NSoC 26: Freedom under Obedience

See Notes on this series...

Merton declares here that sanctification is rarely achieved outside of community. Living out our weaknesses among others who are living out their weaknesses diminishes our egos and enables God's spirit to work. He points to the potential eccentricities of hermits to back up his claim. He asks a series of rhetorical questions sarcastically describing the protected isolation that some seek, wrapping up in the admonition that God will not live in someone who cannot find him in others.

He says that activity and contemplation are not at odds with each other so long as the activity is grounded in the same pursuit of God as the contemplation.

Merton characterizes the "most dangerous man in the world" as an unguided contemplative who listens to no one but his own ideas and inner voices. The will of God is to him a feeling, and the warmer the feeling the more convinced of it he becomes. These self-confident people can destroy whole communities with their misguided arrogance.

Merton closes the chapter by exploring the difference between what he calls self-will and genuine liberty. He says that we often equate liberty as opposition to authority, but he defines this action as license. But we are prone to rebel against the call to "religious obedience" because we see it as a requirement to give up our personalities. But someone who has learned to obey has learned to discern the intelligence of the commands given.

Contemplation and obedience do not come by abandoning one's intellect or freedom, but learning to use them at the right times and in the right circumstances. It is a sign of maturity.