THOMAS MERTON'S CONCEPT OF SANCTIFICATION

Gerard Reed

While there has been a certain "rediscovery" 1 of the doctrine of sanctification in contemporary Protestant thought (exemplified by Karl Barth's linking "an actual liberation from the committed sin" with "the forgiveness of sins"), 2 it has attracted little serious theological reflection or practical teaching in mainline, Reformation-rooted churches.

I. The Catholic Position

The Roman Catholic Church, however, while acknowledging its adherents' imperfection, has both defined the nature of holiness and encouraged the faithful to pursue it. The Second Vatican Council, in its Constitution on the Church, devotes a chapter to "The Universal Call to Holiness in the Church." which states:

The Church, whose mystery is being set forth by this Sacred Synod, is believed to be indefectibly holy. Indeed Christ, the Son of God, who with the Father and the Spirit is praised as "uniquely holy," loved the Church as His bride, delivering Himself up for her. He did this that He might sanctify her. He united her to Himself as His own body and brought it to perfection by the gift of the Holy Spirit for God's glory. Therefore in the Church, everyone whether belonging to the hierarchy, or being cared for by it, is called to holiness, according to the saying of the Apostle: "For this is the will of God, your sanctification."

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The Lord Jesus, the divine Teacher and Model of all perfection, preached holiness of life to each and everyone of His disciples of every condition. He Himself stands as the author and consummator of this holiness of life: "Be you therefore perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect." Indeed He sent the Holy Spirit upon all men that He might move them inwardly to love God with their whole heart and their whole soul, with all their mind and all their strength and that they might love each other as Christ loves them. The followers of Christ are called by God, not because of their works, but according to His own purpose and grace. They are justified in the Lord Jesus, because in the baptism of faith they truly become sons of God and sharers in the divine nature. In this way they are really made holy. Then too, by God's gift, they must hold on to and complete in their lives this holiness they have received. They are warned by the Apostle to live "as becomes saints," and to put on "as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience," and to possess the fruit of the Spirit in holiness.

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"God is love, and he who abides in love, abides in God, and God in Him." But, God pours out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, Who has been given to us; thus the first and most necessary gift is love, by which we love God above all things and our neighbor because of God. Indeed, in order that love, as good seed may grow and bring forth fruit in the soul, each one of the faithful must willingly hear the Word of God and accept His will, and must complete what God has begun by their own actions with the help of God's grace. These actions consist in the use of the sacraments and in a special way the Eucharist, frequent participation in the sacred action of the Liturgy, application of oneself to prayer, self-abnegation, lively fraternal service and the constant exercise of all the virtues. For charity, as the bond of perfection and the fullness of the law, rules to these same means. It is charity which guides us to our final end. It is the love of God and the love of one's neighbor which points out the true disciple of Christ. 3

II. All Are Called

Such clear definition and call, given by the highest authority of the Church (an ecumenical council), indicated the value assigned to the doctrine and appropriation of Christian holiness. Echoing his church's call, the late Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk whose writings have influenced a wide variety of believers, urges all Christians to seek "sanctity and union with Christ, by keeping the commandments of God." 4 All should experience "a mystical transformation in which we will be perfectly conformed to the likeness of Christ. The Second Adam will live entirely in us. We will be 'the New Man' who is, in fact, one man-the One Christ, Head and Members"5 Salvation, properly understood and experienced, is a healing, sanctifying process whereby we find, in "the inner recesses of our conscience," that we are created in God's image and hunger for union with the Living God who made us. Salvation comes from "the God Who becomes One Spirit with our own soul! This alone is the reality for which we are made." 6

This process promises self-discovery and self-realization, but it involves cleansing and crucifying, for "To reach one's 'real self' one must, in fact, be delivered by grace, virtue and asceticism, from the illusory and false 'self' whom we have created by our habits of selfishness and by our constant flights from reality." 7 One is, in fact, as a baptized Christian,

. . . to renounce sin and to give himself completely, without compromise to Christ, in order that he may fulfill his vocation, save his soul, enter into the mystery of God, and there find himself perfectly "in the light of Christ."

