On this day 56 years ago, in 1968, the renown Trappist Monk, Thomas Merton, died of a tragic accident near Bangkok while attending a conference. This prolific writer, poet, mystic and theologian was best known for his book “Seven Story Mountain”, which continues to be a best seller today. It’s the story of Merton’s own winding, uphill, spiritual path to Catholicism.
Not raised in any formal religion in his native France and orphaned by the time he was 16, Thomas Merton began to wander and search for meaning. As a young man he went to Rome where he drank excessively, then to London where he continued to drink and bum around rather than study at school. He eventually came to America where he attended Columbia University. It was there, through the influence of mentors and the inspiration of Catholic authors that Merton felt God calling him to convert to Catholicism, which he did in 1938.
This day, Dec. 10, is also the day Merton entered the Gethsemani Trappist Monastery in 1941 where he spent 27 years. There he contemplated and wrote about prayer and the signs of the time, especially racial justice, the non-violent peace movement of the 1960’s, and religious ecumenism.
When Pope Francis came to the States and gave his famous speech to Congress in 2015, he mentioned 4 notable American Catholics, Thomas Merton being one of them. He said:
"Merton was above all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church. He was also…a promoter of peace.”
In our gospel we heard about the one lost sheep. Thomas Merton was once that lost sheep, but through God’s grace and the influence of mentors who helped him find his way, he became one of the most influential spiritual writers and advocates for peace and justice in our time.
Perhaps this Advent, we can personally reach out to someone we know who is looking for meaning in life, or has strayed from the faith, and listen to them, invite them to Mass and even the Live Nativity Scene. As individuals and as a community, can we make that extra effort to be welcoming and hospitable to them? Someone made that difference in Thomas Merton’s life, and it not only changed his life, but we’ve been blessed by his remarkable life as well.
“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the stray?
And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it
than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.”
