Author: rkcdlitt

God’s Love of Everything

Paul writes in Romans: And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God . . .

All creation; not just humans. God’s Love is permanent and forever for everything he has created; we should duplicate this love. We say we love God, but we do not love all of his creation. Our abuse of this planet is criminal. We are all to blame.

Richard Rohr writes: “Perhaps the primary example of Christians’ lack of attention to the Christ Mystery can be seen in the way we continue to pollute and ravage planet Earth, the very thing we all stand on and live from. Science now appears to love and respect physicality more than most religion does! No wonder that science and business have taken over as the major explainers of meaning for most people today (even many who still go to church).

Perhaps it is time we return to what is important for the preservation of God’s creations. We just celebrated the arrival of a new grandson. Will he be able to enjoy God’s creation, as my generation has? Will he be able to reverse the damages my generation has done to Earth? I pray so.

Faith

In Swahili it is Imani, notice man in the middle. Faith is something many will turn to only when desperate, beleaguered, or in need of hope. The question is why. From the Gospel of Luke, comes this statement: “You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way. . .”

Of course, Luke is speaking of Jesus; but, perhaps, he is also speaking of us. His writing continues by saying that this prophet will bring the people knowledge of salvation, bringing God’s light to those who dwell in darkness, and whose feet will be guided in the way of peace.

If you are a Christian, or for that matter, any person of faith, this is the mission we are pursuing. Personally, I do not believe that God’s presence was or is reflected on only one human being. I believe that this is what all should be doing.

Faith is a force for good particularly when people are feeling beleaguered and in need of hope. Faith is the way to God’s self-revelation so that, like a well-lighted footpath, it leads us to love. This is why I believe that God has allowed us to be prophets spreading the truth of His grace. We are not Jesus, but we can emulate him and pass on his message.

God is Love

In our daily lives, we are the glory of God; He placed us on Earth to care for our brothers and sisters worldwide. As we do this, His glory shines upon all; all we must do is recognize this beauty. We must seek the face of God in all we meet. Never allow ourselves to forget this. Some will criticize; some will say we are insignificant; some will think we are foolish. We must let these doubters know that their injustice and criticisms can never prevail over god’s Goodness. The sea is so great, yet it is nothing but a union of individual drops of water.

We are not perfect; We are not Jesus; we are not God; but our actions can reflect their perfection. Our actions can project Love into the lives of those suffering under cruel injustices. Remember that those who love property and wealth may rule over us, and their actions may try to refute the concept of true Love. But their rule is temporary; their rule is temporal. Their rule is not perfection.

As I reflect on my relationships with others, and I have friends all around this planet we call Earth, I feel a great comfort that enters my very being. This comfort is the knowledge that we love each other, as God Loves us. Together, we are stronger than the forces of ill will. I look upon my friendships as gifts from god’s angels, and, who knows, my friends may in fact be God’s angels. I take comfort in their friendships, knowing that these friends are true gifts from God.

My friends, and this feeling of shared Love, allows me to know that I am never alone. God’s Love is mine, and yours, forever!

More than Love

“For God so loved the world”  –  This phrase from the Gospel of John, as true as it is, is so overused and so over-commandeered by people and organizations that have misused its true meaning.

The key word here is love, God’s love. To me, the words God and Love are interchangeable, they mean the same thing. You and I came into this world because God loves us. This is not a Love that can be ignored or tossed aside. This is a Love that is forever with us.

I will go a step further: our whole life is Love. There is no such thing as falling in love or losing love. We are Love; we are the shining example of God’s eternal Love. We cannot fall in love; what we do is recognize that Love is Life. We cannot live without love.

When we trust love, we free ourselves from all falsehoods, free ourselves from fear and heartbreak.

From my original family, I am the only one left walking this Earth. My mother, father, and sister have all returned to the bosom of God’s eternal love. I was saddened at their passing, but I can still feel the love that they represented. All I have to do is think of them, and they are sitting next to me, loving me as if they were physically present.

We cannot, I cannot live without recognizing that love is the core to life. With love, I am never alone; I walk the lighted path that assures me that I am with God. I walk the lighted path that assures me that I am Love.

