8th August/September Trinity 2019, Betrothed

August Trinity

Matthew 6: 25-34

“Therefore I say to you, do not trouble your heart about what you will eat and drink or with what you will clothe your body. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds in the sky: they do not plant, do not harvest, and do not fill barns, and your heavenly Father still feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Can any of you, by being vastly concerned, add one moment to the span of your life?

And why do you worry about clothing? Study how the lilies of the field grow: they do not work, and they do not spin cloth. But I am telling you that not even Solomon in all his glory was ever arrayed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the wild grass of the field, here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will He not do much more for you, o small in faith?

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What will we drink? What will we wear?’ It is the nations who ask for all these things, and indeed, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Ask first for God’s kingdom and its harmonious order, and these other things will be delivered to you as well.

So do not worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow can worry about itself. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

8^th August Trinity

Sept 15, 2019

Matthew 6: 19-34

Marc Adamus

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we are in the time of diminishing light. The days are shortening; the dark is rising. And what can result in our souls, often unconsciously, is the rising of a subtle level of anxiety.

The gospel reading addresses our human tendency to worry, our fear of insufficiency. Christ encourages us not to diminish the range of our attention, through concentrating only on food and drink, clothes, and riches. Rather we are to pay some attention to our own powers of perception. A few verses before today’s reading, He says,  ‘If your eye is wholesome, your whole body will be filled with light.’ That is, if our way of seeing, our way of picturing the world is wholesome, then our body and soul will be filled with light, radiant with love. What does a wholesome way of seeing the world consist of?

It consists of looking at what has already happened through the lens of gratitude. Gratitude expands and enlightens our inner vision. It widens the angle of what we see. Gratitude helps us see the small miracles in each day.

Wholesomeness also consists of imaging the future through the lens of trust; trust in God’s harmonious ordering of events; trust in the beneficence of His guidance through the course of the day. Correcting our vision with the lenses of gratitude and trust lets the light into our bodies and souls.  Filled with an inner light, our souls can radiate the light of love out into the world.

The poet John O’Donohue says,

We seldom notice how each day is a holy place

Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens,

Transforming our broken fragments

Into an eternal continuity that keeps us.

Somewhere in us, a dignity presides

That is more gracious than the smallness

That fuels us with fear and force,

A dignity that trusts the form a day takes.

So at the end of this day, we give thanks

For being betrothed to the unknown

And for the secret work

Through which the mind of the day

And the wisdom of the soul become one.*

* John O’Donohue, in To Bless the Space Between Us

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8th August Trinity 2018, I Thank You

8^th August Trinity

Sep 9, 2018

Luke 17:11-19

James Christensen

The ancient Hebrews were required to tithe, that is, to give one-tenth of their income back to God by offering it to the temple. In today’s New Testament reading, one outcast in ten returns to give thanks to the Son of God for healing his destiny. We could read this story’s characters as being the different parts of one human being.

We all feel ourselves divided, ill, outcast from heaven. We ask for mercy, to be healed and rejoined to the community of the heavens. In the story, all ten who ask are granted their request. Yet only one returns with a heart-offering, a tithe of gratitude. However, Christ, the Lord of Karma and our Destiny-Guide, notes that this is only a tenth.

C. Shuplyak

Can we remember to be grateful for everything that happens to us? For our destiny would be immeasurably aided if we were to give wholehearted, one hundred percent thanks to God for everything that happens to us. In this way, we align ourselves with our own destiny. We receive it with an open heart. And we can work with it in a creative way.

We can give thanks for everything, both ‘good’ and ‘bad’. For we know that Christ and our guardian angel mean only the best for us; they are always there to guide us toward our future, especially when we return to them with thanks. Knowing this and expressing our gratitude makes us strong. And this power of trust and gratitude for the beneficence of God becomes our own power to perceive the good in all that happens. Christ himself demonstrates this by giving thanks to His Father before uniting himself with bread and wine, His chosen destiny.

So we say in the words of e.e. cummings:

i thank You God for most this amazing

day:…

(i who have died am alive again today,

…

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing …

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)*

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* e.e. cummings, in Complete Poems 1904-1962

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8th August/September Trinity 2016, The Food that Fills (Redux)

8th August Trinity

Luke 17: 5-10

And the apostles said to the Lord, “Strengthen our faith!”

