Tuesday, June 23, 2009

On detachment

If I have this divine life in me, what do the accidents of pain and pleasure, hope and fear, joy and sorrow matter to me? They are not my life and they have little to do with it.

Why should I fear anything that cannot rob me of God, and why should I desire anything that cannot give me possession of Him? Exterior things come and go, but why should they disturb me?

Why should I worry about losing a bodily life that I must inevitably lose anyway, as long as I possess a spiritual life and identity that cannot be lost against my desire?

Why should I go to great labor to possess satisfactions that cannot last an hour, and which bring misery after them, when I already have God in His eternity of joy?


It is the easiest thing in the world to possess this life and this joy; all you have to do is believe and love; and yet people waste their whole lives in appalling labor and difficulty and sacrifice to get things that make real life impossible.
Thomas Merton- New Seeds of Contemplation

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