Thomas Merton says that at the centre of our being we have something like ‘a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven’.
By Roland Ashby
Love is stronger than death. That is the hope that Christians celebrate at Easter, in their belief that the Spirit of Christ lives on, and is present to each one of us, whether we are aware of it or not. And that this ‘Christ Consciousness’ or ‘Christ mind’ can be found at the centre of our being, particularly in times of prayer and meditation.
For Trappist monk Thomas Merton, this centre is “a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth ... which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. [It] is the pure glory of God in us ... It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven.”[1]
Benedictine monk John Main also described this centre beautifully when he wrote that it is in our hearts that Christ prays day and night. “I can describe it only as the stream of love that flows constantly between Jesus and his Father. This stream of love is the Holy Spirit.”[2]
St Paul also knew of this love, this presence of Christ within, when he wrote: “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5)
And Australian poet and mystic Noel Davis, in his poem Sometimes, captures something of how this profound Easter mystery can be experienced:
Sometimes
As we let our bodies
sink deeper and deeper
into the depths of our being
the healing Spirit
comes in the stirring of the waters
of our silence
or is felt as a gentle breeze
on the face of our hearts
or is heard by our hearts
calling us to take the step
that love invites and fear resists
or is tasted in the quiet
amid the bustle
of our days
or is savoured in our solitude
as we remember
a moment shared
or is heard in the yearning
of every cell of our being
for oneness with the Beloved[3]