2nd Trinity III 2022, Hard to Surrender

 2^nd Trinity III

Matthew 7:1-29 

"Do not judge your fellow human beings, so that your judgment will not someday be visited upon yourself. For in the way you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, you too will be measured. Why do you look to the splinter in your brother's eye but do not become aware of the beam in your own eye? And how can you say to your brother: "Wait, I will pull the splinter out of your eye" while there is a beam in your own eye. You hypocrite, first remove the log from your own eye, and then you may be able to see how to remove the splinter from your brother's eye. 

"Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor throw pearls to the swine, for these will tread them underfoot, and then turn upon you and tear you also to pieces. 

"Ask from the heart, and it will be given to your heart; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for whoever asks in uprightness will receive; whoever earnestly seeks will find; whoever knocks, to them will be opened. Or are there among you those who when their son asks for bread would give him a stone, or when he asks for a fish would offer him a snake? If then you who, despite wickedness, know how to give good things to your children, how much more goodness will your Father in the heavens give to those who earnestly ask him for it. 

"All that you want that someone should do for you, do first for them. This is the true content of the Law and the Prophets. 

Narrow Gate, David Hayward

"Walk through the narrow gate, for the gate is
wide, and the path is easy that leads to ruin [the abyss], and many are they who walk it. But narrow is the gate and difficult the path that leads to Life, and it is only the individual who finds it.  

"Be on your guard against false prophets of healing. They come to you in the garments of peaceful lambs but inwardly are rapacious wolves. You shall recognize them by the fruits of their deeds. Never will you harvest grapes from a thorn bush, nor figs from thistles. Every noble tree brings forth good fruit, but a wild tree only forms unusable fruit. A noble tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a wild tree cannot form good fruit. A tree that does not bring forth good fruit will be cut down and put in the fire. Therefore, recognize them by the fruits of their deeds. 

"Not everyone who addresses me with 'Lord! Lord!' can be taken up into the kingdom; only whoever accomplishes the will of my Father in the heavens. In the future, when the light of God breaks over the earthly darkness, many will call to me. They will say, 'Lord! Lord! have we not worked in advance for your revelation? Have we not driven out spirits of destruction in honor of you? Have we not gathered multiple powers for your word?' 

"Then I will freely say to them, 'I do not know you. My paths are not your paths. Depart from me, for you serve the forces of chaos [the downfall of the world].'

"Everyone who hears such words from me and acts accordingly will be like someone who wisely built their house on bedrock. The clouds burst, the waves rose, the winds blew and beat against that house. But it did not totter, for it was founded upon the rock. 

"However, whoever hears such words from me and does not act accordingly is like someone who foolishly builds their house upon sand. The rain comes down, the floods rise, the winds blow and beat upon the house, and it collapses with a great crash." 

When Jesus had finished saying this, the people were greatly moved, for he spoke to them out of spiritual authority, as if the powers of creation themselves spoke out of him, and not like their teachers of the law [or, canon-lawyers].  

2^nd August Trinity

July 31, 2022

Matthew 7:15–27 

In the spring half of its growth cycle, a fruit tree is all about manifesting. First its blossoms break forth, then its tender green leaves that broaden into summer’s crown. But the second half has to do with ripening something hidden: small living seeds, hidden in green fruit, hiding among the green leaves. They have to do with developing something that will survive autumn’s death: Seeds that will outlive the winter. 

What kind of trees are our souls? Are they cultivated, nourished, pruned, cared-for? Or like wild trees, left to fend for themselves, to eke out their existence in a hostile environment? For the important fact about our souls, and the lives they produce, is that we ourselves are both tree and gardener. We ourselves are called upon to recognize and work with our own nature. 

The fruits of noble souls are characterized by a fulsome beauty and regularity of form, by a robust generosity, flavored with a certain sweetness, nourishing others. Noble souls nourish the seeds of a life that will survive death. 

But like wild trees, untended souls create fruits that are dry and hard, measly and bitter, often corrupted from within. For such a wild tree, being turned into warming, useful firewood is an act of redemption. 

