Bread on the Trail: Simplicity and Communion with God
Deacon Keith Fournier
© Third Millennium, LLC
"I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth. I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me." Jesus (St. John 17:15-21)
"Whatever I may have written, I think it all can be reduced in the end to this one root truth: that God calls human persons to union with Himself and with one another in Christ, in the Church which is His Mystical Body. It is also a witness to the fact that there is and must be, in the church, a contemplative life which has no other function than to realize these mysterious things, and return to God all the thanks and praise that human hearts can give Him." Father Louis (Thomas Merton November 10, 1963)
As I grow older, things are finally becoming simpler. Left behind with the years was some of my propensity to complicate things. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I have a long way to go. Having been with those preparing for death in my work as a Deacon of the Church, I have discovered that, in a recollected person of faith, prayer before death is the most revealing. No longer burdened with the concerns of "this world", such prayer becomes inspiringly simple. Simple souls see God. There is an invitation to simplicity in Gods loving plan for each of our lives. Living simply can help us to see things differently. To those who voluntarily embrace it, simplicity becomes a means of grace, an invitation to love, and a school of sanctity. All relationships, with persons as well as with the goods of the earth, are changed by its embrace. In the light of simple faith, even painful experiences become the material for our personal transformation and enable us to open ourselves more to the fullness of life. Through simple surrender to the loving plan of God, we are continually invited to go deeper into communion with God and respond to His loving gaze. In this communion with God, fear dissipates and everything is bathed in love. After all, when all is stripped away, there is only God.
In His Sacred Humanity, prepared for death, the Lord Jesus prayed for each of us "… May they be one, as you Father are in me and I am in you…" The words of this prayer reveal the simple heart of God. They also unfold the purpose and final goal of human existence; we are all called to love. The way of simplicity and communion are the path to peace. They lead us into an ever deepening, intimate, loving relationship with God, and, in Him, into a new relationship with all men and women and creation itself. Contemplatives comprehend, or rather, are comprehended by, this experience of communion. They literally fall in love with God. All Christians are called to this contemplation, no matter what their state in life. Simplicity helps to satisfy the hunger of our souls. It strips away only what impedes love. Those who walk in simplicity and communion find the path to peace and become lanterns for others seeking the way.