True sanctity does not consist in trying to live without creatures. It consists in using the goods of life in order to do the will of God. It consists in using God’s creation in such a way that everything we touch and see and use and love gives new glory to God. To be a saint means to pass through the world gathering fruits for heaven from every tree and reaping God’s glory in every field. The saint is one who is in contact with God in every possible way, in every possible direction. He is united to God in the depths of his own being. He sees and touches God in everything and everyone around him. Everywhere he goes, the world rings and resounds (though silently) with the deep pure harmonies of God’s glory.
But God cannot be glorified by anything that violates the order established by His wisdom. This order demands that man’s body, and all that his body uses, be in subjection to his soul, and that man’s soul be subject to God. Now this order is absolutely impossible, in our present state, without the generous and even severe practice of mortification. This order has been turned completely upside down by sin. The man who is outside the orbit of God’s grace is not normally governed by reason but by passion. The mere possession of grace does not entirely deliver us from this state. It only puts in our hands the weapons by which we must win our freedom, helped by the power of God, through the merits of Christ’s Cross, in His Holy Spirit. But the power of Calvary cannot avail in a life that does not in some measure enter into the mystery of Christ’s Passion and death and Resurrection. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matt. 16:24). “They that are Christ’s have crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences. ” (Galatians 5:24).
Thomas Merton
Seasons of Celebration, p. 110