To do the will of the Father is to care for souls so that they become fruitful. So that they nourish others; so that they can offer themselves to nourish the Father’s purposes, to surrender to his greater life in the realm beyond the threshold of death. Eventually the tree will die. Its essence will be reduced to either seed or ash. 

For as Rilke says,* 

we are only the rind and the leaf.

The great death that each of us carries inside

is the fruit.

Everything enfolds it. 

For untended souls, he continues, it is 

 … hard to surrender what you never received.

Their exit has no grace or mystery

It’s a little death, hanging dry and measly

Like a fruit inside them that never ripened. 

God gives us each our own death

The dying that proceeds

from each of our lives

the way we loved

the meanings we made…. 

*Rilke, Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy, pages 130-132.

 

 

1st Trinity III, 2022, You Are The Christ

 

1st Trinity III

Mark 8:27 - Mark 9:1 

And Jesus went on with his disciples into the region of Caesarea Philippi (in the north of the land at the source of the Jordan where the Roman Caesar was worshiped as a divine being). And on the way there, he asked the disciples (and said to them), "Who do people say that I am?" 

They said to him, "Some say that you are John the Baptist; others say, Elijah, still others that you are one of the prophets." 

Then he asked them, "And you, who do you say that I am?'

Then Peter answered, "You are the Christ." 

And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. 

And he began to teach them, "The Son of Man must suffer much and will be rejected by the leaders of the people, by the elders and the teachers of the law, and he will be killed, and after three days he will rise again." Freely and openly, he told them this.

Tissot, Get Thee Behind Me, Satan

Then Peter took him aside and began to urge him not to let this happen. He, however, turned around, looked at his disciples, and reprimanded Peter, saying to him, "Withdraw from me; now the adversary is speaking through you! Your thinking is not divine but merely human in nature." 

And he called the crowd together, including his disciples, and said to them, "Whoever would follow me must practice self-denial and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever is concerned about the salvation of their own soul will lose it, but whoever gives their life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, their soul will find power and healing. For what use is it to a human being to gain the whole world if through that they damage their soul, which falls victim to the power of an empty darkness? What then can they give as ransom for their soul? In this present humanity, which denies the spirit and lives in error, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the shining revelation of the Father among his holy angels." 

And he said to them, "The truth I say to you, among those who are standing here, there are some who will not taste death before they behold the kingdom of God arising in human beings, revealing itself in the power and magnificence of the spirit." 

1st  Trinity III

July 24, 2022

Mark 8:27-9:1

Collot d'Herbois

When we receive a newborn infant, our healthy instinct is to protect them. We wrap them, cover them, hold them. We keep them away from noise and harsh light. For we sense that their tenderness, their very newness, would be violated by too much of the world.

Christ asks Peter: Who do you say that I am? And in that very instant, a recognition is born. Peter answers: You are the Christ!

Why would Jesus be so insistent that his disciples not tell anyone about him? Because something had been newborn into humanity. And it needed protection.

What was newborn was first of all Christ himself—so recently sent down by God, baptized. He needed protection from the destructive powers of the world. Not forever—for as he goes on to say, he will suffer and die at the hands of the people. But not yet.

The second and almost equally important newborn thing in humanity is the human recognition of him, here on earth, within another human being. Peter’s recognition, that Jesus is the Christ, the long-awaited Son of God become Son of Man, is another tender newborn, the faculty to recognize the divine. This, too, needs protection from the all too earthly adversarial forces. Such forces exist within Peter, within all of us, as thoughts about avoiding suffering. ‘Now the adversary is speaking through you. Your thinking is not divine but merely human in nature,’ Christ says in response.

It is human nature to protect—newborns, friends, the newly discovered God within. But ultimately, the path of the divine is one of suffering and death, and then of resurrection into yet another newborn level of existence. The divine is to be nurtured and protected for a little while. Yet its ultimate aim is not self-protection, but self-offering, self-sacrifice. When time is ripe, the disciples will be told to go out and preach the good news everywhere. But to do so now would prematurely arouse the destructive forces against the newborn.

