1st Passiontide 2016,

1^st Passiontide

Luke 11: 29 - 35

And as the crowds increased, Jesus began to speak. “The men of this generation are strangers to their true being. They look for signs and outer proofs of the spirit, but none other will be given to them but the sign of Jonah. For just as once Jonah shared the experience of the spirit with the inhabitants of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man share the experience of the spirit with this present generation. The Queen of the South will rise in the time of great crisis and decision against the men of this present generation and judge them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. But know this: here is more than Solomon.

The inhabitants of Nineveh will rise up in the days of crisis and decision against the men of this present generation and will pronounce judgment over them. For they changed their ways after the proclamation of Jonah. But know this; here is more than Jonah.

No one lights a light and then puts it in a hidden place or under a vessel, but rather sets it on a lamp stand, so that all may see the light shining.

The light of your body is your eye. When your eye looks at the world clearly and impartially, the processes of your whole body will be inwardly filled with light. If however the eye’s desire sees the world separated from the spirit, darkness will pour itself into you.

Protect yourself that the light does not become darkness in you.

If your body is now filled with light, so that it no longer takes part in darkness, everything will be completely illuminated, so that, with lightning brightness, the light irradiates you completely from within.

1^st Passiontide

February 28, 2016

Luke 11: 29 - 35

In last week’s Gospel reading, we beheld the light form of the transfigured Christ Jesus, shining on the mountain like the sun. The light that shines from him is the revelation of the Father’s love.  In today’s reading the life of the light continues its progress; for the light of the Father’s love wants to work from within each of us.

Christ chides the people of this generation for not actively seeking the light of wisdom; he chides us for not doing what John the Baptist had encouraged us to do: to change our way of thinking and perceiving.

The Father kindled the light of Christ in the man Jesus, so that all could see the light of love and take it into themselves. The Father would like the same thing to happen within us: that we would take in the light of Christ; that we would look out into the world with the eyes of a clear, impartial, but warm love. The Father would like us to take in with our eyes the being who is the Light of the World, so that our eyes can in turn radiate and shine the brightness of objective love back out into the world.  

As the poet Hafiz says:

God

pours light

into every cup,

quenching darkness.

….

God pours light

and the trees lift their limbs

without worry of redemption,

every blossom a chalice.

….as light

pours like rain

into every empty cup

set adrift on the Infinite Ocean.*

* Hafiz, Interpretive version of Ghazal 11 by Jose Orez