Trappist Blogging
in Honor of Thomas Merton's
100th Birthday:
Essay 3 of 6 on
"Fire Watch, July 4, 1952,"
the epilogue of
The Sign of Jonas
Part One:
Isaiah, Dylan, and Merton
Continually
by day,
And
at my post I am stationed whole nights.
And,
behold, here come riders, horsemen in pairs!
Isaiah 21:8-9
Watchman,
what of the night?
Isaiah 21:11
Isaiah 21 is part of a section where the prophet issues a series of
oracles prophesying the fall of cities. Verses 1 through 10 address the
impending fall of Babylon .
Destruction will come like “whirlwinds in the Negeb.” Dylan takes this
and hints at the storm to come: “The wind began to howl.” The approach of
the two riders, along with the wildcat growling and the wind howling, signals
apocalypse. The song ends just as the end of things begins.
The other Isaiah verse quoted above come from a second
oracle. Although it is addressed to Dumah (or Edom ),
a city located near Jerusalem , the subject still
appears to be the fall of Babylon and its
repercussions for Judah and Israel .
To the question “What of the night?” the watchman responds:
“Morning
has come, and also night. If you will request, request. Return and
come.”
According to the commentary of Rashi (1040-1105), the
watchman’s response refers to the release of the Hebrew captives from Babylon (“morning has
come”), a time that will be accompanied by judgment for some (“and also night”).
The exiles are urged to request permission of the conquering Persian army to
return to the ancestral home (“If you will request, request.”). And the
passage ends with a call for all to return with appropriate humility and
repentance (“Return and come.”).
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| The Fall of Babylon (1569), engraving by Philips Galle (Netherlandish, 1537-1612) after Maarten van Heemskerck. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
Merton differs from both Isaiah and Dylan in his gentle
treatment of the wilderness. In Isaiah, the animals of the countryside
will surely kill you: “And the birds of prey will summer upon them (the people who flee the city)/and
all the beasts of the earth will winter upon them.” (Isaiah 18:6.) Dylan
is similarly ominous, with a wildcat’s growl announcing the impending destruction. In contrast, Merton finds peace in the sounds of the Kentucky wilderness outside the monastery:
The
world of this night resounds from heaven to hell with animal eloquence, with
the savage innocence of a million unknown creatures. While the earth
eases and cools off like a huge wet living thing, the enormous vitality of
their music pounds and rings and throbs and echoes until it gets into
everything, and swamps the whole world in its neutral madness which never
becomes an orgy because all things are innocent, all things are pure….
The heat is holy and the animals are the children of God and the night was
never made to hide sin, but only to open infinite distances to charity and send
our souls to play beyond the stars.
“Fire Watch, July 4, 1952”
Thomas Merton
Merton turns from the violent overthrows of Isaiah and
Dylan to find a different kind of apocalypse in the night.
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| Vanitas (1661) by N. L. Peschier (Netherlandish, active 1659-1661), oil on canvas. Philadelphia Museum of Art. |
Part Two: The
Apocalypse of Thomas Merton
Lord, God, the whole world tonight seems to be made out of paper. The most substantial things are ready to crumble or tear apart and blow away.
“Fire Watch, July 4, 1952”
Thomas Merton
Scratch the surface of the Abbey of
 |
| Burning of Old South Church, Bath, Maine, detail, c. 1854, John Hilling (British, 1822-1894), oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art. |
From cellar to tower, Merton’s prescribed route through the
monastery is a search for portents of disaster. He checks a fuse box,
fully aware that a single observation per night is insufficient to ensure any
real safety. “I am satisfied that there is no fire in this tower which
would flare like a great torch and take the whole abbey up with it in twenty
minutes…”
As he ascends the winding stairs of the monastery’s tower, Merton foresees his own non-existence, along with the passing of everything he
loves in the material world. “The beasts sing to you before they pass
away. The solid hills shall vanish like a worn-out garment. All
things change, and die and disappear. Questions arise, assume their
actuality, and also disappear. In this hour I shall cease to ask them,
and silence shall be my answer.”
This is Merton’s mystic apocalypse, blessing the world
while acknowledging its ultimate ephemerality. Creation fades into
darkness.
One
by one I shall forget the names of individual things.
“Fire Watch, July 4, 1952”
Thomas Merton
 |
| Thomas Merton's grave at the Abbey of Gethsemane. Detail of a photo by Erik Eckel. Wikimedia Commons. |
The
door swings out upon a vast sea of darkness and of prayer.
“Fire Watch, July 4, 1952”
Thomas Merton
Even from the highest tower, all that can be seen is a vast sea of darkness. This is our future—a night that can be faced with either hope or despair.
Reference Source
The Sign of Jonas by Thomas Merton
Click here for the entire six-part Fire Watch series.
© 2015 Lee Price
Click here for the entire six-part Fire Watch series.
© 2015 Lee Price
