A Radical Way

My brother lives at the beach, and he was out walking the dog late one afternoon when he spotted an unusual fellow walking along the beach. He was wearing a kind of Franciscan habit, sandals and was carrying a walking stick and a big Bible. My brother engaged him in conversation. It seems the man was taking this gospel passage literally.

And He called the twelve, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits. He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts— but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics.

Also He said to them, “In whatever place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that place. And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them.

I think the fellow’s name was Andrew. He explained to my brother that he used to be a Wall Street stock broker and that he had converted to the Catholic faith, given away all his wealth and set out on the road wearing just his habit, with a staff and sandals and a Bible. He’d been on the road for five years and had had many adventures.

The pilgrim setting off with next to nothing is part of the Eastern Orthodox tradition. It’s there in The Way of the Pilgrim and Catherine De Hoeck Doherty’s classic book Poustinia. My brother met such a pilgrim here in the United States. The conversation went something like this:

“What happens to you when you travel like this. Do you just walk or hitch-hike?”

“I don’t hitch-hike, but I accept a ride if it is offered.”

“Do the police pick you up?”

“Sometimes, but when I explain what I am doing they are usually friendly. Sometimes they give me a bed for the night.”

“Where?”

“Jail”

“I see.”

“It’s a chance to do some prison visiting and evangelize the other guys in there.”

“Where have you traveled?”

“All over the world.”

“How do you get plane tickets?”

“Someone will be traveling to where I want to go and they offer to buy me a ticket and travel with them.”

“Do you have any money to feed yourself?”

“People usually buy me a meal and give me food. Sometimes I’ll go to the local priest’s house.”

“I see. Where are you going to spend the night tonight?

“Probably at your house.”

So he came home and told the rest of his story. He was not a lunatic, but quite sane. He was simply taking the Lord at his word in a radical way. He professed that he had witnessed many miracles by living this kind of life. God’s hand was evident in everything. He was a genuine mystic and holy man...

~Dwight Longenecker