A Body of Broken Bones

"You and I and all men were made to find our identity in the One Mystical Christ, in Whom we all complete one another 'unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ.'" —Thomas Merton

The foundation of our identity is not found in isolated existence but in a greater unity that transcends individuality. (Ephesians 4:13) This is not a unity of our own making, nor a mere ideal to be aspired to; it is the very structure of reality as God has designed it. But we resist this truth. We grasp at individualism, fearing that unity will erase us rather than fulfill us. Yet, in Christ, there is no diminishment of self—only its completion. We were made to belong to one another, to interweave our lives in love, to see our own wholeness as inseparable from the wholeness of others. And yet, this unity remains hidden from us because we do not fully surrender to love. (Colossians 3:14)

"As long as we do not permit His love to consume us entirely and to unite us in Himself, the gold that is in us will be hidden by the rock and dirt which keep us separate from one another." —Thomas Merton

We remain buried, unseen, weighed down by the ego’s insistence on separateness. But when we let go, when we allow divine love to strip away all that is false, we discover the truth: we have always belonged to one another in Christ. And yet, even knowing this, we live in a world that is fractured. Division is not merely a characteristic of human history; it is the very suffering of Christ Himself. (John 17:21)

"IN the whole world, throughout the whole of history, even among religious men and among saints, Christ suffers dismemberment." —Thomas Merton

The Mystical Body is torn apart, not just by obvious conflicts and hostilities, but by the subtle, daily ways we refuse love—our indifference, our judgments, our failure to listen. Every act of selfishness, every moment of resentment, every refusal to forgive is another wound in His Body. And what is most painful is that this suffering exists even among those who long for unity. (Romans 7:15)

"Even the innocent, even those in whom Christ lives by charity, even those who want with their whole heart to love one another, remain divided and separate."
—Thomas Merton

We ache for communion but find ourselves unable to fully grasp it. We reach for one another and still feel the weight of our separateness. But this suffering is not without meaning. It is the suffering of love itself, the cost of a world being healed. And if we are to be part of this healing, we must be willing to bear the weight of that pain. For love is not easy. It is not a soft thing, free from cost. Love, when it is real, demands everything. (1 Corinthians 12:26)

"As long as we are on earth, the love that unites us will bring us suffering by our very contact with one another, because this love is the resetting of a Body of broken bones." —Thomas Merton

It is painful to forgive. It is painful to stay present when everything in us wants to retreat. It is painful to love when love is not returned, to keep our hearts open when it would be easier to shut them. But this is what it means to be part of Christ’s Body—to endure the pain of reunion, to refuse the temptation to divide ourselves from others. (1 John 3:15) And here is the great choice:

"There are two things which men can do about the pain of disunion with other men. They can love or they can hate." —Thomas Merton

"Hatred recoils from the sacrifice and the sorrow that are the price of this resetting of bones. It refuses the pain of reunion."—Thomas Merton

Hatred, of course, feels easier. Hatred relieves us of the work of healing. But if we refuse that pain, we refuse love itself. We refuse Christ, who bore the full weight of our division upon Himself, who embraced suffering rather than let us remain separate from God. To love is to enter into that suffering willingly, knowing that in the end, only love will remain. Yet why do people choose hatred? Why does division persist? It is because hatred is not born from strength but from a deep wound within the human soul. (1 John 4:20)

"Hatred is the sign and the expression of loneliness, of unworthiness, of insufficiency." —Thomas Merton

The one who hates does not do so because they are whole, but because they feel empty. Hatred is the desperate attempt to make up for an internal void, a way of covering over a deep sense of inadequacy. And so long as we believe we are unworthy, so long as we fear that we are not enough, we will keep grasping for ways to justify ourselves—often by diminishing others. But there is another way. (Romans 5:8) We do not begin by trying harder to love; we begin by resting in the love of God, by believing, even in our unworthiness, that we are already held, already cherished. This revelation changes everything. (Luke 15:20-24)

"The root of Christian love is not the will to love, but the faith that one is loved."
—Thomas Merton

"Revelation of the mercy of God makes the whole problem of worthiness something almost laughable." —Thomas Merton

The question is no longer whether we are good enough—God’s love has already answered that. And when we trust in this love, hatred loses its grip on us. We no longer need to defend ourselves, to build walls, to prove anything. We are free to love because we know we are loved. And if we are to live in this love, then we must also live in God’s will. And what is His will? It is not a puzzle to be solved but a call to radical communion. (John 13:34)

"God’s will is certainly found in anything that is required of us in order that we may be united with one another in love." —Thomas Merton

Every moment of reconciliation, every act of patience, every effort toward understanding—this is the will of God. It is not found in grand visions or mystical experiences alone but in the daily work of choosing love. And this requires that we open ourselves to others. (Romans 12:15)

"I must learn to share with others their joys, their sufferings, their ideas, their needs, their desires." —Thomas Merton

"For Christianity is not merely a doctrine or a system of beliefs, it is Christ living in us and uniting men to one another in His own Life and unity."
—Thomas Merton

Love does not remain at a distance; it enters into the full reality of another’s life. And this is not simply an ethical obligation—it is the very life of Christ in us. (Galatians 2:20) To be Christian is not to hold correct opinions, but to be transformed into love itself. And this is the heart of contemplation. It is not an escape from reality but a deeper immersion into it. (Matthew 6:6) True contemplation does not take us away from suffering but enables us to see it rightly—to see through it to the presence of God. And what do we see? That we are not alone. That our lives are woven together in ways deeper than we can imagine.

"If you regard contemplation principally as a means to escape from the miseries of human life... you do not know what contemplation is and you will never find God in your contemplation." —Thomas Merton

"For it is precisely in the recovery of our union with our brothers in Christ that we discover God and know Him." —Thomas Merton

We find God in love, in reconciliation, in the restoration of what was broken. And as this love takes root in us, our very perception changes. (1 John 4:12) This is the final freedom: to know ourselves as beloved and, in that knowledge, to love without fear, without hesitation, without end. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

"His life begins to penetrate our souls and His love possesses our faculties and we are able to find out Who He is from the experience of His mercy, liberating us from the prison of self-concern." —Thomas Merton