By referring to Father Alexander Men's death I am not in anyway suggesting a conspiracy theory of Merton's own death in Bangkok in 1968. I have no reason to question the truth of the accepted view that his death, humanly speaking, was an accident caused by a piece of faulty electric wiring. The silence and the cross of which we know are forces which cannot be defeated. It is Christ in us who drives us through darkness to a light of which we have no conception, which can only be found by passing through apparent despair. Everything has to be tested.
All relationships have to be tried.
All loyalties have to pass through the fire. Much has to be lost. Much in us has to be killed, even much that is best in us. But victory is certain. The resurrection is the only light, and with that light there is no error.