“Suppose one has found completeness in his true vocation. Now everything is in unity, in order, at peace. Now work no longer interferes with prayer or prayer with work. Now contemplation no longer needs to be a special “state” that removes one from the ordinary things going on around him, for God penetrates all.”
Thomas Merton
“…For God penetrates all.” That sentiment alone can cause the monumental shifts needed to draw us closer to each other, to the earth, the poor, the entire created order. Knowing this truth is the beginning of the Revolution.
God penetrates all. Penetrate: to pierce, infiltrate, break through, break in, enter, or breach – just a few of the words listed as synonyms for ‘penetrate.’
God pierces us, indeed with a love so pure it hurts. It hurt him when he hung on a tree for the healing of us all.
God infiltrates me, breaks me in order to break through. If I lock the door of my heart and I refuse to answer the divine knock at the door, God breaks in through the window panes of my soul.
God breaches my boundaries, my comfort zones, my sore spots, my darker places no one knows or sees. God does indeed penetrate all…like sultry, seductive eyes yet burning purer than the finest metal. God permeates every nook and cranny, every pore, every fiber of being. God Is…Present in all things, in all ways, all that exists bears in some way the Imago Dei, the iconographic presence of the Holy One.
Nothing I do or do not do will ever limit God’s presence, which is the very essence of the word grace. Grace is the experiential knowledge of God’s presence and penetration of all of life; and knowing this, the line between the holy and the profane, the sacred and sacrilege, work and prayer, dissolves away.
May God penetrate us all with such grace.
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