The Gate of Heaven

On one the 20th century’s most famous monks was not found in an ancient European monastery, but in Kentucky. In 1943*, Thomas Merton decided that his life in the modern world was pointless, so he gave it up to become a monk right in the heart of America. He expected to become totally anonymous. But his superiors recognized that he had a gift for writing. His book, The Seven Story Mountain described his growing disillusionment with the egotism and selfishness of modern life, which led him to the monastery. It became a bit hit, and he became a counter cultural author who was widely read in the 1950s and 60s. Yet, his views of the modern world softened. He had a profound experience of deep love of all the people around him one day while he was on the street in Louisville running an errand. He saw how beautiful people are, in all their flaws. He saw the God within them:

“Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts were neither sin nor desire nor self knowledge can reach, the core of the reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed… I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other. But this cannot be seen, only believed and "understood" via a peculiar gift.

… At the centre of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusions, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our minds, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is, so to speak, his name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence, as our Sonship. It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of Heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see a billion points of life coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely… The gate of heaven is everywhere.”

Merton came to see that there is a bit of God deep within all of us. It lies below all the trappings of identity we accrue over our lifetime - mother, father, worker, sports fan, sinner, whatever. We have an inner holiness that God put there which is immune to everything that happens to us. Some call it the soul. This deep connection to the divine led Merton to study Zen Buddhism from afar, and then, in 1968, he went to Thailand to visit. He died in his hotel room while attending a conference. His books are still considered precious modern guides to the mystical view of life. Peace. 

-Rev. Stephen Milton, Lawrence Park Community Church, Toronto

Quotation source: Thomas Merton in Modern Spiritual Masters: Writings on Contemplation and Compassion, ed. Robert Ellsberg, ( New York, 2008), p. 17. 

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