Into The Misty

"The reason why men are so anxious to see themselves, instead of being content to be themselves, is that they do not really believe in their own existance." -Thomas Merton

God save us if this is even remotely true. Well I'm reading Merton again. He always makes me misty.
To question my existance creates a crisis of faith. How can one's existance be separated from the reality of the Holy One? Is not our being from him and in him? This is an old philosophical question which even St. Paul explored to some extent in Acts 17 in regards to our accountability to the Creator. A Creator who had stepped into history, felt the sting of death, faced the horror of the grave and burst forth in exquisite splendor on the third day. At least that's the way the story goes. Yes, a crisis of faith.

It begs the question of prophetic dependance/necessity. This is the Devil's doing I tell you. If I were a heretic I would say that God and the devil were in collusion. Perhaps this is the chink in the armor of the prophet. Was not Moses devestated when Pharoah did not listen to him? To make matters worse he beligerantly asked, "Who is the Lord?" What do you mean you don't know who God is? Everybody knows God, right? Everybody listens to God, right? Whatever. Damn the corruption of it all. The prophet is damned if he becomes dependent upon the one's (whoever they are) hearing. He has lost his focus, for he caresses the masses and ceases to preach to an audience of One. He is a puppet on a string, a lap dog, the "power's that be" whipping dog (I should have entitled this post: Tied to the Whipping Post, someday).

Is there any hope for the contemporary prophet whose audience is composed of consumers? He must deliver the right product in a seductive presentation. Damned, Damned; the prophet can not live in this world. As Tolkein's elves abandoned Middle Earth and sailed into the West, has the last prophet caught the last train for the coast? It is the end of an era, a new dispensation has dawned and a new age has been spawned out of the belly of the Harlot and we are her slaves.

Prophetic necessity's only salvation is in being lost to oneself. Are these not the echoes of the Christ? "He who loses his life shall save it." But for what? There is no "what." Banish the thought. There is only "WHO." And that is enough. If he is not, then none of this is real and I do not exist. It is all a grand illusion and my faith is in vain. I am vain. Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher. In HIM alone do we find that Person/Place of existance in contentment. Only in Him do these two elusive entities meet. Without Him they are lost to us, our cause is lost like the setting sun upon the twiseted spectacle of some ancient battlefield..... we are lost. All that is left is the carnage and the carrion. Into the misty and the crisis of faith. Sola Fide? -WHB