Mar 30, 2016

God is Love (9)
1 John 4:8

Love is not Proud (1)
1 Corinthians 13

Of course, we say: God is not proud. But so much of our teachings about God says just the opposite: We must worship God all the time; we will be punished for not worshipping God; and we must worship God in specific manners, this way but not that way, or that way but not this way, depending on who you listen to. We are told that if we do not worship God in certain ways God will be angry and we will taste the wrath of God by being punished for all eternity. By golly, we had better worship God or else! Nothing else matters, according what so many tell us, that to spend all our time praising God is the only thing that matters. So we gather in groups, praising God according to this manner or that, thinking we have done all we need to do to reach ultimate happiness, and patting one another on our backs (our arms ache from patting ourselves in self-congratulations), and the homeless are still homeless, the hungry are still hungry, those dying of thirst of many types are still thirsty, those in prison rot in their cells — and we are the proud ones claiming that, like the Pharisee – “The Pharisee took his stand and was praying like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people – greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.’ “ (Luke 18:9-14)
No, God is not proud, but look deep in your heart: how much do you thank God that you are not like _____ (you pick the person you are glad you are not like), and reach back to pat yourself on your back in your pride of who you are, and who you are not.
But God does not see the drunk on the street lying by the pile of things in the curb or in an ally; no, God sees only the perfection of the creation, still perfect in and of itself. God does not want our praise in words and song, God wants us to be the Face of God, Love personified, the perfection of the Love of God in our poor world. The pain that exists around us is ours to heal, then we will see the perfection of the creation of God as God Itself sees creation. Thus humanity has reacted throughout the th0usands of years and as told us in the history of the bible, and in the words of almost all sacred texts.
God has sent prophets and mystics and Masters to us for thousands of years. Their words have spoken to the heart of problems, but these beautiful words have been twisted and bent to portray what others wanted them to say. We are fortunate to have a pope today, the leader of the largest single faith of any type in the world, who is stating the words of Jesus as Jesus meant them to be said. Much of what he states is rebuffed by many leaders of the Catholic Church, not in words but in action. Francis stated the words defining God: God is Mercy. Mercy is Love in action. If we state we are followers of God, we must be as God, Mercy in action in our world, for God can only operate through creation, and allowing us the freedom to act, will not act without the acceptance and will of humanity, the Creation of God Itself into the physical world.
Thus we would act out Who We Really Are: The Face of God, blazing with the Love and perfection of the Spirit which lives in us and would animate us if we wish. Then our poor world would start to heal.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all God’s benefits,
Who forgives all your iniquity,
Who heals all your diseases.”
                              Psalm 103: 2-3

Meditation

Oh my wisdom, I look with great joy at the beauty of your wondrous creation; at the beauty of the forms of life that you grace us with, and at the beauty of the creative forms of the sentient life we call humanity, made in Your Image and Likeness. And yet simultaneously I look with sadness at the pain in our beautiful world; I see not only individual pain but the overriding pain of humanity and how we treat one another, due to the lack of seeing our oneness. I see that our Creator created only one thing, the universe and all it contains, from the invisible energy to the spatial dust in the universe to the life power we see in the stars and galaxies to the ability of humanity to see and begin to understand all that exists around us. Yet despite its various forms, You have led me to understand that there is only one creation: the Ongoing creation of You in all Your splendor. Your pulsating and blazing Life that is in all things, from the infinitely smallest to the breadth of the galaxies to the breathtaking forces that make up 69% of the universe that we have no clue about the presence, but can only see their action on the universe. The Joy You have granted me in seeing Your breadth makes my want to shout from the roof top about Who You Are, as seen from the tiny knothole of my life. I thank you and give myself, even at the age, into your hands to be your instrument for peace in our world.
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