Sacred is everywhere

I doubt if you can see the image of God (Imago Dei) in your fellow humans if you cannot first see it in rudimentary form in stones, in plants and flowers, in strange little animals, in bread and wine, and most especially cannot honor this objective divine image in yourself.

                               Richard Rohr  “The Universal Christ” p. 118

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Thomas Merton once said, “the gate to heaven is everywhere”

which is perhaps a way of saying

 

everything is Divine

everything is Sacred

everything carries a piece of the Creator

 

everything at some level is the Sacred incarnate

Word become rocks

Word become water

Word become plants and trees

Word become creatures of the seas

And birds on the wing

And all the creatures of the earth

 

Even me

Even you

Even our friends and lovers

Even our enemies

 

Even Donald Trump and Joe Biden

Even that one who has wounded us dreadfully

 

Why is it so hard to see God?

God is everywhere

Everywhere

 

Perhaps it is because our concept of God is so limited

Perhaps it is because we don’t look deep enough

 

Perhaps it is because when we think of Sacred

We want to be lifted out of this world

When really our goal should be to be planted firmly in the world

 

To see God in the grit and dust

In the immovable rock

In the changing leaves

In the early snow

 

Perhaps it is only when we see God

In this world

When we respect the incarnational nature of God

 

That we will be able to see God

in ourselves, and in the people around us

 

I suspect that we will not treat the world with respect

That we will not take care of the planet, until we see God in it

And understand that this world is God’s self-expression, God’s Word

 

I suspect that we will not be able to treat each other with respect

Until we see all other people as the ongoing incarnation of Jesus

God carriers

(for God loves things by becoming them)

 

Without this inner vision

We will continue to brutalize the earth

And we will continue to brutalize each other

 

When we stop harming the earth

That will be the sign that we are ready to start harming each other too

 

This day

As the sun rises, and the clouds glow

And the trees shimmer red and gold

And the frost glistens on the grass

 

This day as the mountains loom

And the eagles soar

And the aspen leaves ripple in the wind

 

This day is a day to go down and in

To go beyond the surface to the depth

To that inner place where things are what they are

Where people are who they are

 

And make the discovery

Ever old

Ever new

 

That God is everywhere

And to respect and love the divine image

 

In the world around us

In the people we meet

And in ourselves

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The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.

They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.

Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

                     Psalm 19