The Subject of Faith

Today I picked up New Seeds of Contemplation again and read a chapter simply entitled "Faith." Merton, in his basic yet poetic prose, steers clear of the purely philosophical or even theological conversations. These words rang as a chord in me and I thought you should hear them...

"The beginning of contemplation is faith. If there is something essentially sick about your faith you will never be a contemplative . . . [Faith] is not a conviction based on rational analysis. You can only believe what you do not know. As soon as you know it, you no longer believe it, at least not in the same way as you know it. Faith is first of all an intellectual assent. It perfects the mind, it does not destroy it. It puts the intellect in possession of Truth which reason cannot grasp by itself. It gives certitude concerning God as He is in Himself; faith is the way to a vital contact with a God Who is alive, and not to the view of an abstract First Principle worked out by syllogisms from the evidence of created things . . . The statements which demand the assent of faith are simply neutral to reason. We have no natural evidence why they should be true or why they should be false. We assent to them because of something other than intrinsic evidence . . . The importance of formulas [theological beliefs] is not that they are ends in themselves, but that they are means through which God communicates His truth to us. They must be kept clear. They must be clear windows, so that they may not obscure and hinder the light that comes to us. They must not falsify God's truth. Therefore, we must make every effort to believe the right formulas. But we must not be so obsessed with verbal corretness that we never go beyond the words to the ineffable reality which they attempt to convey . . . But above all, faith is the opening of an inward eye, the eye of the heart, to be filled with the presence of the Divine Light. Ultimately, faith is the only key to the universe. The final meaning of human existence, and the answers to questions on which all our happiness depends cannot be reached in any other way."

I dont think I have anything else to say, as all of it would seem watered-down after that lengthy quote. Any and all comments welcome, of course.