I’m about halfway through the first part of Thomas Merton’s autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain and it’s been a wonderful read so far. Merton’s eloquent and intensely reflective writing style gives me the impression that sitting down for supper with the man would be a remarkable and insightful experience. From the vast array of anecdotes recounting the details of his pre-monastic life spent all over the world, to his incredible and now-famous journey of faith to the Church and a Trappist monastery, every moment of Merton’s life shows what it means to be fully human and a son of God.
These days, it’s hard to hear about people like him anymore. The Christian lifestyle has been trivialized and politicized so much by the media that the organic and human element – and indeed, the spiritual element which prompts it – is kept hidden from the public eye. This has led many to question the role religion plays in their daily and public life.
In an especially intense moment in the book (one of many so far), Merton sheds some light on the role of Catholicism in family life. Writing from the standpoint of Merton the convert and Trappist monk, he argues that a life without the Faith and the lifestyle which naturally flows from it leads one on a road of peril and unhappiness. For Merton, to be fully Christian is to allow the Christian identity to permeate every aspects of one’s life. In this particular section he draws attention to the role of Catholic education in families and the spiritual riches which are derived from it:
…I am overwhelmed at the thought of the tremendous weight of moral responsibility that Catholic parents accumulate upon their shoulders by not sending their children to Catholic schools. Those who are not of the Church have no understanding of this. They cannot be expected to. As far as they can see, all this insistence on Catholic schools is only a moneymaking device by which the Church is trying to increase its domination over the minds of men and its own temporal prosperity. And of course most non-Catholics imagine that the Church is immensely rich, and that all Catholic institutions make money hand over fist, and that all the money is stored away somewhere to buy gold and silver dishes for the Pope and cigars for the College of Cardinals.
Is it any wonder that there can be no peace in a world where everything possible is done to guarantee that the youth of every nation will grow up absolutely without moral and religious discipline, and without the shadow of an interior life, or of that spirituality and charity and faith which alone can safeguard the treaties and agreements made by governments?
And Catholics, thousands of Catholics everywhere, have the consummate audacity to weep and complain because God does not hear their prayers for peace, when they have neglected not only His will, but the ordinary dictates of natural reason and prudence, and let their children grow up according to the standards of a civilization of hyenas.
While I don’t tend to describe the less-than-perfect state of the world and of the Church with such absolute terms (hyenas, really?), what Merton is describing in this section of his memoir is the necessary intersection of faith and living. It is at this crossroad, where life surrenders completely to the promptings of the Spirit, that the Christian finds himself at his best and truest self. Faith must be lived – unapologetically, devoutly, and passionately – or else it means nothing. Period.
With regard to education, I didn’t have the good fortune (or bad fortune, I guess, depending on the location) of attending Catholic schools before I came to Notre Dame, but I don’t think I allowed myself to be brainwashed by the ‘civilization of hyenas’ and her misguided values, either. While this is no place to tell my conversion story (such stories are best shared over a big cup of coffee and a long jazz record), I wonder, too, if not being in Catholic schools was a necessary precursor to my re-version to the Faith. I would like to think that my time in public schools helped me to appreciate the diversity of peoples’ experiences with God and to respect the different places people find themselves on their journey of faith. I may not have studied Augustine or the Catechism in the classroom, but I did gain much of the spirituality and charity of which Merton speaks.
While reading this part of the book, I remembered a story I had heard from my parish youth minister back in Washington. She was sharing with me the countless conversion stories she had heard – and whose events she had witnessed firsthand – while leading retreats for the youth of the parish. One day, a certain teenager, upon realizing the downward spiral that her current lifestyle was taking, abruptly came to a startling conclusion: “I get it!” she exclaimed. “You have to live your faith, not just know it!”
I am convinced that the witness of faithful Catholics from every walk of life – parents, clergy, teachers, doctors, writers – is what will ultimately win the world for Christ. A former Jesuit Superior General, upon being asked about ways in which vocations could be increased in the Society replied, “Live your vocation joyfully.” A vocation embraced and lived will naturally exude the love of Christ on those who are near the one who possesses such peace in his life. This is not to say that a Catholic education or CCD (if it exists anymore!) does not have its value. On the contrary, I am extremely grateful for the Catholic intellectual, spiritual, and cultural tradition of my university. The living witness, the living faith found in the lives of God’s children, though, is a priceless treasure for the Church in these troubled times.
As my pastor says, It’s all gift. As faithful sons of the Church, we must do what we can with what we have, and thank God for what we’ve been given. Mass attendance might be down, vocations may be scarce, Catholic schools may be few and far between, but everyone in the Church is given the opportunity – the divine command, in fact – to live an authentic Christian life for God. By embracing our faith and living it out at all costs, daily, and with burning love, we will know and show what it means to be true humans and heirs of Christ, in this world but not of this world.