In the Act of Consecration, we have once again the possibility of an intimate encounter with Christ. We could hear him asking us, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ Once again, we have the opportunity to recognize him. We will protect and nurture this recognition of the I AM within our hearts. And when time is ripe, we, too, will spread the good news.

 

4th Johnstide 2022, His Great Heart

Johnstide

Matthew 11:2-15 

Master of Astorga, John in Prison

When John heard in prison about the deeds of
Christ, he sent his disciples to ask him, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?" 

Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are awakened, and those who have become poor receive the message of salvation. Blessed are those who are not offended by my Being." 

When they had gone, Jesus began to speak about John. "Why did you go out into the desert? Did you want to see a reed swaying in the wind? Or was it something else you wanted to see? Did you want to see a man in splendid garments? Those in splendid garments are in the palaces of kings. Did you go to see a man who is initiated into the mysteries of the Spirit, a prophet? Yes, I say to you—he is more than a prophet. He it is of whom it is written:               

Behold, I will send my angel before your face;

He shall prepare the way of your working in human hearts

So that your Being may be revealed.

 "The truth I say to you: among all who are born of women, not one has risen up who is greater than John the Baptist, and yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist, and even more, now, the kingdom of heaven is advancing and will arise within human beings through the power of the will; those who exert themselves can freely grasp it. The deeds of the prophets and the content of the Law are words of the Spirit that were valid [worked into the future] until the time of John. And if you want to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear." 

4^th Johnstide

June 17, 2022

Matthew 11: 2-15 

This gospel reading teaches us about remembering and forgetting. 

John the Baptist had seen the Spirit of Christ descend like a dove upon Jesus of Nazareth and remain there. He repeatedly witnessed and spoke of the importance of this new divine-human spiritual constellation in Jesus. Yet now in prison, John seems to have forgotten what he knew. Or perhaps it was a question of expectations. 

Marie Lavie, John the Baptist

"Are you the Messiah who is to come, or shall we expect someone else?" he asks.

Meanwhile, Christ has not forgotten who John is. He honors him, his forerunner, his baptizer, and his spiritual brother. Furthermore, he can speak of John's significance, the meaning of John's life and stature, seen both from earthly and heavenly perspectives. 

John, imprisoned both in an outer dungeon and in a failing bodily instrument, approaches his death, his sleep, and his forgetting. Christ embraces and holds John's being in his divine-human consciousness. Christ knows who John truly is, not only in this lifetime but in the previous—"He is Elijah who is to come"*. He knows who John will be in the future. And Christ holds in safekeeping John's true, eternal identity, the identity, which survives forgetting, and death, which moves from life to life. 

Christ is the keeper, the shepherd of our true selves. He carries them in his great heart, holding them in his great all-embracing consciousness. He holds them against the day when in beholding and recognizing him, in experiencing his great I AM, we will also recognize and remember ourselves. 

*Matthew 11:14

www.thechristiancommunity.org

3rd Johnstide 2022, God's Appalling Goodness

Johnstide

John 1:19-34

 

Tissot

This is John's testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" 

Freely and openly, he confessed. He did not deny but confessed, "I am not the Christ [the Anointed]." 

Then they asked him, "Who are you then? Are you Elijah?" 

And he said, "No, I am not." 

"Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No." 

Then they said, "Who are you? What answer are we to give to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?" 

He said in the words of the prophet Isaiah, "I am the voice of one crying in the loneliness: Prepare the way for the Lord [so that the Lord may enter into the inmost soul [or, inmost self]." 

And those sent by the Pharisees asked him, "Why do you baptize if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" 

John answered them, "I baptize with water. But someone is standing in your midst whom you do not know, who comes after me although he was before me. I am not worthy even to untie the strap of his sandals." 

This took place in Bethany near the mouth of the Jordan, where John was baptizing. 