As St. Paul reminds us (I Cor. 6:19), we are "not our own." We belong entirely to Christ. His Spirit has taken possession of us at baptism. We are the Temples of the Holy Spirit. Our thoughts, our actions, our desires, are by right more his than our own. But we have to struggle to ensure that God always receives from us what we owe him by right.8

In reality, "the only true joy on earth," he says "is to escape from the prison of our own self-hood ... and enter by love into union with the Life Who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls "9

III. Needful Definitions

Merton defines holiness according to the Thomistic teaching of the perfection of being: holiness is the perfection of the being one possesses in potency at birth. Deprived of Adam's perfection by Adam's sin, "our purpose in life i9 to discover" life's meaning by becoming what God has designed us to be. 10 The quest involves "terrible wrestling" in the "battle of life and death" provoked by sin, but honest persons, longing for Truth, sensing within a longing to actually be an "image of God," longing for "perfect freedom and peace with God," will prevail."

Sin, consequently, must be understood as privation of good rather than depravity of nature. In Merton's view:

Human nature is not evil. All pleasure is not wrong. All spontaneous desires are not selfish. The doctrine of original sin does not mean that human nature has been completely corrupted and that man's freedom is always inclined to sin. Man is neither a devil nor an angel. He is not a pure spirit, but a being of flesh and spirit, subject to error and malice, but basically inclined to seek truth and goodness. He is, indeed a sinner: but his heart responds to love and grace. It also responds to the goodness and to the need of his fellowman.

Thus:

Sin is the refusal of spiritual life. The rejection of the inner order and peace that come from our union with the divine will. In a word, sin is the refusal of God's will and of his love. It is not only a refusal to "do" this or that thing willed by God, or a determination to do what he forbids. It is more radically a refusal to be what we are, a rejection of our mysterious, contingent, spiritual reality hidden in the very mystery of God. Sin is our refusal to be what we were created to be-sons of God images of God. Ultimately sin, while seeming to be an assertion of freedom, is a flight from the freedom and the responsibility of divine sonship.13

Once freed from sin's bondage, we become free to cooperate with the Spirit in perfecting our being. There is, one may say, such a thing as "Christian perfection," though Merton prefers to use the word "holiness because a 'holy' person is one who is sanctified by the presence and action of God in him." Should one focus on "perfection," a "subtly egoistic attitude" may develop. There is, in fact, a terrifying, insidious danger in seeking perfection, for it easily elevates self rather than God. 14 Though often draped with orthodoxy and piety, perfectionistic "spirituality may be completely self-centered," practiced by high-minded men who have "forgotten the terrible paradox that the only way we become perfect is by leaving ourselves, and, in a certain sense, forgetting our own perfection, to follow Christ." 15

Whenever, then, we speak of Christian perfection, we must understand it as limited, finite, flawed. Only in heaven will we find absolute perfection, where "our love will always actually and totally be directed to God." In this life, however, we can live free from mortal sin and all "impediments to true love." 16 By refraining from deliberate sin, by loving God and man in authentic ways, we can be "perfect." Yet those who are "perfect" or holy are still plagued by imperfection, infirmities, and failures. They still do wrong. They still commit venial sins. But such imperfections do not nullify holiness so long as love indwells and motivates one's heart.17

Central to Merton's concept of sanctification abides this truth: we are holy by virtue of a holy God residing and presiding within us. Thus "perfection is not a moral embellishment which we acquire outside of Christ, in order to qualify for union with Him. Perfection is the full life of charity perfected by the gifts of the Holy Ghost." 18 Consequently, "the true saint is not one who has become convinced that he himself is holy, but one who is overwhelmed by the realization that God, and God, alone, is holy." 19 Holiness comes to us as a gift from a gracious God, for "if holiness is beyond our natural power to achieve (which it certainly is), then it follows that God Himself must give us the light, the strength, and the courage to fulfill the task He requires of us." 20

The Holy Spirit sanctifies us. He "is the One Who makes us sons of God, justifying our souls by His presence and His charity, granting us the power to live and act as sons of God." 21 Thus "the Christian life is nothing else but Christ living in us, by His Holy Spirit." 22 By virtue of an actual, ontological indwelling of God, persons who open their hearts to His spirit experience actual cleansing and sanctity. Saving and sanctifying grace are clearly imparted, not merely imputed, to the receptive, consecrated believer.

