Merton’s great concern is that we have freed ourselves from the bounds of traditional structures – that we have made great scientific and technological progress – without having freed ourselves from an age-old illusion that we can better the world without first bettering ourselves.

Let’s imagine Jesus thinking of Cain’s seven-fold vengeance, and Lamech’s seventy-seven-fold vengeange.  Let’s imagine him conceiving of forgiveness as an antidote.  A kind of reverse revenge.  Not some kind of passive forgetfulness, or non-accountability for the one who did the harm.  Forgiveness as a kind of active, engaged, even aggressive peacemaking.

I think it’s fair to say that Production is one of the patron saints of our culture.  We’re pretty good at production.  But before Production committed violence, he was a servant of the earth.  The earth remembers, and maybe Production will remember too.  And maybe, if we listen closely enough, if we put our ear near enough to the earth, we’ll hear the voice of Abel, and we’ll see interdependence.

The power and goodness of the Kin-dom are within us all, stored up as our potential for showing love in every moment. The Kin-dom is within because we all have the capacity to choose to build relationships of peace and justice with each other and the world around us. The Kin-dom is within because it rests on the power of God working through the work of our heads, our hearts, and our hands to keep bringing new life out of places of death and destruction.