Every reading for this weekend explores something about our experience of the Sacred and the Holy. It suggests that it doesn’t matter so much that we tell ourselves that we are searching for God; because the moment we say the words it becomes clear God has already found us. And, having found us, He talks to us of the Spirit and the Truth that is universally available (Jn.4,21,24). The Spirit shakes the house in which we live and puts Justice, Mercy, Peace, Love and Compassion at the top of our agenda. God is present to us always but speaks most clearly to us in the voice of the poor and of those who are suffering.
The High Altar, symbol of the rock which is the Beloved Son of God, and the rock that is Peter, becomes the mirror in which we see ourselves passionately committed together to building a new humanity and a new community where Peace reigns over all.
Eknath Easwarn was travelling from Delhi to Simla. The train stopped at the historic battlefield of the Bhagavad Gita. The train filled with excitement as the passengers talked about the great battle which took place on the ground on which they were now standing. But Eknath stayed in his seat for he knew that the real battlefield was right inside each passenger on the train. (The End of Sorrow, the Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living, vol 1, Nilgirie Press, 1975) What if the Gate of Heaven, the house of God is inside each of us? What if this is the only place from which true Peace can come?
Thomas Merton (pictured) put it so beautifully.
At the centre of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure Glory of God in us. It is, so to speak, His name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence as daughters and sons. It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see
it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely. I have no programme for seeing this. It is only given. But the Gate of Heaven is everywhere.
(Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, p.142,Garden City, N.Y. Doubleday, 1966)
