Holistic Vision of Thomas Keating 6

In the next several newsletters, I will share quotations and paraphrases from one of my root teachers, Thomas Keating, whose approach is at the heart of RCMR5:

In fairness to the Western Model of God [God outside of self and self outside of God], there was a certain abstract recognition of the importance of the Spirit. But in my youth, the Spirit was called “the forgotten guest.” My God,! That’s like forgetting that you’ve been married and wondering who this woman or man is in the house. The answer is–you married the guy, you’re united to him, you can’t get rid of him!

And so, there we were, not knowing as Christians what the most important guest or relationship in our whole lives was all about and we’re thinking that it isn’t even there, for heaven’s sake. Well, this obviously, did not facilitate the spiritual journey. 

Who can start a journey where, after you take the first few steps and fall down, as we are, you imagine how many more steps it’s going to take to climb up to heaven someplace in the sky? So you just say: “I guess it’s not for me. Leave it to the Trappists or some other cloistered people…”

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And then you get the corollary: well, write them a letter and have them pray for you. Then you won’t have to pray anymore. So, in other words, you have a certain group of people who are elite who’ll do the praying for you so you can do your own thing.

…as long as you fulfill the ritual obligations (Sunday Mass, no meat on Friday, blah, blah, blah!), then God has to reward you. And on your tombstone, you can write: “I was a faithful Catholic [Christian].” Baloney! You were completely misinformed. In other words, a faithful Catholic [Christian] is someone who lives the Gospel, not reads about it or tries to manipulate God to fit into our particular state of life. 

Thomas Keating