Merton On Easter

Holy Week is almost here. I haven't been this excited since my childhood when I still thought that the Easter Bunny was real.

My Merton readings lately have been on the Lenten season, ironically enough. The past few days, however, I have refused to move on, I keep savoring the same words over and over again, utterly in love with what Merton is saying. I couldn't help but share his beautiful words on the Easter vigil and the new creation:

"I am aware that the Easter vigil retains many vestiges of primitive nature rites, and I am glad of it. I think this is perfectly proper and Christian. The mystery of fire, the mystery of water. The mystery of spring — Ver sacrum. Fire, water, spring, made sacred and explicit in the Resurrection, which finds in them symbols that point to itself. The old creation is made solely for the new creation. The new creation (of life out of death) springs from the old, even though the pattern of the old is falling away of life in death.
"Instead of stamping down the force of the new life rising in us by our very nature, let the new life be sweetened, sanctified by the bitterness of the Cross, which destroys death. We are no longer marked like Cain, but signed with the Blood of the Paschal Lamb."
    -- Thomas Merton from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander


I have much to say, and will gladly spent hours telling you of the glory of Gid as it is manifested in creation and the power of Cross to sanctify what is unholy, not merely what is human. But for now, I will let Merton's words stand alone, crying out a glorious Christian truth. One that can be heartily affirmed by Catholics and Protestants alike. Make God's glory shine in his creation.