And the Lord said, “If you had faith as full of life as a mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine [mulberry] tree: be uprooted and be planted in the sea!  And it would obey you.

Van Gogh

Who among you who has a servant for plowing or for herding sheep, who will say to him when he comes home from the field, “Come at once and sit down at table?” Rather you will say, “Prepare the meal for me, put on your apron and wait on me until I eat and drink; afterward you can eat and drink too.” Does the servant deserve special thanks for doing his duty? Think of yourselves like that; when you have done all that you have been told to do, then say: “we are feeble servants, we have only done what we were obliged to do.”

8th August Trinity

Sep 11, 2016

Luke 17: 5-10

There is a children’s story about a lazy young woman, freshly married. Instead of sleeping in, she needed to step up and take hold of the running of a large household farming enterprise.  Other household workers were waiting for her orders. She had to learn to direct the household servants so that the whole enterprise, including the servants, would thrive and be fed.

Perhaps today’s reading is awkward for us. We don’t have servants. And we want to be kind. But perhaps we can look at the servant/master relationship as parts of ourselves that need to come into a healthy hierarchical relationship.

There are parts of our souls that are meant to serve us. Our desire life serves best when it serves the inner master, when it is harnessed for work and caring for others. The soul’s inner master is the I, that part of us which focuses and makes decisions about the work and the caring. Desires in and of themselves can’t be allowed to take precedence, like the lazy wife who desired to stay in bed.

Christ’s use of this metaphor, of course, goes further. It points to our own relationship as servants to the Master of the Universe, to the Lord of Karma. Our task is to offer him food first – then we will be fed. 

The Act of Consecration is the pattern for this. We offer him our noblest and purest thoughts and feelings, our loving devotion. He then has something to transform, to offer us in return as nourishment and strengthening. We bring these offerings because we need to offer him something positive in compensation for our natural errors, weaknesses, and failures. We are feeble servants, only doing what we are obliged to do. But we can have faith and trust that when we do our poor part, when we do our inner and outer work, when we serve Him first, we will, in turn, be nourished and strengthened. 

Albert Steffen wrote*:

Nicole Helbig

I walk through the tilled red land:

The seed sleeps.

I walk through green crops:

The stem shoots up.

I walk through golden fields:

The grain ripens.

I find the miller

And the miller says:

The earth is the face

Of the Son of Man,

And ‘he who eats my bread,

Sets his foot upon me’**

I kneel down

And he offers me the food

That fills, permeates, me

On my earthly journey.

*quoted in Rudolf Steiner's Gesamt Ausgabe (Collected Works) Vol. 36, p. 200 (in German)

** 'He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me,' Jn 13:18, Psalm 41:9

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8th September Trinity 2015, Fog of Old Unease

8^th September Trinity

Ten Lepers, James Christensen

September 13, 2015

Luke 17: 11 – 19

 And it happened as he was on the way to Jerusalem that he passed through the middle of Samaria and Galilee.

And as he was entering a certain village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and they raised their voice, saying

“Master, Jesus, have mercy on us!”

And seeing them he said, “Go, and show yourselves to the priests.” And it came about that as they went on their way, they were cleansed.

Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and fell on his face at his feet, and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan.

And Jesus responded and said, “Were not all ten cleansed? And the nine—where are they? Was no one seen returning to praise the revelation of God’s working in this event except this foreigner?”

And he said to him, “Rise, and go your way. The power of your trust has made you strong.”

8^th September Trinity

September 13, 2015

Luke 17: 11 – 19

Leprosy is a disease that is obvious to everyone, for it sits on the surface. And because of contagion, the lepers of Jesus’ time were sent away from their religious and social community.

In our time, it may be that we suffer from a kind of inner leprosy. It may be that our souls show a certain deformation, obvious to all – a deep and abiding anger, or an irresponsible flightiness, or an excessive degree of self-preoccupation. Or as one wisdom teacher puts it, Certainty can become an illness that creates hate and greed.[1] Aware of it in us, others are unable to maintain community with us, and we feel isolated.

