DEEP PERSONAL PRAYER AND ORIGINAL SIN-3

Merton’s Encounter with God in Downtown Louisville

Tomas Merton, maturing as a Trappist monk, had grown into a contemplative state of prayer. This is the most advanced phase of deep personal prayer. This momentous spiritual development opened the way for him to have an extraordinary mystical experience. It involved a special experience and realization of the presence of God leading to an intense personal enlightenment.

This mystical event in Merton’s life is a very helpful guide in understanding the acute need for deep personal prayer. This constant struggle with our sinful condition is our painful heritage of our first parents.

Merton was on his way to becoming a major international spiritual force in the Twentieth Century and beyond. On March 18, 1958 he was in Louisville, KY., a city close to his Gethsemani Abbey. He needed to get some printing done. Amid the large crowd of shoppers on the street, he had a great moment of illumination. Merton wrote:

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DEEP PERSONAL PRAYER LEADS TO FREEDOM-2

Like anything worthwhile, deep personal prayer comes at a cost, substantial personal sacrifice. It involves eliminating major personal habits of selfishness. Many of these negative behaviors are hidden beyond our awareness. Deep personal prayer raises them to consciousness. A choice has to be made. It is like the parable of the Sower. Our life presents to the seed several different destinations: the rocky ground, the busy path, the thorns, or the rich soil. These negative options for the seed are possible because of our attachments and addictions, the attraction of the dark side of our culture and the overriding demand to consume more. In addition, we need address our social reality driven by racism, sexism, classism and seemingly countless other expressions of division and hostility. The rich soil is possible as a choice only if we deny these negative forces that are so intense and immediate. If we are to produce the abundant fruit available in the rich soil that comes from deep personal prayer, we need to forsake the steady demands of the ego. Jesus declared this truth in harsh clarity: to save our life we need to lose our life. (Mt 10:39)

In the battlefield that is the human heart, sooner than later, our efforts at deep personal prayer make us aware of the cost inherent in beginning the search for God. This exploration is both serious and truly challenging.

At the same time, the movement of God’s grace, like a silent whisper in the depths of our heart, beckons us to encounter the reality of love that is God. No matter how soft, no matter how gentle, this call to love by a patient but unyielding God, will not go away. Often, this voice of God arises to a point of clarity only in the pain and anguish or even in the debris of life.

This is the troublesome condition of the human heart in its most authentic pursuit of what is real. The central struggle is between oneself as the point of emphasis or God as the central focus. Deep personal prayer leads us to the choice that promises life, freedom and all manner of love that is God revealed in Jesus Christ.

Only in faithfulness to this search for our deepest truth do we learn that God is our partner in the human venture. Likewise, it is God’s loving compassion that pursues us every moment in our life. God delights in loving us with an everlasting passionate love. This Hound of Heaven embraces us as we are in all our brokenness and misguided ambitions of grandiosity.

For most of us, most of the time, love for God remains a tiny hidden spark longing to become a consuming flame. However, our continuous search for happiness in the wrong places darkens or even blinds us to this divine treasure. Much more often than not, we turn to God only as we need help in our agenda seeking what we think we need to be happy. Our involvement with God is mostly about our self-perceived program. This is the basis of our frustration in life. This misdirection is a barrier for a life of deep personal prayer. This is the adjustment we need: to take the spotlight off ourselves and put it on God. This is the goal of deep personal prayer.

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DEEP PERSONAL PRAYER AND ORIGINAL SIN-1

Original Sin and Our True Destiny

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Any true evaluation of our ordinary life will unveil a sea of chaos within us and our common life in society. There are patterns of irrationality, confusion and all manner prejudices and distorted reality that we accept as the human condition. Our lives are influenced by illusion and self-deception. The “Dear Abby” type of advice columns will never run out of customers. Likewise, the United Nations Security Council will always have situations of violence to consider. In the midst of all these personal and social struggles, a simple, dominant truth remains. We live in God and God lives within us. Our sinful condition leads us to neglect, if not totally forget, this most fundamental truth that we are made in the image of God.

Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk who was one of the great spiritual teachers in the 20th Century North America, stressed this truth of our oneness with God. He said we act as if we are pursuing this sense of being one with God. In fact, we already possess this oneness but we are blind and negligent of this because of Original Sin. We have to grow in awareness of the depth of our sinful condition and its consequences of how we experience reality.

The “Fall” that we inherit from our first parents has profound and extensive repercussions for all of us. We live in a world where disunity and separation are the strong inclination of the human heart. The patterns of division between “us” and “them” are innate and constant inclinations for all of us. Disputes in the church choir and antisemitism seem to never end. White supremacy and blaming the poor are staples of our sinful condition. Alienation and isolation are also the product of our sinful heritage. Our world is dominated by illusion and bias under the guise of common sense understanding of reality. The fact is, however, what is truly real is hidden by all of these deceptions. Our situation demands a transformation of consciousness to deliver us from the layers of lies we inherit from Original Sin. This transformation of consciousness is a process of enlightenment flowing in good part from deep personal prayer.

This is why we need a sincere commitment to personal spiritual growth through prayer. This spiritual activity invites us, slowly but steadily, into the awareness of the reality of our union with God. This is our calling, to be people pursuing the love that will set us free. It is always a struggle because of our captivity in the continual deception of our sinful condition. We must remember this axiom: the grace of God is in the struggle. Our destiny Is to be one with God. Deep personal prayer is one of the most significant means to achieve this divine destination. It is, indeed, the great treasure we must sell all to buy and embrace God’s plan for us.

This is what Merton was stressing when he said that what we are seeking is what we already are: united with God. We need to be purified and transformed to be both enlightened and energized to achieve this true destiny.

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