The Light of Christ is the light you are!
The quotes from Thomas Merton’s book Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander that were used in today’s sermon are printed below for easy access. The remaining text of the sermon is not provided here, but the whole sermon can be heard on the audio file below. Click to listen or download.
In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream.
I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun….
Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed….
At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is so to speak His name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence, as our son-ship. It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely…. I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere.
The full section from which the above quotes were selected is made available through the link below.
Loved this sermon as I, too, love Merton. Actually, I went on a picnic with him years ago. My husband who taught at Berea College in Berea Ky, edited a journal on religion and social issues. Merton wrote for that journal a number of times. He invited my husband, my two children and me to come for a picnic sometime. We set the date, I fried up a couple of chickens, and we took a case of beer.
I’ve never seen anyone eat so much fried chicken and drink so much beer and be able to walk a straight line! But what impressed me was Merton’s persona – truly an authentic human being, full of laughter and joy.
I read Seven STory Mountain bef. going and told him I had done so, trying to impress him. He replied, “That’s one book I wish
I had never written.” I think he had already outgrown it and was embarrassed by it. Anyway, love all your homilies, open, flexible
creative and loving, just like Jesus!
Sorry Nancy for failing to acknowledge your two wonderful comments in July. They were deeply appreciated. And the Merton story is precious. Yes, he did move way beyond the Seven Story Mountain. His later books are a gold mine of wisdom and profound Christ-centered love. He was so open to every prompting of the Spirit. You are blessed to have had a personal experience with him. Please feel free to comment any time the spirit moves you! God bless you.