Community and Nonviolence – Philip Berrigan

This group of emerging young scholars (Daggy Scholars) along with Brother Paul Quenon (who was a novice when Merton was the novice master), board members, and friends from the International Thomas Merton Society are an inspiration to me as we seek to build a better community and world founded on love, peace, justice, and compassion. I’ve been thinking a lot about our wonderful and inspiring gathering where new friendships were made and current friendships deepened as we gathered for our retreat this past June.

Currently I am reading Fighting the Lamb’s War: Skirmishes with the American Empire, the autobiography of priest and nonviolent activist Philip Berigan. As I continue to read and consider our ITMS community and the emerging scholars this quote seems to encompass what I believe we are all about as a society.

In community we are responsible for one another, which means that we are responsible for the human family. We are all responsible when others are abused, crushed, bombed, or starved. In community, we are responsible for our life together, for nourishing one another, for setting good examples, and for inspiring others. (p. 170)

The emerging scholars are more than simply “fresh blood” in the society. I believe that they will continue to challenge those of us who have more years behind us than ahead of us to consider how to live and be such a community in this fractured world. I am truly thankful for their (to borrow a phrase from the ordination vows I took nearly 37 years ago) energy, intelligence, imagination, and love.

This sense of community is sadly lacking in so many places in this country and around the world. My prayer is that we can indeed be the change agents in the transformation of our communities, this nation, and the world.