My challenge is inspired by Thomas Merton. In his address to Congress, Pope Francis called Merton one of the four great Americans along with Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Dorothy Day. Merton is one the most significant spiritual figures of the last century having resurrected the contemplative tradition that had been lost to the Western World for over five centuries.
On March 18, 1958, on the corner of Fourth and Walnut (now Fourth and Muhammad Ali), Merton had a transformative vision — an “epiphany.” An “epiphany” is a moment of sudden revelation of the divine—often in an ordinary event. Merton wrote that day:
“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race … there is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”
Paradoxically, Merton experienced this transformation when he was out of his everyday monastic life and was immersed in the hustle and bustle of what is now Fourth Street Live. Merton realized:
“I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their 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 of the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed …”
It has been said that Merton’s Louisville epiphany set the agenda for the remainder of his life as he wrote about the major issues facing humanity, including racism, religious diversity, war and ecology. Merton, it could be argued, lived the rest of his life from this cellular knowing that we all share a spark of the divine—everyone one of us!
How do we know when we have experienced a transformational moment? You will likely know you have experienced an epiphany if you weep, if you feel joy and lightness or if you see a profound beauty in the everyday—a profound beauty that you know to the depths of your being. An epiphany is an experience of your deepest you. Merton, after all, reminds us who we really are. Our true self, underneath all of the pain and suffering and apparent darkness of our world, is compassion. Each one of us has that spark of the divine. So what we need now, more than ever, is to remember who we are. This is life’s highest calling: not to make money, or pursue pleasure, or become famous, but to discover the spark of the divine that lives within.
It was no accident that Merton had his epiphany in Louisville. Merton didn’t see just anyone. He saw the people of Louisville, Kentucky — the city that has the audacity to dare to be a city of compassion and the only city on the planet with a historic marker for a mystical revelation. Anything is possible here. So to honor Merton and the 60th anniversary of his epiphany, we welcome you to share your epiphany. Those who share their epiphany (or those who ask) will receive epiphany stories of others who are willing to share.
If enough of us are transformed and live from that spark of the divine, we will, one day, realize that we are part of one holy and fully human family. When we all experience this reality, we will discover that the divinity within is one and the same divinity that lives in all — all beings and all of life. At the deepest, foundational level, we will know, like Merton knew, that we are “already one.”
Through the end of May 2018, share your epiphany stories at mertonepiphany@gmail.com.
Tom Williams is a member of Holy Trinity Church. He led the legislative effort to name the corner of Fourth and Muhammad Ali in downtown Louisville “Thomas Merton Square” in honor of Merton’s epiphany.