IV. Steps to Sanctity

From Merton's standpoint, five components intertwine to constitute holiness: 1) faith in God's grace- 2) an inner conversion which creates a "new man"; 3) a self-surrender which establishes a mystical bond with God; 4) an ever-deepening process of growth in grace; 5) a dependence upon the Church and her sacraments.

Since sanctity comes from God, we receive it in faith. God works in invisible ways deep within our being, often undetected by anyone, ourselves included. Thus holiness results not from doing certain things but from "faith: the interior, anguished, almost desperately solitary act by which we affirm our total subjection to God by grasping His word and His revelation of His will in the inmost depths of our being, as well as in obedience to the authority constituted by Him.

To "be perfect" then is not so much a matter of seeking God with ardor and generosity, as of being found, loved, and possessed by God, in such a way that his action in us makes us completely generous and helps us to transcend our limitations and react against our weakness. We become saints not by violently overcoming our weakness, but by letting the Lord give us the strength and purity of his Spirit in exchange for our weakness and misery. 24

Consequently, "we must therefore begin by believing God is our Father: otherwise we cannot face the difficulties of the Christian way of perfection. Without faith, the 'narrow way' is utterly impossible." 25 Sanctifying faith is more than intellectual assent or volitional response, though it involves both. It is, in a sense, "an intellectual light by which we 'know' the Father in the Incarnate Word (Jn. 14:7-14). Yet faith is at the same time a mysterious and obscure knowledge." 26 It is an enlightened response to revealed truth, but it also emerges from an encounter with God which gives us courage to push ahead into the unknown, trusting His Spirit to guide us. Whatever its essence, Merton insists, "the Divine Spirit purifies the image of God in my soul by faith." 27

Such faith allows God to inwardly transform one into a "new man" in Christ. An actual impartation, "an inner transformation," takes place: "Jesus not only teaches us the Christian life, He creates it in our souls by the action of His Spirit." 28 Thereby we "recover the divine image in our souls." 29 We experience "a conversion, a metanoia, which reorientates our whole being after raising it to a new level and even seems to change our whole nature itself." 30 We become, quite simply, a "new creature." 31 Inwardly regenerated by God's grace in conversion, the Spirit of God immediately begins His sanctifying work within us. If we cooperate with that process, we must pass through some critical points of self-surrender and deep-level crucifixion. "Our response to Christ," Merton says, "means taking up our cross, and this in turn means shouldering our responsibility to seek and to do, in all things, the will of the Father. This was, in fact, the whole essence of Christ's own earthly life, and of his death and resurrection." 32 Such self-denial, "in the fullest sense," means "to renounce not only what we have but also what we are-to live not according to our desire and our own judgment but according to God's will for us." 33

Inwardly surrendered, we can will God's will. We learn that love for God means loving to will His will. "Sanctity does not consist merely in doing the will of God. It consists in willing the will of God. For sanctity is union with God, and not all those who carry out His will are united with His will." 34 So long as we will God's will, "our intentions are pure" and we seek to glorify and serve God. "Pure intention identifies our own happiness with the common good of all those who are loved by God. It seeks its joy in God's own will to do good to all men in order that He may be glorified in them." 35

Truly converted and totally committed to the will of God, we discover an intimate, mystical union with God which gives us joy and strengthens us for service, all of which come from the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. United with Christ through His Spirit, we discover "the perfect coalescence of the uncreated image of God with our created image not only in a perfect identification of minds and wills in knowledge and love but also above all knowledge and all love in perfect communion. 'I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me!' "36

