I am continually amazed by the wealth of wisdom we have to draw from.
I even find myself getting frustrated by the lack of time to study and read.
At times I wish for a monastic or at least academic life that may afford me
more time to dive into the writing of those that paved the way for us in
Human Rights, Peace Movements, Social Justice and Spirituality.
Many of you may already be familiar with Thomas Merton but I admit I was
only introduced to his life and writings last night.
My sister(a true academic) invited me to come with her to see Jim Forest
speak for free at the Vancouver Public Library and I was blessed to be able
to accept the invitation. Just happened to be in town working this week.
Now just a little history for you. Jim Forest is an Author, Activist from the Orthodox persuasion and has recently shed some light on the concept of confession within the Christian context for me. My sister has read even more of his work since her recent conversion to the Orthodox
tradition. I will save that topic for another blog.
So anyways, we were both surprised last night when we realized that Jim Forest was there to speak about Thomas Merton and not about his own writing.
See it turns out that while Jim was working with Dorothy Day (another amazing human being that deserves a thousand blogs) he was personally introduced to this Monk from a Kentucky monastery that was the voice of the pacifist peace movement, Thomas Merton (31 January 1915 – 10 December 1968) A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, in of Kentucky, Merton was a poet, a social activist, a student of comparative religion as well as the author of numerous works on spirituality. He wrote more than 60 books, scores of essays and reviews, and is the subject of several biographies. Merton was a keen proponent of inter-religious understanding, engaging in spiritual dialogues with the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh and D.T. Suzuki..
As Jim told his story I found myself lusting after a more asetic lifestyle just so I could read more Merton. I will make an effort now to read Merton and hopefully write more about him in the future. For now I will leave you with this.
Merton seemed to believe as many great spiritual leaders do, that there was room in one's life for anger. The key is in how the anger is expressed. It is okay to be angry about injustice as long as we are careful not to become self-righteous with this anger.
The anger should motivate us to act and be the change but do it with compassion for our enemy. Recognize that in order to inspire love one must act by showing love so that everyone sees the benefit of the act of love.
Merton also believed that we should not act against injustice with an expectation of results. This is extremely challenging. We live in a culture of instant gratification in every aspect of life. What a radical counter cultural paradigm! To act with the knowledge that we may not ever see the fruits of our labor and to press on with the knowledge that we are acting for justice and must press on so that Justice has a chance to come at some time in the future.
Merton died in Bangkok in a tragic accident. He was there speaking about peace. He devoted his life to Peace. He practiced loving his enemies. His body traveled home with the
bodies of soldiers. Strangely it seems tragically fitting.
An inspiration for us to really live what we believe even if at times it seems fruitless. Change will come as long as we all keep struggling for truth and justice in our own lives.
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