I must confess, when Father Martin asked me the other day to speak to you at 11 o'clock on Holy Saturday, I began chewing my nails and then looking up in the attic of my, I'm going to say, the mental, the brain attic, you know, for antiquities, you know, to undust them and present them to you in that way. But then, while doing that, I thought now maybe it's more economic You know, to talk to you about a thing which is uppermost in my mind in these days, and that is Thomas Merton.

[01:07]

I'm condemned to appear in Fordham University before all the intellectual brass of an elite society. to speak about Thomas Merton and the spirit of monasticism as it is revealed in the writings of Thomas Merton. That's supposed to take place on this coming Tuesday, so you better pray for me. But then, you know, thinking about this kind of economic way of doing it. I came across a word in Holy Scripture of our Lord. He says, but I say unto you, every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give accounts thereof in the day of judgment.

[02:15]

For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned. Now, my dear friends, Holy Saturday is a day of silence. As you know, it's not the idle silence. It is not the empty silence. I mean the silence of boredom. It is the full silence. It's the silence of the abyss out of which the world is born. I mean by that the silence of the Father. So I thought now on this day this is a providential word directed to me. Then I continued reading and there I heard this.

[03:20]

Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered saying, Master we would like to see a sign from you. But he answered and said unto them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there shall be no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, So shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonas. And behold, a greater than Jonas is here. You see, here I really found the solution of my dilemma in simply putting before you the word which shall be Thomas Merton, the monk of the sign of Jonas.

[04:41]

Just listen what he says in a prologue to his book, The Sign of Jonas. He says the sign Jesus promised to the generation that did not understand him was the sign of Jonas the prophet. That is the sign of his own resurrection. The life of every monk, of every priest, of every Christian is signed with the sign of Jonas. because we all live by the power of Christ's resurrection. But I feel that my own life is especially sealed with this great sign, which baptism and monastic profession and priestly ordination have burnt into the roots of my being.

[05:46]

because like Jonas himself I find myself traveling towards my destiny in the belly of a paradox now the belly of the paradox we know the whale is the abbey of Gethsemane which at the time when Thomas Merton wrote this had grown into an enormous institution of about 300 monks. The paradox is that this city of monks had five or six years before sought out by Thomas Merton as a haven of refuge, as the place where he would, as he says, disappear and become a no-one in order to find solitude and peace in the cloud of the unknown.

[06:58]

And this, he was convinced, was the way in which he would find God. You see, he had set out like Jonas to flee from the big city and all its perdition. And in the course of his journey, he finds himself traveling in reality in the opposite direction. I mean toward Nineveh. Swallowed up by the solemn vow of stability and of obedience. In the kind of monolithic monastic society which is on the way from the unknown to renown. Now I would like to just give you a few kind of sketchy remarks, you know, just to, in the attempt to give visibility to the sign of Jonas.

[08:11]

in the life of Thomas Merton. And the first thing I wanted to call your attention to is that Thomas Merton grew up, as himself said, I grew up in dormitories. Now, my dear friends, it's evident why I mention this. This is the part of the belly of the whale. The dormitories are the belly where so many of our young people find themselves sleeping, the sleep of the number in a depersonalized mass society. And many of them never get over it. It stays with them for the rest of their lives in the form of some deep resentment. In another remark, Thomas Merton was 15 years old when he began to wake up and realize where he was, and then deliberately began to cultivate his talent for satire and other forms of social attack.

[09:30]

He says, from the first moment when I discovered that one was not only allowed to make fun of English middle-class notions and ideals, but was encouraged to do so in that bright little drawing room where we balanced coffee cups on our knees, I was very happy. Remember, you know, this was in Cambridge, in England. Now again, it's evident the whale this time is the, we call the bourgeoisie. We could say the Victorian society. Then remember, it is only about 70 years ago that the top of that society, which gave it its name, Queen Victoria, played the role of an empress of India.

[10:34]

sitting on the throne of the company of East India. Just imagine. We have to let that sink in. Just to experience what a whale of society it was. Really, the very essence of phoniness. And that's, of course, Queen Victoria on the white elephant. Now, another remark. See, it's only sketchy. Then came the secular city, you know, for Thomas Merton. It was New York, another whale. He describes that kind of society in this way. An unhealthy social system both exacerbates man's fear of boredom and exploits it.

[11:41]

The modern American is kept in terror of boredom and unfulfillment because he is constantly being reminded of their imminence in order that he may be induced to do something that will exorcise him for the next half hour. then the terror will rise up again. And he will have to buy something else, or turn another switch, or open another bottle, or swallow another pill, or stick himself with a needle in order to keep from collapsing. But you know the behind this theme, the important, let us say, the vital issue is reached, you know, if you listen to another little quotation by him.

[12:44]

And that's this, society has a way of enlarging its demands to the point where it arrogates to itself complete power over everyone and everything. It tells you, in effect, not only do you need the love of other people, but you need to be completely enslaved and dominated by other people. You need not only to be in rapport with others, you need to be swallowed up by them. The whale theme. But this time the whale is the world, in quotation marks. Certainly not the world as God has created it, but the world that man has made.

