Shining Like the Sun

This week I’m attending a continuing education event through Road Scholar at Bellarmine University:  “A Week with Thomas Merton”.  I’ve always been drawn to Merton, a Trappist monk and prolific writer, poet, painter and photographer.  His contemplative life view has always held an attraction for me, and it is something I feel is much needed in the world today.  In his early years he was out there having fun.  He said that he was “so active that he couldn’t even think.“  Ever feel that way?  It is something most of us need to work against.

We made a side trip into Louisville and saw the "Merton Marker,” the sight of his revelation on March 18, 1958, when he was in the city running errands for the monastery.  Merton stood there and stopped.  He said:     

 “In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district,  I  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….There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”

He stopped.  He paused.  He received a real epiphany.  What profound words.  A couple things we can learn from this.  We need to stop.  We need to pause.  Possibly then we may have a real epiphany as well. 

We also learn the important truth: that we are seriously to love all people.  How beautifully he said that all people were "walking around shining like the sun."  How many people don’t need to hear that?  Possibly you need to hear that right now.  Take a moment and re-read his quote again.  Take it seriously.  You shine like the sun!  You are loved!  Also take a minute to read these 7 words from my favorite Bible verse, Mark 10: 21:  "Jesus looked at him and loved him."  Know that Jesus looks at you and loves you, too.