You Owe Me

Greetings, Sisters, Brothers and Friends of the Community,

I pray you are all well and peaceful.

Watching bits and pieces of the Olympics this past week, I am reminded of all the score-keeping that is necessary to make it all work. In some cases a hundredth of a second separates a winner from a loser. The winner expects a gold medal in return.

Fortunately, in the spiritual world (the real world), scores like this are not kept, and everyone can win. Love is the key characteristic in God’s world. It is given freely, without expectation of something in return.

Sufi master Hafiz writes in one of his poems:

“Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
‘You owe me.’
Look what happens with a love like that;
It lights up the whole sky.”

Even after all this time, the SON never says to us, ‘You owe me.’ He just continues to love because that is his nature. Jesus asks us to love others as he has loved us – freely, without the encumberance of a dysfunctional ego. Throw away your score cards (held tightly by your ego) and shine from the heart in the way that he has made you, without expectation in return from others.

Please share your reflections as you are moved to do so.

Your partly-cloudy-but-slowly-clearing-up brother,

Br. Daniel-Joseph, CTG
Guardian