[13:46]

We also call it at times the Tower of Babel. You see, this is important because here the point of no surrender has been reached by Thomas Merton. See, because here then the essential point is being touched upon, I would say the question of the self, we also call it the question of authenticity, or we speak of personal identity. You see, there where it is clearly seen that this whale of phoniness, you know, of depersonalizing mass society has really and truly, looking at them in a realistic way, totalitarian tendencies, then of course the rebel is born.

[14:48]

in a man of such irrepressible vitality as Thomas Merton said. A boy in the best sense of that word. His abbot, I mean Dom Fabian, said in the sermon he gave at his two If this boy had grown to be a hundred years old, he would still be a boy. But you see, in Thomas Merton's case also, this point of no surrender had been reached also, I think, by the fact that the one person he had loved in his life, in the very depth of his heart, in this what Holy Scripture calls the viscera misericordiae, the bowels of mercy, was his younger brother.

[15:59]

And he fell a victim of the war. So you can see there really was a vital threat of a society, let us call it a technical world, with all its inescapable tyranny, or as Thomas Merton says, this affluent marketing society, which at the same time generates unrealistic expectations and superficial optimism, overlaying an undercurrent of suspicion, compounded of self-doubt, inferiority feelings, resentment, cynicism, and despair. while at the same time man is not only expected but practically forced to sell himself and put himself across by flashing a favorable image of himself as efficiency and at least potential success incarnate.

[17:18]

So you see there is really, at least was, you know, for him, no other possibility but renouncing this society. But now I would say let us never forget the all-important fact that this Thomas Merton, the rebel, while he was breathing threats and slaughter against this modern mass society, experienced his Damascus where suddenly there shone round about him a light from heaven and he fell to the earth and he heard the voice of the risen Christ. There was this, one can say, primordial experience of falling into the arms of God's infinite mercy.

[18:21]

And it is this experience, which is his liberation, born out of the belly of the whale, spit out as it were, in the power of the Lord's resurrection, finding his deepest inner personal identity, his self, There, where he finds himself identified with the grace of God, with that absolute love that seeketh not her own, that dies for us, for him, Thomas Merton, at this moment, under these circumstances, That's the experience which from then on determines Thomas Merton's entire life as a Christian, a monk, a priest.

[19:29]

And that was his crossing the Jordan. As he says, the monastery is a place in which I disappear from the world as an object of interest, in order to be everywhere in it by hiddenness and compassion. You see why this primordial experience of the Father's love for him, Thomas Milton, in Jesus Christ, why this drew him, this irresistible force into one can say into solitude, into solitude. At the same time, because the solitude, the call into solitude was uttered by the voice of the one who loves us unto the end and who loves the world, the world unto the end.

[20:44]

That, of course, accounts for the fact that his vocation to solitude, this call to solitude, was always in the context of the whole of God's plan of salvation, in the context of the whole of mankind. Therefore, as he used to put it, it was never a narcissistic snuggling up into the tepid womb of oceanic feelings. I'll let him speak again. He says, the real solitary life is anything but lonely. The life of Christian solitude is before all else a life of special love, that means of God's love for man in Christ.

[21:58]

The solitary life of the Christian hermit is not simply a life in which one thinks about the good, but it is a life of total response to it. I have experienced, he says, the goodness of God to me in Christ in such a way that I have no alternative but this total response, this gift of myself to a life with God in the forest. And this witness is at the same time the purest act of love for other men. He asked, is the hermit's life self-centered? Some will say, sure. Why shouldn't the hermit's life be happy? He lives in his own little world.

[23:04]

He is content because he is the sole possessor of a universe. Thomas Merton continues and he says, the most incredible about this statement is that anyone could accept it as a viable formula for happiness. The only possible answer is, if you think one can be happy by doing that, why don't you just try it? As he continues, a loveless life is essentially and necessarily not only frustrated but self-destructive. Therefore, my dear friends, solitude to Thomas Merton is a mystery.

[24:13]

By that we mean it is the presence of the love of the Father in Christ Jesus, in the heart, in the depth of the soul, in silence, in dread, not to forget, in absolute submission and surrender. And this is the inner heart of monasticism for Thomas Merton. And with this standard, let us say, everything else has to be judged through confrontation, one can say, with this central reality of the Father's love for us in Christ Jesus. Here is the place of liberty, here is the place of the person as person, of man as man. And this therefore, because this is part, an integral part, of God's saving love for all of mankind,

[25:28]

Therefore, it is the solitary person, as he says, who does mankind the inestimable favor of reminding it of its true capacity for maturity, liberty, and peace. The monk is a man living on the margin of society with a view of deepening fundamental human experience. Let us present our spirit naked to God. You see, from this point, you know, also, his monastic life becomes a witness. He says to adopt a life that is essentially non-assertive, non-violent, a life of humility and peace is in itself a statement of one's position.

