Last week, I spent my annual retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. I thought that would be a good opportunity to read one of the greatest Christian spiritual classics, Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain, since Merton was a Trappist monk of Gethsemani. His spiritual autobiography details his conversion to Christianity through the 1920s and 1930s as well as what led him to join the monastery, which he did in 1941. It was a great read - truly living up in my mind to its designation as a classic.
One line in particular jumped out at me and seems to be characteristically Merton and thoroughly Christian. Toward the end of the book, as he is joining the monastery, he says: "No man goes to heaven all by himself, alone." This great line sums up much of what it means to be a Christian, for we cannot be a Christian in isolation. Even God Himself is not a one, but a three-in-one, a community of persons. So too, we cannot expect to attain salvation on our own - we need the support of other people (the Church), the guidance of Scripture and the holy men and women of our past (the saints) and the challenge of those around us today (our family, friends, and even strangers and enemies). And when we think of heaven, we can't think that it is a place where we will be sitting by ourselves with God - heaven, like earth, is a community of people, caught up in the presence of God as a communion of saints.
In these days of Lenten journey, this is also a good reminder that we do not walk the path of Lent - the prayer, fasting, and almsgiving of reflection and renewal - by ourselves. Many others are walking with us, and we pray that our individual and communal preparations for Easter may bear fruit as a people - the People of God.
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