A Monk on the Loose . . .

Harold Talbott on Thomas Merton in Asia:

“He tipped Sikh taxi drivers like a Proustian millionaire. He was on a roll, on a toot, on a holiday from school. He was a grand seigneur, a great lord of the spiritual life. He radiated a sense of ‘This is an adventure, here I am folks,’ and he woke people up and illuminated them and enchanted them and gave them tremendous happiness and a good laugh. People knew his spiritual quality. People in planes knew it. There was no question about it. Merton was not an object of scrutiny, he was an event.”

I get a good long look at some of Merton's fellow Cistercians every morning, and I see this possibility in their bright, childlike eyes. If the Abbot turned them loose on the natives, they might not all be as flamboyant as Merton was in Asia, but I have no doubt they would -- in their own unique way -- give us worldlings good reason to rethink our habitual ways.