In those converted and consecrated wholly to God, a sanctifying process guides His children on a journey which costs them not less than every thing they have and are. To find our way home, back to our Father, we "must reverse Adam's journey," turning away from self-centered illusions in order to ffnally "find God."37 The sanctifying process begins at conversion and permeates successively deeper layers of our being as we fully surrender them to God. The actual state of sanctity comes at the end, not the beginning of the purifying journey. As Merton describes it:

Our whole person, body and soul, is raised sacramentally to participation in the passion and resurrection of Christ in baptism, and this implies a preliminary interior justification by faith, which spiritualizes the soul in its intimate substance. The faculties of the soul nevertheless, as well as the body with its senses, remain subject to the "wisdom of the flesh." This demands an ascetic struggle, in which our spirit, united with the Spirit of God, resists the flesh, its desires and its illusions, in order to strengthen and elevate us more and more, and open our eyes to the full meaning of our life in Christ. Finally, however, there will come a mystical transformation in which we will be perfectly conformed to the likeness of Christ. The Second Adam will live entirely in us. We will be "the New Man" who is, in fact one Man-the One Christ, Head and Members. 38

Faith equips us for the journey, but faith alone does not entirely sanctify us. Faithfully willing God's will launches and sustains the sanctifying process, but entire sanctification comes only through devotion and discipline. Only as we give of ourselves, as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit within us, do we actually become holy.

From start to finish, the sanctification of believers takes place within the context of the Church, for "we receive the Holy Spirit through the Church and her sacraments." 39 While we must believe in order for the sacraments to inwardly transform us, the sacraments are essential for our sanctity inasmuch as God hag ordained them. "We should not forget," Merton says, "that the sacraments are mystical signs of a free spiritual work of divine love in our souls." 40

V. Evidence of Holiness

Finally, the fruit of the holy life is love. "The most exalted manifestation of God's holiness is not to be found in the flaming theophanies of the Old Testament but in the charity of Christ towards men." 41 Such love is not defined by inward feelings of pious peace, however, for "Christian charity is meaningless without concrete and exterior acts of love." 42 Love is evident in attitudes and actions. It stands revealed in personal humility, devotion to justice, and acts of compassion.

Holiness means humility. Without humility there is no holiness. To be humble is simple to be down-to-earth, to be human. Christ was perfectly human, so "sanctity is not a matter of being less human, but more human than other men."43 To see ourselves as human, all too human, involves accurate perception and utter honesty, which is the essence of humility. Once we acknowledge our own poverty, our own emptiness apart from God, accepting "completely the reality of life as it is,"" Christ can effectively transform and sanctify u9. As a consequence, such holy humility brings us "a greater capacity for concern, for suffering, for understanding, for sympathy, and also for humor, for joy, for appreciation of the good and beautiful things of life." 45

Holiness of heart flows inevitably into channels of concern for justice. "There is no charity without justice." 46 This means "social justice" must be pursued. 47 Merton himself, much to the surprise of those who imagine Trappist monks isolated and insulated from their world, took an active role, through his writings, in the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960's. As a Christian he felt compelled to oppose all racism and violence, and he wrote with prophetic insight and power concerning the social fabric of the United States. 48

Love inspires works of righteousness as well as social concern, for "Christian charity is meaningless without concrete and exterior acts of love. The Christian is not worthy of his name unless he gives from his ossessions, his time, or at least his concern in order to help those less fortunate than himself." 49 Such love "is neither weak nor blind. It is essentially prudent, just, temperate, and strong. Unless all the other virtues blend together in charity, our love is not genuine." 50 But holy, virtuous, love makes a difference. It transforms us inwardly as persons. It transforms those individuals and social structures we encounter. It, and it alone, enables us to contribute to the Kingdom of God.

VI. Concluding Comments and Critique

As one outside the Roman Catholic Church, yet sharing by tradition and conviction Merton's concern for holiness, let me offer a few concluding comments on the ideas the paper tries to illustrate.

