i am spending this week with my favorite contemplative, thomas merton. with some of what dean & don have shared lately i was draw to a writing of merton's that has only just now been published. "peace in the post-christian era" was written as a response to the nuclear war build-up & the cold war in the early 60's. this series of articles was not published in mass, because the head abbot of the trappist monks at that time felt it was taking away from the work of the monk. monks are not to meddle with politics as that is something 'of this world' and not part of a holy vocation. still, merton felt an intense need to have the book circulated so it was done in a more grassroots publication. the parallels between his writing of the buildup of war in the 60's and today is eerily similar. it's funny how history repeats itself. so i am inviting you to spend some time with my favorite contemplative as we struggle with peace, in a post-christian era.
[speaking of war]..how can we do this at at time when moral values have been to a great extent discarded as meaningless and when Christians themselves ignore or evade the compelling exigencies of Christian ethics in this matter? Unless it is possible to consider these urgent problems in a climate of tolerance, objectivity, restraint and respect for human rights, we will never come near solving them. And this climate of tolerance and justice will be frankly impossible where the atmosphere of Christian humanism and charity is lacking.
to begin with, it seems to me that first and foremost, we have so much wrong in our society that we cannot come to a clear understanding of why we have a level of fear that perpetuates our very souls. our understanding of neighbor and love are so convoluted that when we talk of peace and justice, humanitarianism, we, in most cases, have no idea what that really means. peace and justice is more about peace and justice for ourselves, humanitarianism is something that we do to make ourselves feel better, not because we are a Christian or a Christian state.
