The theme of this thesis is: Mysticism and Compassion: The theology of following of Jesus according to Thomas Merton. It focuses on the spiritual theology of one of the best known mystics of the 20th century, who made a harmonic synthesis between spirituality and solidarity, contemplation and action. His mysticism is presented here as the existential encounter between the sublime mystery of God, of creation and of the human being. In the encounter with this threefold mystery (mysticism), the human being constitutes herself and without it life loses its deepness and tranparency. Even today, when we live in a spacial, ecological and nuclear era, the center of the universe still continues to be the human heart, made for the Transcendent. The mystery of creation consists in having its being from Another one, ex nihilo, Who does not behave as user or owner, in spite of seeing that everything is good and beautiful. Such an infinite love, respecting variety, hiding Herself and becoming Invisible in order to let Her creatures be, is paradigmatic for us nowadays, and inspires a responsible care for all forms of life, both human and non-humans. Mertonian mysticism has a double movement, namely: ascendent: opening toward God and descendent: opening to the world (compassion), who endeavors to promote peace, justice and the responsible care for creation/ecology. So, his spirituality of following of Jesus is able to embrace the Latin American spirituality of liberation: a spirituality of prophetic resistance against the dehumanizing, oppressive and excluding causes of Globalization; a spirituality of solidarity, that shares the suffering of its victims and the utopia of minimizing hunger and misery in the world, till it becomes topia; and, finally, a spirituality of creation. So, our argument is to prove that Merton is the forerunner of the spirituality of peace, feminism and macroecumenism in North America; and the forerunner of theology and the spirituality of liberation in Latin America.