Mtr Mary Trainor

There’s a voice in the wilderness crying, a call from the ways untrod…*

Dear friend,

In 1938, Thomas Merton--not yet the well-known Trappist monk and writer--had an encounter that shaped the rest of his life. I believe we all have such opportunity as was given him, but to “notice” it is the key.

It’s a perfect Advent story about waiting and watching and being ready, for we cannot predict when God may make God’s presence known.

This idea is tucked into our Gospel today from Luke. It takes commitment to work our way through the historical account, which places the Jesus narrative in real time among real people. But the extended introduction is necessary to lead us to the message I am focused on today: “...the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”

Prepare in the desert a highway, a highway for our God!

Prior to his calling to the River Jordan, John was living in the wilderness, eating locusts, wearing rough clothing. If we saw someone like him today proclaiming “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” we would, at least, dismiss him as eccentric; at worst, in need of professional help. I think we might do that because we have--I have--some notion of what a messenger from God should look like. And it isn’t John the Baptist. It isn’t someone poorly clothed who eats bugs. It isn’t someone we might encounter, living in a tent on a street median asking for a handout.

We might easily overlook a significant message because of our suspicions about the messenger.

The valleys shall be exalted, the lofty hills brought low;

Thomas Merton met Dr. Mahanambrata Brahmachari at a train station in 1938. Merton accompanied a friend to meet the penniless Hindu scholar. But neither Merton nor his friend could initially locate the visitor.

I bumped into the story years ago while reading Merton’s autobiography, The Seven Story Mountain. In the book, he writes: A man “in a turban and a white robe and pair of Keds” should have been easy to spot.

Eventually finding one another, Merton and Brahmachari became friends. Specifically, Brahmachari--who was not given to offering advice--told Merton to read two classics of Christian spirituality--Saint Augustine’s Confessions, and The Imitation of Christ.

The impact on Merton was profound. In his autobiography, he wrote, “it seems to me very probable that one of the reasons why God brought him all the way from India, was that he might say just that!”

Make straight all the crooked places where the Lord our God may go!

Mtr Mary

The Hymnal 1982, Number 75, “There’s voice in the wilderness”