Following the Will of God: From “Life and Holiness” by the Reverend Thomas Merton (vegetarian), Part 2 of 2

Let us continue with excerpts from Thomas Merton’s book, “Life and Holiness,” whereby the commandment of love is further explained to include loving one another, our neighbors, our friends and our enemies.

Chapter 2 – The Testing of Ideals What Is the Will of God?

“Yet here another problem arises, and once again we ask ourselves if perhaps, we do not need some kind of systematic, methodic way of knowing and doing the will of God. How am I going to be faithful to that mysterious and holy will? How do I know when a sacrifice is pleasing to the Heavenly Father, and when it is only an illusion of my own will? This is certainly not an easy matter. It cannot be left to subjective feeling or caprice. […]”

“The Christian way to discern the will of God is not an abstract logical operation. Nor is it merely subjective. The Christian is a member of a living body, and his awareness of the will of God depends on his relatedness to the other members of the same body: because since we are all united as ‘members one of another,’ the living, salvific will of God is mysteriously communicated to us through one another. We all need one another, we all complete one another. God’s will is found in this mutual interdependence.”

“The will of God is therefore manifested to the Christian above all in the commandment to love. Jesus Christ Our Lord said to His disciples in the most solemn of all His discourses that those who would love Him would keep His commandment to love one another as He has loved us.”

“This is the only ascetic ‘method’ which Christ has given us in the Gospels: that all should show themselves his friends by being friends of one another, and by loving even their enemies. If they should always behave in a spirit of sacrifice, patience, and meekness even toward the unjust and the violent, Christians are all the more strongly obligated to be charitable and kind to one another, never using vicious and insulting language toward one another.”

“The will of God is that all should be saved. Hence it follows that God wills us all to cooperate with Jesus Christ and with one another to bring one another to salvation and holiness.”