Seventh Sunday in ordinary time. Today’s readings: 1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23; Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13; 1 Corinthians 15:45-49; Luke 6:27-38
The New Man, by Thomas Merton.In 1961, Thomas Merton, in his publication The New Man, explored how fallen humanity can be transformed with the help of divine grace, faith and contemplation, from self-centredness to surrendering the ego to live in harmony with oneself, God and others. Drawing mainly from philosophy, theology and his own lived monastic experience, Merton puts forward the Christian ideal of becoming a new man in Christ.
The New Man marks a shift from Merton’s earlier autobiographical writings, which focused on his conversion, transformation and growth to social justice, inter-religious dialogue and emerging forms of contemplative spiritualities. The New Man can be read also as a response to the 1960s Cold War crisis, the communist and capitalist ideological conflicts, nuclear threats, and a widespread existential feel of not being at home with oneself, the world and its structures.
Revolutionaries like Che Guevara, in the same period, inspired by socialist and revolutionary ideologies dreamt of a utopian activist new man dedicated to the common good rather than for personal interest. From the Enlightenment onwards, the utopian new man took various shapes and forms, moving all the way from Rousseau’s rational man to the contemporary ideologies of a hybrid, post-capitalist decentralised, socially conscious, neural link-enhanced individual striving at reshaping human nature to the point of post-human evolution.
The new man represents humanity embodying the divine qualities of compassionate healing, redemption and salvation of others from destruction
In the post-war era, Merton’s New Man, on the contrary, deeply engages with issues of meaning, freedom and human authenticity, advocating the need for inner reform and renewal to embrace, through divine help, our true identity, through humble self-examination, letting go of the roots of pride and selfishness. Merton shows that contemplation, rather than manipulation, is the real path towards becoming a new creation. Salvation is not attainable through external transformations, but by moving from illusions of grandeur to a real spiritual awakening of humanity’s true nature.
In the first letter to the Corinthians, chosen as the second reading in today’s liturgy, the Apostle distinguishes the first man (Adam) and the last man (Christ, the new Adam). The first “became a living being”, and the new is “a life-giving spirit”. First comes “the natural” and then “the spiritual” or new one. Pursuing the ideal of a “new man” while disregarding or denying our fundamental human nature is both illusory and highly perilous, unstable and unpredictable.
The Catholic anthropological framework understands human nature as fundamentally good, notwithstanding its woundedness and fragility stemming from the Fall. Originally created in the image and likeness of God, humanity is called to awaken in Christ the new man to the gift of divine likeness, lost through sinful pride and egotism.
In today’s gospel, Jesus empowers us to show humaneness through “love of enemies”, to “do good to those who hate” us, and “pray for those who mistreat” us. Proverbially, we offer the other cheek “to the person who strikes you on one”, to uphold one’s dignity by not giving in to revenge. By refusing to retaliate, we show inner and moral strength and self-respect. Humaneness is shown also in altruistic and charitable disposition, in acting according to the demands of justice, and the gift of merciful forgiveness.
In the first reading from the First Book of Samuel, the reader’s attention is drawn to the humane spirit of David, who the Bible portrays as prone to excessive violence and lust. David’s humaneness is stirred upon recognition of the other, his enemy, as “the Lord’s anointed”, and shouldn’t be harmed, especially when in a vulnerable position.
Ultimately, the new man represents humanity embodying the divine qualities of compassionate healing, redemption and salvation of others from destruction. Such a qualitative transformation involves the courage to rise above a purely egotistic existence, in Merton’s own words, “obsessed with the great illusion of ownership and possession”, and transcend towards a selfless heavenly existence rooted and grounded in our human condition.