Fw: [thomasmerton] Merton/Lent 19

[Guest guest]

- Patrick Collins

thomasmerton

Cc: billcreed (AT) aol (DOT) com ; frdoug (AT) sabre-net (DOT) org ; JWDIIIKMD (AT) aol (DOT) com

Friday, April 13, 2001 1:30 PM

[thomasmerton] Merton/Lent 19

Dear Merton Group,

A Blessed Good Friday to you all. As Lent began for me in Hawaii, I

chose a discipline of 3 postings perweek from "Thomas Merton

Uncensored." With this one I conclude that discipline and hope that

you have found interest and inspiration in them.

Here Merton's sense of mystical experience rings true in some way with

the Risen One. What do you think?

A Blessed East to you all,

Patrick Collins, Group Moderator

The relationship between the natural and the supernatural in the

realmof mystical experience has long been a matter of discussion

inphilosophical and theological circles. What do humans do on their

ownand/or what do they do aided by grace beyond the natural? Thomas

Merton wrote rather extensively about this question in 1958 to the

philosopher,Aldous Huxley, whose book Ends and Means had been

instrumental inMerton’s coming into the Catholic Church in

1938.

“Ought we not to distinguish between an experience which is

essentially aesthetic and natural from an experience which is

mystical and supernatural. I would call aesthetic and natural an

experience which would be an intuitive ‘tasting’ of the

inner spirituality of our own being - or an intuition of being as

such, arrived at through an intuitive awarenes of our own inmost

reality. This would be anexperience of ‘oneness’ within

oneself and with all beings, a flash of awareness of the transcendent

Reality that is within all that is real.This sort of thing

‘happens’ to one in all sorts of ways and I see no reason

why it should not be occasioned by the use of a drug. This intuition

is very like the aesthetic intuitiion that precedes the creation of a

work of art. It is like the intuituion of a philosopher who rises

above his concepts and their synthesis to see everything in one

glance, in all its length, height, breath and depth. It is like the

intuition of a person who has participated deeply in a liturgical

act. (I think you take too cavalier an attitude toward liturgy,

although I confess that I am irked by liturgical enthusiasts when

they want to regiment others into their way of thinking.) “By

the way, though I call this experience ‘natural,’ that

does not preclude its being produced by the action of God’s

grace (a term thatmust be used with care). But I mean that it is not

in its mode or in its content beyond the capacities of human nature

itself. Please forgive me for glibly using this distinction between

natural and supernatural as if I were quite sure where the dividing

line came. Of course I am not. “What would I call a

supernatural and mystical experience, then? I speak very hesitantly,

and do not claim to be an authority. What I say may be very

misleading. It may be the product of subjective and sentimental

illusion or it may be the product of a rationalizationsuperimposed on

the experience described above. Anyway, here goes. “It seems to

me that a fully mystical experience has in its very essence some note

of a direct spiritual contact of two liberties, a kind of a flash or

spark which ignites an intuition of all that has been said above,

plus something much more which I can only describe

as‘personal,’ in which God is known not as an

‘object’ or as ‘Him up there’ or ‘Him

in everything’ nor as a ‘the All’ but as - the

biblical expression - I AM, or simply AM. But what I mean is that

this is not the kind of intuition that smacks of anything procurable

because it is a presence of a Person and depends on the liberty of

that Person. And lacking the element of a free gift, a free act of

love on the part of Him Who comes, the experience would lose its

specifically mystical quality.” (Huxley, Aldous 11.27.58 HGL

437)

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