First, a study of Church history reveals an enduring concern for sanctity in the Catholic Church. Whether one examines the statements of the Early Church Fathers, the Council of Trent, the Second Vatican Council, or Thomas Merton, one finds the Catholic call for imparted grace which inwardly regenerates and sanctifies believers. A study of Merton reveals ancient Catholic doctrine expressed in contemporary thought-forms. It further helps those who sense the Biblical call to "follow after holiness" to also sense their commonality with Catholic Christians from Ignatius of Antioch to Mother Teresa.

Second, though one may agree with Merton as he calls believers to follow after holiness, he may differ with him concerning crucial definitions. Though Merton clearly takes the position that original sin consists of deprivation rather than depravity (a theological stance Catholic thinkers as different as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas have shared) those in the holiness churches, more rooted in the somber notions of Luther and Calvin may debate Merton's definition and thus reject his idea that sanctification simply perfects human nature. Consequently, for many holiness teachers, sanctification means the total death of man's fallen human nature and a radical creating of a "new creature" in Christ. However, Merton's notion of original sin may better suit the Anglican-Wesleyan tradition than does the Reformed emphasis of simul justus et peccatur. When Merton defines holiness as the purifying presence of the Holy Spirit, attributing sanctity to God alone, it seems he shares one of the central concepts of holiness churches.

Third, in the overall sense, Merton's notions of how one experiences salvation parallel those of evangelical holiness churches. Beginning with sanctifying faith, stressing conversion, consecration, crucifixion and growth, he indicates the same basic pattern outlined by holiness thinkers. He does not, however, emphasize "crisis" experiences (particularly where they are understood as the consummation of sanctification). And, of course, Merton's concern for, and reliance upon, the Church has no acknowledged counterpart in the evangelical tradition, where everyone may, as his own priest, work out his own salvation in a private "personal relationship" with God.

Finally, Merton's stress on humility and love as marks of sanctity should certainly be acceptable to most holiness advocates. Ignoring aberrations which have skewed the theories and quest for holiness in both Catholic and Evangelical traditions, sanctity has in fact shone through the lives of God's devoted servants.

Thus Merton can both teach and challenge holiness people. His work easily forms the basis for meaningful dialogue between Catholic and Evangelical scholars as well as for better understanding between separated Christians.

Notes

1William Hordern, New Directions in Theology Today (Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1966), I, 96-113.

2Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (Edinburgh, 1958), IV, 2, 505.

3Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Church (Washington: National Catholic Welfare Conference, 1964), 43-47.

4Thomas Merton, Life and Holiness (New York: Herder and Herder, 1963), 4.

5Thomas Merton, The New Man (New York: Mentor{)mega Books, 1961), 94.

6Ibid., 70.

7Ibid, 7.

8Life and Holiness, 3.

9Thomas Merton, Seeds of Celebration (New York: New Directions, 1949), 77.

10Thomas Merton, No Man Is An Island (New York: Image Books, 1967), 9.

11New Man, 9.

12Life and Holiness, 41.

13Ibid., 4.

14Ibid., 16.

15New Man, 27.

16Life and Holiness, 150.

17Ibid., 165.

18Ibid., 65.

19Ibid, 23.

20Ibid, 10-11.

21No Man Is An Island, 57.

22Thomas Merton, The Living Bread (New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1959), 34.

23Life and Holiness, 68.

24Ibid, 31.

25Ibid, 32.

26Ibid, 102.

27New Man, 99.

28Ibid, 97.

29Ibid, 75.

30Ibid, 76.

31Ibid, 120.

32Life and Holiness, 36.

33Ibid, 146.

34No Man Is An Island, 56.

35Ibid, 54.

36New Man, 99.

37Ibid, 85.

38Ibid, 73.

39Life and Holiness, 65.

40No Man Is An Island, 58.

41Life and Holiness, 76.

42New Man, 60.

43Life and Holiness, 116.

44Ibid 21.

45Ibid, 116.

46Ibid.

47Ibid 117.

48cf. Thomas Merton, Faith and Violence (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968) and Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (New York: Image Books, 1968).

49Life and Holiness, 116.

50No Man Is An Island 21.

Edited by Brian Seidel