Grunewald

The next day he [John] sees Jesus
coming to him and says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes upon himself the burden of the sin of the world. He it is of whom I said: 'After me comes one greater than I  for he existed long before me. Even I did not know him; but for this, I have come, and have baptized with water so that human souls in Israel might become able to experience the revelation of his being." 

And John testified: "I saw how the Spirit descended upon him like a dove from the heavens and remained united with him. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend so that it remains united with him, he it is who baptizes with the (breath of the) Holy [or, Healing] Spirit.' And I saw this, and so I testify that this is God's Son." 

3^rd Johnstide

July 14, 2022

John 1:19-34 

Both illness and recovery are mysterious processes. Out of the blue, it seems, we “catch” a cold. We run a fever. No matter what we do, we don’t recover until the illness has run its course. Then healing, equally mysterious, arrives too, on its own. We can experience healing as grace. 

In the seasonal prayer, St. John the Baptist speaks in words of flame. His flame words are first described as health-bearing: all human souls are suffering from an illness, the sickness of being separated from their own divine origin. John’s health-bearing flame word is like a soul-fever, designed to aid the process of healing.

His flame words are also ‘guilt-conscious.’ In the light and heat of the fire of his words, we become aware that we are ill. We were created in God’s image and likeness. Our illness means that we are failing to live up to our truly divine human nature and task. The sickness of sin has laid us low. As one of the mystics, Blessed Angela of Foligno, describes it: 

When I enter that darkness, I cannot

recall a bit about anything human,

or about the God-man.* 

Once awareness does arrive, burning shame and guilt are the result. 

But John’s words are also ‘grace-divining.’ In our state of illness, we look for medicine and healing. And it has indeed been given us. It is in the descending of the true Spirit of the human being, the Healing Spirit, into Jesus, the Christ. He takes upon Himself the burden of the sin, the separation of the world from its divine origins. He is the medicine for our illness. 

The burning fever of the longing for healing is found in the depth of the heart. It is this flame of longing that begins the process of purification, in which the heart rises in love toward our Healer. Health-bearing, guilt-conscious, grace-divining describe the interaction between the human and the divine. 

Again the mystic: 

The [healing] embrace of God puts fire to the soul,

by which the soul entire is felt to burn

for Christ, accompanied by a light so great the soul

suspects the immensity of God’s appalling goodness.**

 

*Blessed Angela of Foligno, “The Darkness,” in Love’s Immensity, by Scott Cairns, p. 89.

**Ibid, “His Blazing Embrace,” pg. 88.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

2nd Johnstide 2022, Awaken Gratitude

Johnstide

John 3:22-35 

Johnstide

John 3:22-35

 

After this, Jesus and his disciples came to the land of Judea. There he stayed with them and baptized. John also baptized; he was at Aenon near Salim because there was plenty of water there, and people came to him and were baptized, for John had not yet been imprisoned. 

Ghirlandaio

Then a dispute arose between the disciples of John and the Jews about the path of purification. And they came to John and said to him, "Master, he who came to you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness – here he is, baptizing, and everyone is going to him." 

John answered, "No human being can grasp spiritual power for himself that is not given to him from the higher worlds. You yourselves can testify that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less. 

"The one who descends from above, out of the spiritual world, is elevated above all beings of the earth. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from the heavens is elevated above all who have arisen from the earthly. What he has seen and heard in the world of the Spirit, to that he can bear direct witness, but no one accepts his testimony.

"But whoever accepts his testimony sets their seal to this: that God is Truth [or, that there is no higher truth than the reality of God]. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 

2^nd St. Johnstide

July 3, 2022

John 3:22-35 

At the peak of its development, the blossom releases its pollen into the air, which rises toward the heights. The sunlight weaves its life into the pollen, which then returns to the world of earth. It joins with other plants to form seeds that carry life into the future. 

Gratitude is the opening of our hearts, the blossoming of our souls. Warmly felt gratitude is an invisible spiritual substance that rises upward toward Christ, the Spirit Sun. His spirit light weaves into this substance and enlivens it. Our gratitude returns to earth, to human hearts, transformed, as His power of light and life and love. His power in human hearts is what gives us a future. 

