October 21: The Man with a Thousand Lives

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Today is October 21st, and our story is The Man with a Thousand Lives. Thomas Merton has been called the man with a thousand lives. The number is an exaggeration. The sentiment is not.

Born in 1915, France, to an American mother and a New Zealander father, Merton's early life was that of a troubled child. First, his family fled to America to escape World War I. Then, on October 21, 1921, his mother died. After that, Merton bounced between schools, homes, and countries. By his 16th birthday, his father had died too.

Merton's next life was that of a hard-drinking, womanizing agnostic. As a student at Cambridge University, he fathered a child out of wedlock. Later, as a student at Columbia University, he joined the Young Communist League. Religion of any sort held no attraction for him. Then, it did. Merton's life changed yet again in 1937 when he encountered the work of the Catholic philosopher Etienne Gilson. One Catholic book led to another, and in November 1938, Merton entered the church.

Three years later, on December 10, 1941, he entered the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane in Kentucky and became a Trappist monk. Merton's quiet, monastic life, however, was also short-lived. Soon after his arrival, the monastery's abbot encouraged him to pursue his writing. Merton's literary reputation grew, and in 1948, Merton published his spiritual autobiography, The Seven-Story Mountain.

Widely acclaimed, the book sold over 100,000 copies in its first year. For the next two decades, Merton, who became Father Merton in 1949, was one of the most influential intellectuals in America, writing more than 70 books and helping thousands find their way to the church.

By the late 1960s, however, Merton had transformed once more, embodying the angst and questioning that defined the early post-conciliar years. Increasingly discontented with his life at Gethsemane, Merton spoke out on Vietnam, fell in love with a woman half his age, and became fascinated with Zen Buddhism. In 1968, that fascination took him to Asia. There, 27 years to the day of his entrance to Gethsemane, Merton died in an accident. The last of his thousand lives had begun. Merton's journey reminds us that life is rarely linear.

Mistakes, doubts, and transformations are all part of the spiritual journey. Take a moment to reflect on your own spiritual journey. Identify one habit, thought, or practice you can adjust today to align more closely with your faith. Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, October 22nd, for another story of faith and courage in America.