Last week Thomas Merton was commenting about Gandhi's identification with the all people - including the "untouchables." This was all a part of his rediscovery of India. Here is a vital piece of reflection by Merton on this action.
This again is a supremely important fact, without which Gandhi's non-violence is incomprehensible. The awakening of the Indian mind in Gandhi was not simply the awakening of his own spirit to the possibilities of a distinctly Hindu form of "interior life."... Gandhi realized that the people or India were awakening in him. The masses who had been totally silent for thousands of years had now found a voice in him. It was not "Indian thought" or "Indian spirituality" that was stirring in him, but India herself. It was the spiritual consciousness of a people that awakened the spirit of one person... Hence Gandhi's message was valid for India and for himself in so far as it represented the awakening of a new world.
Having that "so much more" come into play within the actions of one's life must be an awesome experience. Maybe even to grand for most of us. And yet, within the life of some people, we are able to see how humanity can be more than what we have expected from ourselves. It was absolutely necessary for Gandhi, and I suppose we can say all of us, to find the life that was in, with, and under all other life. The breath, you could say, that is able to fill us up with a vision for life in which there is no one left behind...no one pushed out...no one simply ignored. Rather, it is in the inclusion of all the people that we begin to be anointed with the power to reunite the separated and never allow one to be against another - for we are all one. That sounds like a dream...but then, we have people like Gandhi and others who often break through the veil that attempts to keep us less than fully human and less than non-violent.
Connection: When we are given the opportunity to see the how connected we are to one another, it is an experience of utter awe. That experience is not beyond the events that may come along today.
When you whip us up together, O God, you know that in the midst of our life together we will begin to see your face among us and those who were once far off become so essential to who we each become. Continue to bless us with your Spirit of life that awakens us even when we appear to be quite dead. Amen.
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