[26:44]

It is my intention to make my entire life a rejection of, a protest against the crimes and injustices of war and political tyranny. So you see, solitude for Thomas Merton is not this kind of self-preoccupied struggle for perfection. In this context, many things, you know, could be said, you know, but time, as usually, is just flying from us. But you see right away that here is the inner center from which, one could say, Thomas Merton's life as a monk

[27:56]

cannot be separated from a prophetic mission, from the prophet. Here it addresses itself, in fact, you know, to the world in deep compassion, not this kind of condescending kind of thing. from a kind of summit of perfection to look down at the poor people that struggle in the daily dust of a workaday life. But it is addressed, and I would say in a very extremely constructive way, to the whole of the world.

[29:02]

He says the contemplative life is unfortunately too often thought of in terms purely of enclosure. And monks are conceived of as hothouse plans. evokes a lively response, nursed along in carefully protected and spiritually overheated life of prayer. But let us remember that the contemplative life is first of all life. And life implies openness, growth, development, to constrict the contemplative monk to one set of narrow horizons and esoteric concerns would be in fact could condemn him to spiritual and intellectual sterility.

[30:11]

So contemplative life cannot possibly conceived of There's absence from the world. An absence from the world which would be a part of a generally competitive picture. We are better, we are pure, we have to keep undefiled. Alienation from the world. through preconceived patterns, contemplative patterns, contemplative images, what the contemplative should look like. Here we touch upon, which to my mind is the deepest secret in the life and the death of Thomas Merton. And let me say, too, in parenthesis, that in this whole context, life can only be understood in its depth if it is confronted with death.

[31:24]

You know Thomas Merton had on the ordination card, which he indicated and announced and remembered his ordination as a priest, The word from Genesis and Enoch walked with God and God took him and he was seen no more. These words are explained by him in this way. One must go out and seek God according to the demands of the divine truth, mercy, and fidelity, so that you may become the brother of God and to know the Christ of the burnt man.

[32:37]

You remember that his life ended just this way. He spoke in Bangkok, one can say to the monastic world of the East and of the West. In fact, to the world, to mankind. He spoke, he put his manuscript aside. He said, you can read this later. And then he just, how will you say, now he just became purely a prophet, purely speaking as God's mouthpiece out of the inspiration of the moment. And when he was through with it, he rose and he said, now I hear that tonight We get together again for a panel discussion and I have to prepare myself for this so I'm sure you won't mind if I now disappear.

[33:58]

And then he went into his room and then later on he was found, his body charred, burned. within his hand clutched, you know, this fan, faulty wire, the electric shock, it's how it killed. These things, I think, add to the visibility of the sign of Jonas, right, in the context of our living here together, see, and experiencing these things together. The word of Christ in this sign of Jonas, Thomas Merton, a monk, an American, post Vatican II, I would say a saint.

[35:03]

I would say it should be a deep inner concern for all of us in this church of these United States. If it is God's will, maybe that we should have an American saint of post-Vatican II era. But I wanted, you know, to add, you know, still, of course, absolutely unending perspectives, you know, open up here. And it is impossible to spell out to you in any kind of sufficient way what this prophetic spirit in Thomas Merton means, for example, for the inner reinterpretation and living of the contemplative life, not as a hothouse life, or, for example, for the life of prayer.

[36:21]

It's in all these things that here and now of the presence of God's absolute mercy that judges and in some deep way clarifies, gives light to everything. Just for example on prayer, I just throw these things out. He says, I believe that what we want to do is to pray. After all, why did any one of us become religious if we didn't want to pray? What do we want if not to pray? Okay, now pray. And this is the whole doctrine of prayer in the rule of Saint Benedict. It's all summed up in one phrase, if a man wants to pray, let him go and pray.

[37:35]

It's absolutely true. This is all that Saint Benedict thinks it is necessary to say about the subject. He doesn't say let us go and start with a little introductory prayer. If you want to pray, pray. It's a risky thing to pray. And the danger is that our very prayers, here comes the prophet, get between God and us. The great thing in prayer is not to pray. See, that's the paradox. But to go directly to God. If saying your prayers is an obstacle to prayer, cut it out. Let Jesus pray. Thank God Jesus is praying in us.

[38:40]

That's the mystery of the presence. Forget yourself. Enter into the prayer of Jesus. Let him pray in you. The best way to pray is stop. Let prayer pray within you, whether you know it or not. This means deep awareness of our true inner identity. It implies a life of faith, but also of doubt. And give up the business of suppressing doubt. It's the prophet again. Faith and doubt are the two sides of the same thing. Faith will go out of doubt, the real doubt. We don't pray right because we evade doubt. And we evade it by regularity or by activism.

[39:48]

It is in these two ways that we create a false identity. And these are also the two ways by which we justify the self-perpetuation of our institutions. But the point is that we need not justify ourselves, because by grace we are Christ. It's the voice of the institution. And we have to be obedient because we are now in the belly of the whale. I could go on and it may be interesting to go on but here we are and maybe not to continue

[40:54]

and to just go into the silence. It's just the thing that the Father wants us to do at this moment. Thank you.

[41:04]

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