Action and Contemplation – 2

If, as Thomas Merton suggests, contemplation is the spring and action should be the stream that flows from it, contemplation should be the source of all our living and all our doing.  Action and contemplation are two faces of the same coin.  Contemplation without action is escapist. But action that is not grounded in contemplation is dangerous because the result will always be raw reaction rather than truly free action.

Sometimes spiritual writers put too much distance between being and doing.  Contemplation grounds us in our being. It allows us to return to an identity based on “I AM” rather than “I have” or “I do.” It is a place of stillness that can uniquely prepare us for action.  We should be able to live with more fierceness and passion when we emerge from it. And we should then be able to carry that inner stillness into the midst of the action that flows from it.

Being without doing is meaningless. We find ourselves in our living of life, not in our reflection on it. It is in the stream of life that we most deeply encounter God in us, flowing up from the depths of our soul and out into the world. And it is in the stream of life that we notice God, active in the world, and are able to join God in the divine transformational agenda of making all things new in Christ.