Saturday, April 02, 2016

Thomas Merton & Post-Christianity

Great blue heron in my backyard
Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk who never watched television and spent much of his time in the presence of God praying and listening. Because of his rigorous spiritual discipline, and his cognitive and creative giftedness, God spoke many things to him. People came to him from around the world seeking a word from God.
Consider this prescient Merton quote written decades ago.
"We on the contrary live in an irreligious post-Christian world in which the Christian message has been repeated over and over until it has come to seem empty of all intelligible content to those whose ears close to the word of God even before it is uttered.  In their minds Christianity is no longer identified with newness and change, but only with the static preservation of outworn structures.” (Merton, Peace in the Post-Christian Era, pp.127-28)
Behold, God makes all things new, right?