NSoC 1: What Is Contemplation?

See Notes on this series...
Merton begins the book in a necessary way by defining contemplation. In his Preface he warns that contemplation can be a misleading word by becoming magical or inspirational, and yet, he states in his Author's Note, contemplation is one thing that we all need - provided it springs from the love of God.

So he starts loftily and builds a tower from there. He speaks of contemplation as man's highest intellectual and spiritual realization that he is alive, and that realization is manifest in responses of awe, gratitude, and recognition of the source of life.

He adds height to the tower when he speaks of the "unknowing", even beyond "unknowing", transcendence of contemplation as it surpasses the mere aesthetics of poetry, music, and art. He suggests that contemplation is beyond all, and to enter its realm, one must die.

He builds higher still by further defining contemplation as a call from a voiceless God who has spoken all things into existence, especially us, and our echoing response to that call. Merton says we are both a question God asks and answers, implying two levels of awareness that culminate in the experience of "I AM." He explains that this is not some religious abstraction, but a "religious and transcendent gift" from God as the Scriptures teach of sonship, given by God as he awakens us to the fact that He dwells in us and we in Him (Gal 2.20).

Quaff:
I once taught a canned Bible study lesson that had C-O-N-F-E-S-S as its acrostic and 1 John 1.8-10 as its scripture reference. I try to tailor canned stuff to my audience and in order to do that I dwelt on the word confess. It is a word that loses it scriptural power when contemporary usage overlays it. In the contemporary sense, to confess is to admit to or to make known or to own up to. Often in our society it is done to confirm something dark after it has been uncovered. It is rarely voluntary.

Scripturally, however, I think it means something altogether different. The word confess in 1 John 8.9 is the Greek word homologeo, a compound word from homos (the same) and lego (to say). Literally it means "to say the same thing." Back in the day the word was used in contracts and covenants. To confess to God means more than a mere admission but a coming to terms. To confess to God means to agree with God when he says what he says about us and our sin. In order to come to this agreement, we must be drawn by a power outside ourselves. We don't have it in us to do this on our own. On our own, we will do whatever we can to justify ourselves and our actions.

Just as confess loses its meaning contemporarily, I believe contemplation does as well, if I'm reading Merton correctly. In our culture, contemplation is the opposite of transcendence. To contemplate is to meditate, and to meditate is to empty oneself of the external, turning inward for definition and validation. For me, that is the wrong direction entirely, for I know what a vile creature I can be. Thankfully, God awakened me to that realization, and I can say like David "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment."

Query:
How can I focus on the transcendent when I hear the call to contemplate?