Blest are the single-hearted; for they shall see God. Blest are the peacemakers; they shall be called children of God. [Matt. 5:6-91
The opportunities for satisfying the hunger for holiness are immediately at hand if we are sensitive to the needs of others. Every now and then we are prompted to offer some kind of assistance at considerable cost to ourselves. This offer has to be appropriate to our state of life; at the same time, it challenges us to go beyond our routines and preconceptions, and to reach out to someone needing special care. This is the inspiration that leads to the beatitude of the merciful, which is to put into practice our contemplative vision.
The dialogue between our contemplative vision and how we incarnate it is the subject of the beatitude, “Blest are the single-hearted for they shall see God.” The single-hearted see God in themselves, in others and in the ordinary events of life. Jesus said, “The Son cannot do anything by himself – he can only do what he sees the Father doing.” Thus, he is always looking at the Father. What Jesus does is to translate his vision of the Father into his daily life and teaching and ultimately into his passion and death on the cross. This is an important point for our practice. Contemplative prayer is the place of encounter between the creative vision of transformation and the actual incarnation of that vision day by day. Practice is the translation of the creative vision into the concrete circumstances of each day.
It must be emphasized over and over that daily life is the fundamental practice. Hence, the incarnation of our vision – how we live it – is of supreme importance. If we are not available for daily encounter with God in contemplative prayer, the dynamic dialogue between the creative vision and its practical incarnation will be missing in our lives; or at least it will not pass through the intimate discerning experience of contemplative prayer. To bring both our activity and our vision together in vital dialogue is to perceive the right way of manifesting that vision today. Maybe it will be a little different tomorrow. We must not respond to Christ in a static way – with one set of resolutions or with the same set of tools all the time. Our practice has to be adjusted as we keep climbing the spiral ascent that the beatitudes describe. The eagle circles as it rises toward the sun. The same movement is present in the beatitudes. As we circle around the creative vision and see different aspects of it, our understanding is enhanced. In addition to circling on the horizontal plane as we negotiate the spiral ascent, we also perceive reality on the vertical plane from ever higher perspectives.
To emphasize only the contemplative vision is to risk stagnating in one’s spiritual evolution. To emphasize only its incarnation is to risk becoming drained, or even to lose the vision itself. Hence, the necessity of bringing the two together every day in confrontation and dialogue. Every day is a new unfolding of our life in Christ. Surprises are always happening. God reserves the right to intrude into our lives at a moment’s notice, sometimes turning them upside-down. It is essential to be flexible, adjustable, ready to tear up our plans and put them in the wastebasket at God’s request. Hence, both the contemplative vision and its incarnation are essential, and the place where they meet is contemplative prayer. This is the key to the preservation and growth of the creative vision as well as its appropriate incarnation on a day-to-day basis. This is what leads to purity of heart, which is freedom from the false-self system and hence, freedom to be at the disposal of God and those we serve.
The beatitude of the peacemakers reveals that the peacemaker is one who has established peace within oneself. Peace is not a naive simplicity, but the perfect harmony of immense complexity. It is the delicate balance between all the faculties of human nature totally subject to God’s will and transformed by divine love into a finely tuned instrument.
Peacemaking is the normal overflow of rootedness in Christ. Peacemakers are those who have the assurance of being the children of God. They are the ones who in a sense are God acting in the world. They pour into the world the being they have received from God, which is a share in his divine nature.
~Father Thomas Keating, The Mystery of Christ
