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February 27, 2007
Tuesday is for Thomas
Merton pondered:
Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am. That i will never fulfill my obligation to surpass myself unless I first accept myself- and, if i accept myself fully in the right way, I will already have surpassed myself. For it is the unaccepted self that stands in my way- and will continue to do so as long as it is not accepted. When it has been accepted, it is my own stepping-stone to what is above me. Because this is the way man was made by God-and original sin was the effort to surpass oneself by being "like God," i.e., unlike oneself. But our God-likeness begins at home. We must become ourselves, and stop living "beside ourselves."
October 2, 1958
Posted by joshuacase at February 27, 2007 10:39 AM