The following is an excerpt from Richard Rohr’s meditation for Sunday, August 8, 2016. Rohr is a Roman Catholic priest and Franciscan Brother, O. F. M. [Order of Friars Minor], ordained in 1970. He is founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation, here in Albuquerque.
"The True Self cannot really be hurt or offended. The false self—our egoic identity—is offended every few minutes. But if we notice when we take offence, and what part of us is offended (always a provisional identity), this will train us to gradually reside more and more in the Big Truth. (Most of John 14-16 circles around this message.) Thomas Keating charts conversion as a series of necessary humiliations to the false self.”—Richard Rohr
Here’s food for thought and what this blogger thinks about everyday. In these especially contentious times, how do we love our neighbors when so many around us stoke the fires of fear, distrust, anger, and hate? I am deeply troubled by the behavior I have seen for as long as I can remember among self-proclaimed evangelicals. There are no simple answers to how we live out this: God in me loves God in everything. And the Christian religion does not have a unique message regarding our love for one another as inhabitants of the world. All world faiths—Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Native American—teach what we call the golden rule. The law of reciprocity, i. e., the principle of treating others as one would wish to be treated oneself. It is a maxim of altruism seen in many human religions and human cultures.
Matthew 7:12 King James Version (KJV) ”…12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”
Mark 12:30-31, (KJV) “,,,3
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
Actions speak louder than words. We must all examine our hearts, all day and everyday. And we must learn to live out our days in loving one another, and then follow through. No exceptions.
