What is the Ground of our Being? – A Reflection

When I look at the headlines… when I dig beneath the headlines in search of the truth… I see so much fear, anxiety, racism, and hate. This is especially disturbing when I see and hear people who say they are christians (lower case is intentional) support racism and hatred.

My Lord, in the midst of the call for TRUTH this is going on?! The effort to call systemic racism what it is and to call those out who support it is the moral impertative. In the midst of this all, somehow the love and justice of God in the mist of the so-called christian community is missing. The call of the prophet is LOUD! But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos 5:24

As I reflect on the turmoil in this nation and world I think of what Thomas Merton might say (along with Dr King and so many others).Merton said the following which is recorded in the posthumous release of his wrings Love and Living: Is it true to say that one goes into solitude to “get at the root of existence”? It would be better simply to say that in solitude one is at the root. He who is alone, and is conscious of what his solitude means, finds himself simply in the ground of life. He is “in Love.” He is in love with all, with everyone, with everything. He is not surprised at this, and he is able to live with this disconcerting and unexciting reality, which has no explanation. He lives, then, as a seed planted in the ground. As Christ said, the seed in the ground must die. To be as a seed in the ground of one’s very life is to dissolve in that ground in order to become fruitful. One disappears into Love, in order to “be Love.” (p. 20)

Dear reader, may we get to that root (Love) and may we be a part of the growth of the seeds of faith, hope, love, and justice.