The first step is to become aware of our inner illness. And then we can ask Christ, the Master Human Being, to help us. And like the lepers in the story, he will send us back to our religious community, to show that we are aware of our flaws and are working to change them. For the ills can only persist when we are unaware.

But before anything else, the true source of our soul healing lies the strength of our trust, and results in expressing gratitude, in a loud voice, and with deep humility. Thanks to our community for our awareness of soul sickness. Thanks to God for his merciful attention to our need for help in overcoming the sickness of sin. Thanks to our angel for progress made on the way back into the community of those who are aware of the health-giving power of Christ.  As the poet John O’Donohue says,

Leper Healed, Adriaen Collaert

May you use this illness

As a lantern to illuminate

The new qualities that will emerge in you.

May your fragile harvesting of this slow light

Help to release whatever has become false in you.

May you trust this light to clear a path

Through all the fog of old unease and anxiety…[2]

Visit our website!

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[1] “Certainty”  Tukaram in Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, versions by Daniel Ladinsky

[2]“ A Blessing for a Friend on the Arrival of Illness”, John O’Donohue, in To Bless the Space between Us, p. 60

8th August/September Trinity 2014, Paint with Light

8th August/September Trinity

Luke 17:20 -27

Robby Donaghe

At that time the Pharisees asked him, “When will the Kingdom of God come?”  And he answered, “The Kingdom of God [The human Kingdom of the Spirit, permeated by God], does not come in a form which is outwardly perceptible. Nor does it come in such a way that one can say: Look, here it is, or there. Behold—the Kingdom of the Spirit will arise in your own hearts.

And he said to his disciples, “There will come times when you will long to experience even one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not experience it. Then they will say to you: Look—there! or Look—here!  Do not follow this call; do not go on their spirit paths. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning which flashes up in one part of the sky and yet instantly pours out its bright light over the whole firmament. But first he must suffer great  agony and be rejected by this present earthly humanity. As it was in the days of Noah, so will it again be in the day when the Son of Man will reveal himself: they ate and drank, they came together in marriage as man and wife, until the day when Noah entered the Ark and the great flood destroyed everything. It was the same in the days of Lot: they ate and drank, bought, sold, planted, built, until Lot left Sodom, and fire and sulfur rained from heaven and everything perished. It will be like that, too, in the days when the Son of Man will reveal himself.

When that time comes, let him who is on the roof of his house, having left his goods in the house, not go down to fetch them. And let him who is out in the open field not go back to what he has left behind. Remember Lot’s wife! For whoever tries to preserve his soul unchanged will lose it, and whoever is prepared to give it, will in truth awaken in himself a higher life. I tell you; then there will be two sleeping at night in one bed; when the power of the spirit comes, one is gripped by it, the other is left empty-handed. Two women will be grinding at one mill; one is deeply stirred, the other is left empty-handed.

And they said to him, “Where shall we turn our gaze, Lord? And he answered, “Become aware of your life body, and you will see the eagles that are gathering. [or, Where the formative forces in the human being begin to work in freedom, there the Spirit of the World reveals himself.] [or, Where there is descent and disintegration, there also is revelation.]

8^th August –September Trinity

September 14, 2014

Luke 17: 20 – 37

In cartoons, when the character gets an idea, the cartoonist draws a bright light bulb over his head. This icon resonates with us because we experience insight or ideas as a light phenomenon. They come to us as enlightening our awareness, as a flash, or a slower dawning. For increased awareness is indeed another form of light.

When the gospel reading speaks about the human kingdom of the spirit, it tries to make clear that this kingdom is not located outside of us. It arises in the human heart. For Christ, the light of the world, would now reside in human hearts. Like the outer sunlight, his light generates life, that ever progressing, forward-moving, unfolding of living forms that bud, open, and die away, scattering the seeds  of future forms. It is through Him that we experience our flashes of insight, the dawning of a new awareness, the creative solution, or the golden warm light of love

The kingdom of God in human hearts is radiant: radiant with grace, radiant with love, radiant with thanks. Christ dwells in the life of our bodies, where forms are constantly being built up and disintegrated in order to be regenerated again.. It is through Him that the revelation of new beginnings open up again and again. And these ever-changing forms are the vessels for the workings of our inner life, our life of soul and spirit, our life of thought and ideas, our enlightenment.

