Thomas Merton and Martin Luther King: Signs of the Apocalypse (Repost)

Folks, since today we celebrate the memory of Martin Luther King, I wanted to share with you various entries Thomas Merton wrote in his journal in which he mentioned King. First, this entry dated May 16, 1961:

Reading Martin Luther King [Jr.] and the simple, moving story of the Montgomery Bus boycott. Especially interested not only in the main actions, but in the story of his own spiritual development. Certainly here is something Christian in the history of our time.

This other entry is dated June 1, 1963:

The Black Moslems, with hard, shining heads, with frowns, with muscles, drilling for self-defence, have ceased to look upon anything at all as funny. They are one of the few fanatical movements for which I am able to have the slightest respect.

But Martin Luther King – who is not fanatic at all – is perhaps one of the few really great Christians in America. His "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" is a terrific thing. It says "the churches" has failed the Negroes. In the end, that is what the Black Moslems are saying too. And there is truth in it…

On April 6, 1968, Merton wrote about the death of Martin Luther King:

So the murder of M.L. King – it lay on the top of the traveling car like an animal, a beast of the apocalypse. And it finally confirmed all the apprehensions – the feeling that 1968 is a beast of a year. That the things are finally, inexorably, spelling themselves out. Why? Are things happening because people in desperation want them to happen? Or do they have to happen? Is the human race self-destructive? Is the Christian message of love a pitiful delusion? Or must one just "love" in an impossible situation? And what sense can possibly be made by an authoritarian Church that comes out 100 years late with its official pronouncements?

Thomas Merton died later that same year. It can be said that both he and MLK were "signs of the apocalypse" for "a bear of a year." They were also signs of hope, reassuring signs that no matter how bad and dire a situation may look, we can overcome it with faith and determination and at times, martyrdom.