The Living Bread

Thomas Merton identifies love as the central problem of our time, asking how we can recover the ability to love ourselves and one another. He argues that peace with others depends on peace with ourselves, which in turn requires peace with God. Merton distinguishes between a contrite sense of sin, which he describes as true and healthy, and a feeling of guilt, which he characterizes as false and pathological. A person experiencing guilt does not want to feel guilty but simultaneously does not want to be innocent; they wish to act against their own convictions without facing the consequences of their actions. Merton traces modern dictatorship to leaders whose repressed guilt is often transparent and readable. These leaders have mobilized masses of people driven by similar repressed impulses. He observes that modern dictatorships display deliberate and calculated hatred for human nature itself, employing degradation techniques visible in concentration camps and staged trials. These methods serve a single purpose: to defile the human person.