Our challenge was embodied in the life Thomas Merton. Merton is one of the most influential Catholic figures of the twentieth century. His autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, has sold millions of copies and has been translated into more than 15 languages.

He wrote more than 80 other books and hundreds of poems and articles on topics ranging from monastic spirituality to civil rights and nonviolence. Yet you may not know about him other than the little you have heard.

On Dec. 10, 1941, he entered the Abbey of Gethsemani, a community of Trappist monks, and was given the name Father Louis. After 17 years in the monastery, Father Louis, at the age of 43, had a transformational experience in Louisville. The event has been said to have had a ripple effect throughout the world as a mystical awakening in a public setting — where the sacred enters the everyday. Merton may be unique as a religious leader for his vision of the divine in the ordinary.

On March 18, 1958, on the corner of Fourth and Walnut, now Fourth and Muhammad Ali, Merton had a vision of oneness with all people. He called this vision an “epiphany.” An “epiphany” is a sudden sense of revelation that one may feel while perceiving a common event or experience.

Merton wrote of his experience:

“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race. ... There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”

Paradoxically, Merton experienced this transformation when he was out of his everyday monastic life and was immersed in the hustle and bustle of our shopping district — now Fourth Street Live. Merton said of his experience:  

“I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all of the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed.”

It has been said that Merton’s epiphany set the agenda for the remainder of his life, as he wrote about the major issues facing humanity, including racism, religious diversity, war and ecology. If you read his works, you will find that Merton gives us all a message of hope as we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow. But perhaps more inspiring is the way Merton saw the world as a place that freely reveals the higher powers in the everyday and the ordinary — even ordinary people like you and me.

Merton saw the spark of the divine in you. Like a loving father, he saw you as you really are. He saw the depths that you have but don’t share. Like a loving father, he saw your secret beauty that you sometimes don’t believe yourself. If you really think about it, what a grace-filled blessing this vision is.

In honor of Thomas Merton and his vision, we ask that you see yourself as Merton saw you. Discover your epiphany. Once you have this vision, we ask that you share it. Share it with your loved ones; share it with your neighbors or friends; share it with members of your church.

Share it with us. Find that “spark of divinity,” that moment of transformation, that powerful event that changed you, and then share it with the world as Father Louis did.

But, you ask, how do you know if you have found your transformational moment?

Merton’s vision came after a lifetime of prayer, writing and contemplation. It came from the hard bottom of an existence that knew suffering. Merton may have ended his life like a saint, but it did not begin that way.

You will likely know you have found your epiphany if you weep, if you feel joy and lightness, or if you see a profound beauty in the everyday — a profound beauty that you know to the depths of your being. In the end, Merton believed that all of us are mystics — that we all have these moments of connection with something, both deeper and higher. So test Merton’s hypothesis in your life — see your life with the eyes of a mystic.

If you need inspiration for your work, visit the corner of Fourth and Muhammad Ali. Look at the people and try to see the “secret beauty of their hearts” as did Thomas Merton. Be a Merton pilgrim on the 50th anniversary of his epiphany on March 18. When you take this pilgrimage to Fourth Street, if you look closely enough, you will find on the granite corner of the Starks Building that faint and remaining outline of the words “Fourth” and “Walnut.”

These words still stand as the mystical reminder of Merton’s vision “In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district.” May this public space that is now transformed into Fourth and Ali be the inspiration for the exploration of your own personal transformation in this “Year of the Epiphany.”

I believe it was no accident that Merton had his epiphany in Louisville — in our hometown. Merton didn’t see just anyone. He saw the people of Louisville, Kentucky. We are a people who know about hospitality and everyday kindness, but we also are a people who come from the deep part of the river that transects and connects our country.

We are, you know, a people of the deep but still moving waters of the Falls. So let us make Merton a prophet. Let us find that “secret beauty in our hearts,” and let that beauty “shine like the sun” for all to see.

To honor Thomas Merton and his vision of you, we welcome you to share your epiphany with me at tom.williams@akofirm.com.

Thomas M. Williams is an attorney and a member of the firm of Stoll Keenon Ogden. He is a past president of the Louisville Bar Association.