Thomas Merton and agape/caritas

In my last posting I mentioned a book of essays on comparative mysticism by Thomas Merton. I commented on a quote from his chapter on “Love and Tao.” In that chapter he went through some mental twistings in his attempt to compare Christianity with the Chinese philosophy Taoism (the T is pronounced so much like a D that some people spell it Daoism). Here is the quote in which he used the Latin translation of First John 4:8 -- Deus caritas est. -- "God is love (agape)."

The power of the sage is then the very power which has been revealed in the Gospels as Pure Love, Deus caritas est is the full manifestation of the truth hidden in the nameless Tao, and yet it still leaves Tao nameless. For love is not a name, any more than Tao is. One must go beyond the word and enter into communion with the reality before he can know anything about it: and then, more likely than not, he will know ‘in the cloud of unknowing.’ (Mystics and Zen Masters, p. 76)

Something about that assertion of the spiritual need to “go beyond the word and enter into communion with the reality” made me think of 1 Cor. 13. Even though St. Paul didn’t use those words, I think his illustration of the power of agape pointed to a similar need to enter into communion with the reality of agape power in order to come to the truest understanding of the way such power works both in personal lives and in congregational life.

Only by experiencing the changes first hand can anyone even begin to come to terms with the effectiveness of agape power, that St. Paul listed in 1 Cor. 13, to create patience and kindness, and the capacity to endure whatever comes. Only then can a person truly understand the power to never be jealous, never be conceited, never be rude or selfish, never to be resentful nor to take offense, nor to take any pleasure in other’s sins. Only then can a person comprehend what it means to "delight in the truth," and to always be ready to "excuse, to trust, to hope." (Jerusalem Bible)

In my next posting I’ll go into a more detailed investigation into how extremely unusual were the rest of St. Paul’s proclamations in 1 Cor. 13.