It is important to note that when pollen grains soar, they do not return to their original flower. The invigorated pollen that enlivens a particular plant has come from somewhere else, possibly far away. 

Anton Mengs

So it is with us; the spiritual substance of our gratitude, devotion, and prayers is transformed by Christ and carried to support new life wherever it is needed. My prayers and gratitude, arising from a warm and open heart, do not simply return to me. It is the prayers of others that enliven me.

Christ, the Spirit Sun, keeps His heart open toward the Father. For Him, the Father is His transforming sunlight. John the Baptist, who announces Christ, is also connected to the Father’s Spirit. He, too, is surrounded by the Father’s love. He is a kind of human/angelic mediator, a messenger sent on ahead to announce Christ’s impending arrival. John would shake us awake. He bids us open our hearts to stream forth gratitude so that Christ may send his enlivening power into all of us so that all may continue to live.  

“The Father holds the Son surrounded in his love and has given everything into his hands.” (John 3:35).

 www.thechristiancommunity.org                                                                                                                                                               

 

1st Johnstide 2022, Weight of Love

 1^st Johnstide

Mark 1:1-13

 

This is the beginning of the new word from the realm of the angels, sounding forth through Jesus Christ. Fulfilled is the word of the prophet Isaiah: 

Behold, I send my angel before your face.

He is to prepare your way.

Hear the voice of one calling in the loneliness of the human soul

Prepare the way for the Lord within the soul,

Make his paths straight so that he may find entrance into the innermost human being! 

Thus did John the Baptist appear in the loneliness of the desert. He proclaimed baptism, the way of a change of heart and mind, for the acknowledgment of sin. And they went out to him from all of Judea and Jerusalem and received baptism from him in the river Jordan and recognized and confessed their failings. 

John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist. Fruits and wild honey were his food. And he proclaimed, "After me comes one who is mightier than I. I am not even worthy to bend down before Him and to undo the straps of His sandals. I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the fire of the Holy [or, healing] Spirit." 

In those days, it happened: Jesus of Nazareth came to Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. 

And at the same time, as he rose up again out of the water, he beheld how the spheres of the heavens were torn open, and the Spirit of God descended upon him like a dove. 

And a voice sounded from the world of the Spirit, "You are my son, the beloved—in you is my revelation." ["Today, I have conceived (begotten) you." Luke 3:22] 

And suddenly, he felt himself driven by the Spirit into the desert, and he remained in the loneliness of the desert for forty days, tempted by the Adversary. And he was among wild animals, and the angels served him.

  1^st Johnstide                                      

June 26, 2022

Mark 1:1–11 

Memling

During Advent, we heard the angel say to Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. The Son of God will be born of you." In today's Gospel, God's Holy Spirit descends again in the form of a dove, this time upon Jesus of Nazareth. The Spirit of God, Christ, descends and remains on Him. 

Just as with Mary, we could imagine that Jesus' Baptism marks the beginning of a pregnancy. His Baptism is the conception of Christ's Resurrection Body. (Indeed, some versions of the Baptism story say, "You are my Beloved Son. Today, I have conceived (begotten) you."*) This new body is conceived in love by the inter-workings of the Trinity and the man Jesus. Jesus offered his body as the womb for this conception of humankind's Resurrection Body that would be birthed at Christ Jesus' death. 

Da Vinci

Such a momentous event had its preparation, of course. John the Baptist prepared this process. His ritual act of immersion and cleansing made a path for the Spirit's descent. John's baptism ritual helped make this conception of the Resurrection Body possible. 

God's Spirit of Healing looks for human souls who, like Jesus, have opened themselves to the heavens. It looks for souls who have immersed themselves in a ritual of cleansing and who are offering themselves. 

The Act of Consecration is our continuous Baptism. The whole of the offering is an act of cleansing. We start, like John, with the acknowledgment of our basic unworthiness. As we immerse ourselves, step-by-step in this ritual of offering, we open ourselves, along with bread and wine and water, to the heavens. We seek to be permeated by God's Healing Spirit. 

