The Deacon's Bench
December 10 looms large in the life story of Thomas Merton.
He entered the Abbey of Gethsemane in Kentucky on December 10, 1941, and died tragically in Thailand in an electrical accident on December 10, 1968—45 years ago today.
He was 53.
Considering the Incarnation, he once wrote words that seem fitting for Advent:
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 yet he must be in it, his place is with those others for whom there is no room.
His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, tortured, exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world.
Thank you, Fr. Louis. Thank you.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him…
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