Christ of the Burnt Men

by Thomas Merton, OCSO

"Do not ask when it will be or how it will be:
On a mountain or in a prison,
in a desert or in a concentration camp
or in a hospital or at Gethsemani.
It does not matter.
So do not ask me, because I am not going to tell you.
You will not know until you are in it.

But you shall taste the true solitude of my anguish and my poverty
and I shall lead you into the high places of my joy and you shall
die in Me and find all things in My mercy which has created you
for this end. . .

That you may become the brother of God and learn to know the Christ
of the burnt men."


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From Thomas Merton's seminal work, The Seven Storey Mountain (New York: Garden City Books, 1951), 422-423.