Sunday, March 18, 2012

A Year With Thomas Merton - March 16



My Ruin Is My Fortune


In the Penitential Psalms, Christ recognizes my poverty in His poverty. Merely to see myself in the psalm is a beginning of being healed. For I see myself through His grace. His grace is working, therefore I am on my way to being healed. O the need of that healing! I walk from region to region of my soul and I discover that I am a bombed city.

When I meditated on Psalm 6--"Lord, not in thy fury"--I caught sight of an unexpected patch of green meadow along the creek on our neighbor's land. The green grass under the leafless trees and the pools of water after the storm lifted my heart to God. He is so easy to come to when even grass and water bear witness to His mercy. "I will water my couch with tears."

I have written about the frogs singing. Now they sing again. It is another spring. Although I am ruined, I am far better off than I have ever been in my life. My ruin is my fortune.

March 3, 1953, III.39

1 comment:

  1. Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,
    whose sin is covered.
    2 Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity,
    and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

    Psalm 32:1-2

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