We need have no fear of the disintegration; for just there, Christ is working for the future. The old form must give way. But if we look, we can find the shining seeds of what will develop. And we can give thanks for the light of grace, the light of love that impels us forward. The poet muses:

Kate Mabee

…it seems to me

all you have to do

is conceive of the whole world

an art project of the god of light

the whole earth and all that's in it

to be painted with light

And the first thing you have to do

 . . .to paint yourself

in your true colors

(without whitewash)

Then paint your favorite people and animals

with your brush loaded with light

….And don't forget to paint

all those who lived their lives

as bearers of light

…Paint the light of their eyes

the light of sunlit laughter

And remember that the light is within

if it is anywhere

and you must paint from the inside….*

www.thechristiancommunity.org

* Lawrence Ferlinghetti,  “Instructions to Painters & Poets” in How to Paint Sunlight

8th September Trinity 2007, Impermanence

8th September Trinity

Luke 17: 20-37

At that time the Pharisees asked him, “When will the Kingdom of God come?”  And he answered, “The Kingdom of God [The human Kingdom of the Spirit, permeated by God], does not come in a form which is outwardly perceptible. Nor does it come in such a way that one can say: Look, here it is, or there. Behold—the Kingdom of the Spirit will arise in your own hearts.

And he said to his disciples, “There will come times when you will long to experience even one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not experience it. Then they will say to you: Look—there! or Look—here!  Do not follow this call; do not go on their spirit paths. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning which flashes up in one part of the sky and yet instantly pours out its bright light over the whole firmament. But first he must suffer great  agony and be rejected by this present earthly humanity. As it was in the days of Noah, so will it again be in the day when the Son of Man will reveal himself: they ate and drank, they came together in marriage as man and wife, until the day when Noah entered the Ark and the great flood destroyed everything. It was the same in the days of Lot: they ate and drank, bought, sold, planted, built, until Lot left Sodom, and fire and sulfur rained from heaven and everything perished. It will be like that, too, in the days when the Son of Man will reveal himself.

When that time comes, let him who is on the roof of his house, having left his goods in the house, not go down to fetch them. And let him who is out in the open field not go back to what he has left behind. Remember Lot’s wife! For whoever tries to preserve his soul unchanged will lose it, and whoever is prepared to give it, will in truth awaken in himself a higher life. I tell you; then there will be two sleeping at night in one bed; when the power of the spirit comes, one is gripped by it, the other is left empty-handed. Two women will be grinding at one mill; one is deeply stirred, the other is left empty-handed.

And they said to him, “Where shall we turn our gaze, Lord? And he answered, “Become aware of your life body, and you will see the eagles that are gathering. [or, Where the formative forces in the human being begin to work in freedom, there the Spirit of the World reveals himself.] [or, Where there is descent and disintegration, there also is revelation.]

8^th Summer Trinity

September 9, 2007

Luke 17:20-37

  

Here in Southern California’s late summer heat, wildfires often ignite. A lightning strike, a stray spark and fields and forests are altered. We who build our homes in the hills are invested in not letting this change happen. But it is the way of nature’s life in this part of the world.

In today’s gospel reading, Christ talks about the nature of the Kingdom of God. His contemporaries were of course expecting the Messiah to establish an earthly kingdom. But Christ makes it clear that His is a kingdom of another order. It is the kingdom of the spirit that arises in human hearts.

A surprising characteristic of this kingdom is its impermanence. He compares it to lightning flashes which suddenly illuminate everything. It comes to individuals, not to groups, and seems to be connected with suffering. He warns us against trying to keep things unchanged, especially in our interior landscape. For in the inner realm of life, as in the outer, there is always the ongoing decay of old forms and the rising of new ones. And in the soul there is always the ongoing interplay between suffering and joy, between descent and revelation.

