Morning Meditation, June 4

“A man is only perfectly a man when he consents to live as a son of God.”
-Thomas Merton
No Man is an Island

The operative term here is “consents.” It is always the temptation to race ahead to asking how one lives as a son of God; how I am to accomplish this feat of being God’s child? But it begins not with action. Rather it is consent to the divine action already done on my behalf. It is submission. It is yielding to the work of the Spirit. “Let it be unto me according to thy word.” It is interior abandonment. Thus it is born not in anguish and effort but in peace.

To begin with my effort is to stir up my passions to hurl myself toward my goal. To begin with consent is to find what the Eastern Christians call apatheia, a deep reservoir of peace and love that empowers us.

Icons of the Consenting Heart:
“Let it be unto me…”
“Not my will, but thine be done.
“In manus tuus, Domine…”