With eyes wide open

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Cruelty is not the fruit of contemplation. Those who have touched the God who lives within themselves, with all their struggles, all their lack, see God everywhere and, most of all, in the helpless, fragile, pleading, frightened other. Contemplatives do not judge the heart of another by a scale on which they themselves could not be vindicated. 

          Joan Chittister

__________________________

 

each day I am impelled

to take that hazardous journey into my soul

into the deep place where Sacred dwells

 

each day I return from this journey changed

for no one can encounter pure love

and remain untouched

 

the person who journeys outward

into the chaotic mess of the world

can no longer pretend

righteousness

 

for Sacred presence draws out of the soul

everything

the good, the bad, and the ugly

revealing, transforming, and restoring

making all things new

 

and that experience of Love

both beautiful and terrible

gives us new eyes

 

gives us the capacity to see God everywhere

in every one

in the “other”

that one so different from, so alien to us

that one who sets our teeth on edge

that one we have been taught to despise, or ignore

 

we cannot help ourselves

it is irresistible

and we can no longer hide behind our own presumed righteousness

we can no longer batter with creed and law

we can no longer despise or ignore

we see that unborn child, but we also see the mother

we see that officer, but we also see the person pursued

we see that person who thinks and votes like us

but we also see that one who does not

 

we see everyone

and in everyone we see Jesus

 

and we cannot judge

we cannot exclude

we cannot ignore

we must love

 

having walked with God through our own pain

and fear, and anger

our own frailty and sin

 

we must walk with God and the other

kindly

generously

compassionately

 

for we are all children of God

all terrible, all beautiful

all struggling

all in need of Love

 

and coercion and cruelty

exclusion and oppression

are never the answer

 

and if we find ourselves

awash in hate and anger

seeking revenge or retribution

we know we have not let God love and transform us

 

for the touch of God, “produces in human life fruits such as these: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, fidelity, tolerance and self-control” (Gal 5 JB Phillips)

 

that is how people we know we have let God love us

we will love one another