It is just in this interior landscape within us, this borderland of changing forms and phases of life, and the ups and downs of the soul, that the Spirit of the World reveals Himself. He comes and establishes his kingdom in us as a flicker of inspiration, as a flash of understanding, as a flaring of love. For the Spirit is like the play of fire and light – sometimes a small spark, sometimes lightning; sometimes painful, sometimes bringing joy. But always changing. It is the creating fire of love, helping to nurture the good into an existence that endures. This is the nature of His kingdom within.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

8th September Trinity 2008, Growth and Shedding

8th September Trinity

Luke 17: 20-37

At that time the Pharisees asked him, “When will the Kingdom of God come?”  And he answered, “The Kingdom of God [The human Kingdom of the Spirit, permeated by God], does not come in a form which is outwardly perceptible. Nor does it come in such a way that one can say: Look, here it is, or there. Behold—the Kingdom of the Spirit will arise in your own hearts.

And he said to his disciples, “There will come times when you will long to experience even one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not experience it. Then they will say to you: Look—there! or Look—here!  Do not follow this call; do not go on their spirit paths. For the Son of Man in his day

will be like the lightning which flashes up in one part of the sky and yet instantly pours out its bright light over the whole firmament. But first he must suffer great  agony and be rejected by this present earthly humanity. As it was in the days of Noah, so will it again be in the day when the Son of Man will reveal himself: they ate and drank, they came together in marriage as man and wife, until the day when Noah entered the Ark and the great flood destroyed everything. It was the same in the days of Lot: they ate and drank, bought, sold, planted, built, until Lot left Sodom, and fire and sulfur rained from heaven and everything perished. It will be like that, too, in the days when the Son of Man will reveal himself.

When that time comes, let him who is on the roof of his house, having left his goods in the house, not go down to fetch them. And let him who is out in the open field not go back to what he has left behind. Remember Lot’s wife! For whoever tries to preserve his soul unchanged will lose it, and whoever is prepared to give it, will in truth awaken in himself a higher life. I tell you; then there will be two sleeping at night in one bed; when the power of the spirit comes, one is gripped by it, the other is left empty-handed. Two women will be grinding at one mill; one is deeply stirred, the other is left empty-handed.

And they said to him, “Where shall we turn our gaze, Lord? And he answered, “Become aware of your life body, and you will see the eagles that are gathering. [or, Where the formative forces in the human being begin to work in freedom, there the Spirit of the World reveals himself.] [or, Where there is descent and disintegration, there also is revelation.]

8^th August Trinity

September 14, 2008

Luke 17:20-37

There are creatures which, when they reach a certain stage, have to shed their skins or shells, in order to grow further. This is one of the great themes of evolution. Again and again there come nodal points in development when what is no longer suitable is expelled or left behind. Children regularly outgrow their clothes. We will all eventually shed the shell of our material body. In the future, in order to progress, mankind will have to shed materiality altogether.

Today’s reading touches on this theme of growth and shedding. Christ says that the future kingdom of God, when human beings will be filled with the spirit of Love, is an invisible kingdom, not a material one. It arises in human hearts. He uses examples from ancient times to illustrate that the evolution toward this invisible kingdom always involves moments like the Flood, or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,  when the inwardly unsuitable, the outgrown, the not-love, has to be destroyed and risen above.

Uncomfortably, this entails suffering. All the elements of our not-loving will eventually have to be ejected so that we can ascend to the next stage. For, as He says, “Whoever tries to preserve his soul unchanged will lose it, and whoever is prepared to give it [that is, to offer up the soul to be purified of egotism and filled with love] will in truth awaken in himself a higher life.” Luke 17:33  He goes on to tell us not to worry or be too anxious about the falling away and disintegration of the old, the painful shedding of the shell. For where this happens, the progressive evolutionary forces within the human soul begin to work in freedom. There, in the cleansing, the Spirit of the World, who is Love, reveals Himself. He is working to create a new kind of body for humanity, His Body, a living tender, invisible form in which we will dwell.  He couches this in the mysterious formulation, “Where the living body is, there the eagles will gather.” Luke 17: 37. Those souls who can rise above not-loving will gather within Him, in His name, in his power, in his radiance.

Perhaps the words of the poet can illuminate:

My heart sits on the arm of God

Like a feathered falcon….

My piercing eyes,

Which have searched every world

For Tenderness and Love,

Now lock on the Royal Target—

The Wild Holy One

Whose Beauty Illuminates Existence….

