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| Birds in Flight |
John
17: 6-11
Father, I have revealed your name
and your being to all human beings whom you have led through destiny to me.
They were yours; they lived out of the powers that worked in folk and family,
and now you have given them to me, and into my working that lives in the Self,
and they have kept your word in their inmost being. Thus they have recognized
how all the spiritual power that you have given me truly proceeds from you; for
all the creative spiritual power that you have given me, I have brought to
them.
They have taken it up into
themselves and have recognized that in truth I come from you, and they have
gained insight, and trust that I have been sent by you. I pray to you for them
as individual human beings; they who are to live out of the power of the self,
as individuals, I pray to you for them; not for mankind in general, but for the
human beings which you have given me. For they belong to you, just as
everything which is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine, and the light of my
being can shine in them [I am revealed in them].
I no longer live in the outer world, but they live in this world.
My whole being is devoted to you.
And I am coming to you. Holy Father, you
who give healing to the world, keep in your name and in your being all whom you
have given to me, so that they may be one even as we also are one.
First
June Trinity
John
17: 6-11
Mother
Nature provides us with examples of what a community looks like. One can watch
the flights of flocks of birds – the orderly V-line of migrating geese
accompanied by call and response; or the astonishing swoop and swing of a flock
of pigeons. How is it that in their sudden turning and wheeling they don’t
crash into one another? They act smoothly as an organic whole, tuned into the
same guidance. Each bird senses its place in the form. Their working together in
fluid movement is a thing of great beauty.
Through
Christ and the Guiding Spirit He sends from His Father, human groups can begin
to function with something of the beauty and grace we see in the flight of
flocks. Attending the Act of Consecration of Man is like practicing migration.
One calls; from the two immediately behind come the responses. The whole flock
moves together toward a common goal, singing praises. We move as an organism
toward the Father, Christ’s words resounding throughout.
The
rest of community life can also embody the beauty and swing of a flock – each
person contributing their share to the harmonious functioning of the whole, as
it wheels and turns, wherein community life becomes a thing of beauty.
We
were created to become creators, not only as individuals, but also in groups.
Our guide is the Holy Spirit, the spirit of wholeness, whose form is the dove.
This guiding Spirit helps us recognize when we are on a collision course with
our neighbor. We each have particular gifts to offer to the whole; some offer
leadership, some wisdom and insight; some the work of their hands. We are all
called upon to be creators, creators together of the nest wherein the dove, the
Father’s Spirit of peace, of harmony and of beauty, can find its dwelling. For
as the poet says,
Now like a radiant sky
creature
God keeps opening
God keeps opening
Inside
of me.[1]
[ Inside
of us.]
www.thechristiancommunity.org
[1]
Hafiz, “What Do White Birds Say?” in The Gift, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 98.
