Louisville Process Theology Network

Thomas Merton's Vision of Oneness

Dec 01, 2009

From ?“Thomas Merton?’s Paradise Journey?” by William H. Shannon, Page 56:


?“In his discourse at the Last Supper, Christ prayed that all might become one with the oneness he has with the Father in the Holy Spirit. When we achieve our true identity and become what God really intends us to be, we will discover that we love one another perfectly and that we all form the one mystical Person that is Christ living in us.

There is something incomplete about contemplation if it is not shared. That is why heaven, where the ultimate perfection of contemplation will be achieved, will not be the place of separate individuals, each with his own private vision of God; rather, it will be a sea of love flowing through the one Person of all the elect.

This sea of love in which we find our oneness with all is the life of the Persons of God. In God there is no selfishness or isolation. ?‘The Three Selves of God are Three subsistent relations of selflessness, overflowing and supra-bounding in joy in the perfection of their Gift of their One Life to One another.?’

This ?‘circulation of love?’ in God ?‘never finds a self that is capable of halting and absorbing it, but only another principle of communication and return.?’ Our joy and our destiny are to participate in this love, so that we can live entirely in and for God and one another.

Contemplation in this life is meant to reflect its heavenly counterpart. Even here on earth, ?‘the more we are alone with God the more we are united with one another; and the silence of contemplation is deep and rich and endless society, not only with God but with men.?’



Page 43: ?‘God?’s love is like a river springing up in the depths of the Divine Substance and flowing endlessly through His creation, filling all things with life and goodness and strength.?’



To continued in the next post.