Quivering at the edge of my Self

And Eternal Freedom….[1]


www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Hafiz, “A Feathered Falcon”, in I Heard God Laughing, Renderings of Hafiz, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 97.

8th August Trinity 2009, Search for the Kingdom

8th September Trinity

Luke 17: 20-37

At that time the Pharisees asked him, “When will the Kingdom of God come?”  And he answered, “The Kingdom of God [The human Kingdom of the Spirit, permeated by God], does not come in a form which is outwardly perceptible. Nor does it come in such a way that one can say: Look, here it is, or there. Behold—the Kingdom of the Spirit will arise in your own hearts.

And he said to his disciples, “There will come times when you will long to experience even one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not experience it. Then they will say to you: Look—there! or Look—here!  Do not follow this call; do not go on their spirit paths. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning which flashes up in one part of the sky and yet instantly pours out its bright light over the whole firmament. But first he must suffer great  agony and be rejected by this present earthly humanity. As it was in the days of Noah, so will it again be in the day when the Son of Man will reveal himself: they ate and drank, they came together in marriage as man and wife, until the day when Noah entered the Ark and the great flood destroyed everything. It was the same in the days of Lot: they ate and drank, bought, sold, planted, built, until Lot left Sodom, and fire and sulfur rained from heaven and everything perished. It will be like that, too, in the days when the Son of Man will reveal himself.

When that time comes, let him who is on the roof of his house, having left his goods in the house, not go down to fetch them. And let him who is out in the open field not go back to what he has left behind. Remember Lot’s wife! For whoever tries to preserve his soul unchanged will lose it, and whoever is prepared to give it, will in truth awaken in himself a higher life. I tell you; then there will be two sleeping at night in one bed; when the power of the spirit comes, one is gripped by it, the other is left empty-handed. Two women will be grinding at one mill; one is deeply stirred, the other is left empty-handed.

And they said to him, “Where shall we turn our gaze, Lord? And he answered, “Become aware of your life body, and you will see the eagles that are gathering. [or, Where the formative forces in the human being begin to work in freedom, there the Spirit of the World reveals himself.] [or, Where there is descent and disintegration, there also is revelation.]

8^th August Trinity

Sept 13, 2009

Luke 17:20 -37

We are once again in a rapidly changing season. The days are shortening more quickly; times and outer conditions begin to disintegrate as the old forms crumble.

The gospel reading warns us not to become too dependent on the outer, for the kingdom of God arises within us, within human hearts. This inner kingdom is a large one of varying landscapes—lush beauty, areas of desert, dark and light, and in-betweens. During dark dry periods we may seek for the richness of connection, but He warns us that He is there instantly and wholly ‘like lightning that flashes in one part of the sky and yet instantly pours out its bright light over the whole firmament’. Luke 17:24 He is not confined to one place, one person, one guru ‘over there’. He is accessible through our own inner landscape. He appears when the time for us is ripe.

When the disciples ask, ‘Where shall we turn our gaze?’ He gives a mysterious, cryptic answer: ‘Become aware of your living body and you will see the eagles gathering.’ Luke 17:37 [1]

Birds have always been symbols of thought, symbols of spiritual activity. He points us inward to the capacity of our life forces to create thoughts, to create inner pictures and images, memory pictures. This creative forming force in the human being exists right next to the place where the breaking down of substance in the body occurs. [2] This creative forming force, working on the ash-heap, can begin to work in freedom, freed from the necessities of the body (what shall we eat? What shall we wear? Matthew 6:25). When this freedom of thought begins to happen, into that free space between body and eagle, there arises the capacity to perceive the revelation of God, the lightning flash of His being. Even from the place of earthly descent, here where change means disintegration, He can be perceived. And so in the words of the poet:

…when we come to search for God,

Let us first be robed in night, …

To feel the rush of light

Spread slowly inside

The color and stillness

Of a found word. [3]


www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] The usual translation is "Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather." But the Greek uses the word ‘soma’, a word for a living body, not ‘sarx’, corpse. And ‘aetoi’ are eagles.

[2] So ‘corpse’ and ‘vulture’ are also not entirely inappropriate.

[3] John O'Donohue, “For Light”, in To Bless the Space Between Us, pg. 15