It took a year to read the Bible, then almost 9 months to read the Apocrypha. Now, I'm going to try to offer reflections on the Narrative Lectionary. But, I won't be posting daily--at least, for a while.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

On Reading the Daily News, Comments by Merton

Some time ago, I advised: If you don't already own Watch for the Light, get a copy immediately.

I'm repeating that advice today because I just read Thomas Merton's essay, The Time of No Room.

About pessimism, he asks:
Is it pessimism to diagnose cancer as cancer? Or should one simply go on pretending that everything is getting better every day, because the time of the end is also--for some at any rate--the time of great prosperity? "The kings of the earth have joined in her idolatry, and the traders of the earth have grown rich from their excessive luxury" (Revelation 18:3).
Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ has come uninvited. But because he cannot be at home in it because he is out of place in it, and must be in it--his place is with those others who do not belong, who are rejected because they are regarded as weak; and whit those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, and are tortured, eterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in the world.

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