Miscellaneous

From The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton, via Thomas Merton: Essential Writings:

One of the great tragedies of the Christian West is the fact that for all the good will of the missionaries and colonizers (they certainly meant well, and behaved humanly, according to their lights which were somewhat brighter than ours), they could not recognize that the races they conquered were essentially equal to themselves and in some ways superior.

It was certainly right that Christian Europe should bring Christ to the Indians of Mexico and the Andes, as well as to the Hindus and the Chinese: but where they failed was in their inability to encounter Christ already potentially present in the Indians, the Hindus, and the Chinese....

It is my belief that we should not be too sure of having found Christ in ourselves until we have found him also in the part of humanity that is most remote from our own.