are slow to clear.   I picked a passage that was fascinating to me.  Merton has a close encounter with God.  Non believers will say "he worked himself up and imagined the whole thing"; certainly possible.  I often think of another quote from a different saint of mine, St Thomas Aquinas, "For those with faith no explanation is necessary. For those without faith no explanation is possible."   I hesitated to use it because it concerns the Eucharist and I don't want to turn off my non catholic friends or have them feel that I am trying to convert them.  I am not.  Thomas Merton ended up very ecumenical, so much so that he study Zen and felt that the whole human race was interconnected regardless of whether they even had any faith or not.   That said, catholics do believe that the Eucharist is actually the body of Christ and this is a great reminder of that.  

Thomas is in Cuba and is attending a children's Mass.  As the priest raises the host for the consecration and the children start to say "I believe" Thomas senses rather than sees a light so bright and so intimate that it neutralized every lesser experience he had ever had. 

When I call it a light that is a metaphor which I am using, long after the fact.  But at the moment, another overwhelming thing about this awareness was that it disarmed all images, all metaphors, and cut through the whole skein of species and phantasms with which we naturally do our thinking.  It ignored all sense experience in order to strike directly at the heart of truth, as if a sudden and immediate contact had been established between my intellect and the Truth Who was now physically really and substantially before me on the altar.     pg 285

Thomas goes on to say he thought:

Heaven is right here in front of me: Heaven, Heaven!

It lasted only a moment: but it left a breathless joy and a clean peace and happiness that stayed for hours and it was something I have never forgotten. 

However, lest you think that now Thomas is a miracle worker he goes on to say that he could never reconstruct this experience and he wouldn't even know how to start.  It was a gift beyond and above myself.

However, let no one think that just because of this light that came to me one day, at Mass, in the church of St Francis at Havana, I was far advanced in prayer.  No, my prayer continued to be largely vocal.   

Now I don't know about you but I have never had this experience at Mass before.  I will often feel joy or calm but never a heavenly light.  Sometimes I can't even concentrate on the Mass if I have a headache or am agitated but this is getting rarer as I am learning to disconnect from the world and focus on what matters.  I always remember that Jesus Himself is on the altar, and that always perks me up. 

I thought it was neat how God came down and touched Thomas in such a profound way.  I have had a close encounter with God several times in my life when I knew God was there.  Granted it wasn't as dramatic but I was convinced to my core that God was real and was reaching out to me.  Sometimes it is easy to forget when times are hard and things go badly but we are asked to be faithful.  

My prayer today, Lord Thank you for the extra ordinary ways you reach out to us.  Help us to be open to these experiences and to remember your goodness when times get tough.  Amen

Pax

 

Joe