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The Purpose of Discipline

I chafed under the admonitions of the Matthew 25 parable about the ten virgins waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom. Five of the virgins had their lamps trimmed and ready and five were not prepared. When the bridegroom arrived unexpectedly, the five who were not prepared were left out of the wedding celebration. I understood it is important to be ready, but considered the punishment too severe a penalty for a thoughtless failure.

"The need for discipline is the same need for watchfulness, for readiness, as in the parable. The ones who wait for the Lord must have oil in their lamps and the lamps must be trimmed." --Thomas Merton

I've heard this parable interpreted as a warning to be ready for the second coming of Christ many times, but Thomas Merton is proposing this is about more than waitful readiness. He is proposing it's just as much about the way we live our lives on a daily basis.

Discipline. Self-discipline.

Could it be possible I was resisting discipline when I was put off by the parable? I don't like discipline: I didn't like it as a child, didn't want it as a young adult, and I still don't like it even though my understanding of its necessity has greatly expanded through the years. A child who is not disciplined by parents/authority figures does not have the most basic skills needed in order to develop their own self-discipline. When we are deprived of this basis tool required to become a productive member of society, we are severely handicapped. Still, we are all held responsible for developing our ability to control our actions and our emotions. As I read about the increase in killings throughout our country last year, I wondered how many of the killers lacked basic self-control skills.

Now, as I strive to more fully embrace the spiritual aspects of my being, I begin to appreciate the depths of the meaning of discipline. It implies so much more than is apparent on the surface.

"The purpose of discipline is, however, to make us critically aware of the limitations of the very language of the spiritual life and of ideas about that life. If, on an elementary level, discipline makes us critical of sham values in social life (for example, it makes us realize experientially that happiness is not to be found in the usual rituals of consumption in an affluent society), on a higher level it reveals to us the limitations of formalistic and crude spiritual ideas. Discipline develops our critical insight and shows us the inadequacy of what we had previously accepted as valid in our religious and spiritual lives. It enables us to abandon and to discard as irrelevant certain kinds of experience which, in the past, meant a great deal to us. It makes us see that what previously served as real “inspiration” has now become a worn-out routine and that we must go on to something else. It gives us the courage to face the risk and the anguish of the break with our previous level of experience. It enables us, in the language of St. John of the Cross, to face the Dark Night in full awareness of our need to be stripped of what formerly gratified and helped us." --Thomas Merton. “Renewal and Discipline” in Contemplation in A World of Action

Jane Mullikin
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