For us, the Healing Spirit can descend, though only for a few of us can the Spirit remain permanently. Most of us are not yet strong enough to bear the weight of the Love of the World. But we come faithfully, week by week, to receive the Spirit medicine. We come to strengthen the vessel until the time when the healing Spirit descends on us and remains. 

*Luke 3:22, from Codex D

www.thechristiancommunity.org

 

2nd Trinity II 2022, Source of Life

 2nd June Trinity II

John 4:1–26 

At this time, the Lord became aware that it was rumored among the Pharisees that Jesus was finding and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, though his disciples did.) Therefore he left Judea and went back again to Galilee. 

Julia Stankova

Now he had to pass through Samaria.

So he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the plot of land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was also there. Jesus was weary with the journey, and he sat down by the well. It was about midday, the sixth hour. 

Then a Samaritan woman came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" for his disciples had gone into town to buy bread. 

Then the Samaritan woman said to him, " You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" For the Jews avoided all contact with the Samaritans. 

Jesus answered her, "If you knew how the divine world now draws near to human beings, and who it is who says to you, 'Will you give me a drink,' you would ask him, and he would give you the water of life [or, the living water]. 

"Sir," the woman said to him, "you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where will you draw the living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his flocks and herds?" 

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give them, their thirst will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up as true life for eternity." 

The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may never be thirsty again, and need never come here again to draw." 

He said to her, "Go call your husband and show him to me." 

"I have no husband," she replied. 

Jesus said to her, "You have well said that you have no husband. Five husbands you have had, and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly."

"Sir," the woman said, "I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say that only in Jerusalem is the place where one should worship." 

Jesus answered, "Believe me, O woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship a being you do not know; we worship what we do know. That is why salvation had to be prepared for among the Jews. But the hour is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father with the power of the Spirit and in awareness [or, knowledge] of the truth." 

Then the woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah is coming who is called Christ. When he comes, he will teach us all things." 

Jesus said to her, "I, I AM he who is speaking to you."

2^nd Trinity II

June 19, 2022

John 4: 1-26 

The Persian Muslim poet of the 14th century, Hafiz*, wrote:

In many parts of the world

Water is

Scarce and precious

People sometimes have to walk

A great distance

Then carry heavy jugs upon their

Heads.

Because of our wisdom, we will travel

Far for love.

All movement is a sign of

Thirst. 

We might think of death and life as our close companions. We might imagine life as a woman carrying a water jar walking ahead of us, leading us onward, turning to quell our body’s thirst, then going on. And behind us is our other companion, for most of us, a shadowy figure. Though we may hasten from him in fear, he inspires us to make our journey meaningful. At a certain point, he comes from behind, takes our hand, and leads us home to the Father. 

Christ came to the well of his forefather Jacob, bringing water of a different order — not the maternal water of earth that sustains our bodies, but the divine water from the Father’s kingdom that sustains our souls and spirits. With Christ, the Father’s never-ending water of life is brought to earth. It does not keep our bodies from dying, though it may heal our illnesses; it is the water of life, of love, that keeps our souls and spirits alive.

Julia Stankova

Since Christ died, he has become the one who is walking both behind us and before us. Christ died and poured the water of life into death. Though we may run from him, it is he who inspires us to make our lives meaningful. And He is the one bearing the water that keeps our souls and spirits alive. He is the one who takes us to the Father.   

In our time especially, the divine world draws near to us. And now Christ approaches us and asks us, “Will you give me a drink?” He thirsts for what we can give him – our purest thoughts, our noblest feelings, our devotion. In return for what we offer him, he will not only keep our souls and spirits alive. He also offers to transform them into a wellspring, a source of eternal life. In Christ we become the woman with the water jar, quelling His thirst. Through Him, we can become a source of sustenance and healing, a source of life for others and for the earth. 

*The Subject Tonight Is Love, Poems of Hafiz, transl. by Daniel Ladinsky

www.thechristiancommunity.org