If you have never heard Thomas Merton, the great Christian Contemplative, speak please listen to the lecture below. He is a brilliant man, with incredible insight...
The talk is about man's true vocation, namely to Love. He suggests that love is at the center of our being, and that man is happiest when he allows this love to express itself naturally. In the talk he says that the power of love is so strong in man that he can not help but love. The only question is whether we can love according to nature, or will this love be dominated by fear...
A love dominated by fear and expectation, according to Merton is, "to twist them(others)to fit our own image." This is a selfish love because from this point of view we "love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them." True love or "the beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves."
Merton believed that a natural love would heal the world; "Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy if anything can."
