The monastery courtyard is beautiful right now. It’s quiet, there’s a little fog and the sky has an abundance of what photographers ironically call “God Light”. Complementing the shafts of light are translucent backlit clouds. There is a faint sound of water running. It is so peaceful and inspiring that I feel like committing an act of philosophy.
The Abbey of Gethsemani was founded in 1848 by Trappist monks from Melleray France. The monastery makes most of it’s money through it’s mail order and internet sales of fudge, cheese, fruitcake and other foods. There are about 60 largely anonymous monks here but Gethsemani was home to probably the world’s most famous Trappist monk Father Louis better know as Thomas Merton.
“I remember Father Louis was very good at communicating with people” Brother Raphael told me. “I thought that I and some other lay brothers could learn from him. Father Louis said ‘I would be happy to. I just need to take care of some business first’”. Shifting in his chair Brother Raphael said “We never saw him again”.
Brother Raphael was referring to Merton’s untimely death in Bangkok in 1968. It was a freak accident, he was electrocuted when the wet floor he was standing on made electrical contact with a faulty fan. It is what Buddhists call a “severe ripening of karma”.
Brother Raphael and I had dinner in the monastery’s sole speaking dining room. We enjoyed a delicious dinner of salad, barley soup, bread, pears and some of the monks own Port de Salud cheese. Looking at him it was hard to imagine him being a flight instructor during World War II. In fact looking at any of the brothers it was hard to imagine that they had lives before being monks.
Brother Raphael enlisted in the Navy to defend the United States. “I saw what was being done to the Chinese and there was no way I was going to let that happen here. I guess that’s my Norman blood” he chuckled.
He then presented me with dessert, a Little Debbie Fudge Round smuggled into the monastery. It was obvious why he was so well loved by anyone who met him. Our conversation turned to his sigh of relief at not having to kill anyone during the war, something that he could hardly imagine now.
“I have learned a lot about forgiveness since then”
“Have you ever had a problem with forgiveness as a monk?”
“Well we have 70 monks here and they are all men so some shins are bound to be kicked. Generally things here are easy going. I remember when seven of my Trappist brothers were killed in Algeria in 1996.
That was very difficult for me. I had a dream that I was piloting a fully loaded and armed Corsair and I just went shooting at these men who killed the brothers. Then I thought about how crazy that idea was. I prayed for days and then I just turned it over to the God and ‘Lord this is bigger than I am and I need help right now’”.
He smiled and said “I was able to forgive. God helps us to cope with our human weakness. Giving forgiveness is most important when it’s the hardest to do it”.
With that he smiled and let some of his own god light slip.
—-
Note: Brother Rafael passed away on 6/9/2007. He had a long life and a fast decline. A merciful death for a merciful man.