NSoC 24: He Who Is Not with Me Is against Me

See Notes on this series...

(Weird capitalization in the chapter title, but I just typed it as I saw it.)

This whole short chapter needs to be quoted here, for it is full of challenging wisdom.

First, Merton declares that a dead soldier is just as dead if killed by one enemy or many, and he compares that the affect that one sinful habit has in a life seemingly filled with virtues.

Then, he condemns the idea that hating God's "enemies" is a way to show love for Christ. He says that if we don't love those who Jesus loved then we are against him, and since he loves all people and died for all people, that doesn't leave a lot of room for hate.

Besides, he says, just because you consider your enemy a philistine doesn't make him one. He might think the same of you. Also, just because you consider someone an enemy doesn't mean that he's an enemy of God. Merton warns against hatred of one who no longer believes because it could have been your inconsistency that destroyed his faith.

Finally, he says that a person must be a communist in order to be a perfect Christian. A perfect Christian's needs should be based on the depths of other's needs. Right teaching about possessions in the Church might have prevented Marxist communism, which is based on "denying other men the right to own property." (emphasis Merton) First-century church practice of making sure that everyone's needs were met should be the true doctrine of the church.

Merton ends by challenging those who might constrain the poor to their station of poverty all the while enjoying their own roofs, blankets, and beans to sharing some of that poverty to see how easy it is to accept that as God's will in their own lives.

Quaff:
I wonder how Merton's call for communism was received when it was written? Either in the first edition of the late forties or the second edition of the early sixties would have been published during various stages of the Cold War. He obviously didn't mean that kind of communism, but it had to be a bold move to even throw out the c-word.