Thomas Merton

I have been mentally revisiting earlier period of my life because of the social upheaval  of the U.S.  in the past year.  So much of the current social landscape reminds me of the sixties. At age 69, it has the same feel of violence, discord from the people in power to the public at large, the marginalize groups of people that are left without much hope and lastly, the facts that media forgets to ask the questions or act with a standard of integrity.

I saw a film version of the life of Thomas Merton, a writer of those times.  It was from Netflix and I found it open up my curiosity again about this man's writings.  Our great library system has very little of his material but the two books that they do have I have been reading.  Thomas Merton is a perfect man to read during these days of confusion and difficulty because of his clearly written thoughts during the sixties about the government and the church. 

A biography by Monica Furlong published in 1980 does justice to the struggle of Merton during his years as a monk.  It explores his writings, his thinking about world peace and civil rights,  the changes of Vatican II, his health issues, his need to live alone in a hermitage, his search for spiritual growth in other beliefs and finial his personal emotional struggles. 

What I find so remarkable is his search for truth.  Merton links truth with courage often in his writings.  He firmly believed institutions and establishments are more interested in survival that in these principles.  During a period of the Vietnam War he was told by the Abbot to stop writing on the subject because the government was labelling him a communism.  He was silenced.  Merton wrote of the changes needed for the church and the unrest that was coming.  His voice was not considered welcomed on the issues.  Yet, he continued to correspond with writers around the world and he realized that, in time, all of his thoughts would be published in books or articles for all to read.  Merton suggests that search for the truth with courage is often not successful but that it is the only thing we are to do if we are search for the God with in us.  More than being a monk, he was a writer.  More than being depressed about the state of the world, he was joyful.

His words are so thoughtful and beautifully crafted that it is a pleasure to read.  I have only heard a few lines of his poems but I will search in the next year in used books stores for them to own and enjoy them.