A Recent Conversation with a Buried Thomas Merton

I don’t consider myself an impatient person, but wanting to have now all that God has to offer in love and justice is not a matter of impatience, but rather a matter of being certain and convinced that God intends, wills if you will, for each of us to know God’s fullness sooner rather than later. In other words, now.

I stood just the other day at Thomas Merton’s graveside at Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky (I was there for a week’s silent and self-directed retreat) and asked Merton what it was like now (since December 10, 1968 when he died) to be in constant and clear communication with God now that he’s six feet under. It was this communication, or better said, communion, that enlivened Merton when he was on this side of the grave, and what called him to the monastery in the first place. The answer I got right away was this: “it’s no different than it was before I died”! Now, realize, I did not hear Merton speaking to me. It’s just the answer I got. 

No different now than then? Really? I take this to mean that we do not have to wait for a fully realized relationship. It’s possible now. And, in fact, the fact that this is true is a key reason I am conflicted about actually showing up at a monastery for a retreat in the first place (this is my third visit to Gethsemani in the last 10 years) I know that withdrawal is not necessary for the fullness of God. Yes, the silence is golden and the Liturgy of the Hours sublime. But the fullness is here now, and in the busiest and noisiest places as well as the remote and quiet. It’s the incarnation of God, Jesus in and of Nazareth, that allows me to say this. God shows up in our life, no matter the place. And is here now.

Some other visitor to Merton’s gravesite had left a little stone memento enscribed with the words “on earth as it is in heaven.” I have always taken that portion of the prayer Jesus taught us to mean that the justice of God that is God’s heart and intention for us – the economic and social and political and environmental justice that is God – is not some otherworldly balance upon which we must wait. It’s for us now to engage and enact. But as I asked Merton the question about serenity with God and got that “it’s possible now” answer, the “on earth as it is in heaven” took on a fuller meaning.

So there you have it. Don’t wait around for the fullness. Jesus has arrived. Say hello.