The Beatitudes

Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger for justice, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted. Nowhere in this list are the rich and famous, the politically powerful, the business, owners, or the clergy. Jesus’ beatitudes are for all those who are not in these classes of people.

When you add to this the two commandments that Jesus gave us: love God and love each other, I can only assume that those people that use Jesus’ words to justify the eight blights on humanity listed above, are wrong. The rich and powerful are twisting His words to justify their greed, their dishonesty, and their hatred of those who are not like them.

Jesus was not a friendly guy; he came into the word as a poor carpenter’s son, and he travelled around the Middle East condemning those in leadership. He challenged every political and religious belief of his time, including accepting people who were not Jewish into his realm of God’s love. This included Roman soldiers, Samaritans, lepers, tax collectors, the people who were shunned by society because of their status in Israel.

Jesus was a loving person; he loved all who suffered, all who were lost, all who followed God’s loving words. His messages of love and comfort for the masses, the people who truly loved God and followed God’s commandments, can be and should be a comfort for us today. There are those in power today, whose only desire seems to be increasing their own status and denying others of rights and benefits that should be, must be, available for all people in the world.

If we live in God’s community of man, we cannot overlook the hunger and poverty of any man, woman, or child on any continent on Earth. Singly, we cannot change the world, but we can change our part of the world and let the ripple effect work its wonders. We were not born to live alone; we are here to serve one another. God loves us all; let us also love us all.

Loving One Another

The happiest and most blessed people are the ones who get up every morning and care about others, who will help someone in need or will speak up about any injustice when they see it.  Welcoming others may not be easy, but we must step beyond our fear and practice mutual hospitality that we may learn to love as God loves, knowing ourselves and each other as God’s children, our sisters and brothers.

Loving one another means we are children of God, as Jesus was, inheriting the ability to see His light in the world. And by this simple act of recognition, it becomes perfectly natural that in God’s Kingdom our life is one of relating to all of creation as mother, father, brother, sister. When we know that we are loved, we will quite naturally love in return; our hearts will respond to the call of love with gratitude and affection, with devotion and with an eagerness to please.

Together we can walk boldly toward a vision of a more inclusive and equitable future, one in which there are no more “others” — one in which there is a place for all of our beloved communities.  The idea that we are going to put less value on another person because they are different, or disabled, or because they carry an incurable disease is loathing to us.

We are taught to love one another; how can we go against all that matters and belittle the life of any other human being? The answer is we cannot and be happy and blessed.

Great Joy and Great Love

There is great joy in this journey called life; it’s difficult and weary, but rewarding and plentiful. Many of us growl and moan, much like bears and camels. We all search for a utopia, not knowing it is within us, at least within our power to acknowledge.

When we work together, we develop our mutual talents to work for the benefit of all mankind. When we are brothers and sisters, working together, we can be successful in working for the grace that life offers. Two, or more, are always better than one, because in their mutual efforts, each is lifted to greater heights.

When we recognize that selfishness and greed only causes misery and discord, we can avoid mutual destruction. God rewards us when we love and respect each other. We are comforted by our mutual love, not by our mutual discord.

It is when we love each other the most intensely and most humanly that we can recognize how real our love for others truly is. The keenness and intensity of this love brings us joy.

Obligation

It is the obligation of all of us as a member of mankind to care for one another. Every living soul is an important link in the success of mankind. Let no one be lost through negligence, ignorance or pride; but let each be continually fortified and strengthened with love to each other.

We must be persistent in this endeavor; otherwise we will fail to nourish ourselves and our earth. We must be bound by the love that God gives us; the love of and for God and the love of and for each other. This, surely, is everlasting strength against those who are more concerned with themselves than with mankind.

Life is not what we make on our own; this is just a form of ego and greed. Life is the contribution that everyone we meet, those who touched us, who looked at us, saw the beauty of God within us.

Those who touch us add to our life-giving and love-giving experiences. Those who we allow in our lives become a permanent part of our lives and have been a permanent influence on our lives. This is the way we love each other; this is the way we love God.

The Bread of Life

Bread has been the staple of life since man first walked on Earth. Wars in Europe have been fought over the shortage of bread. For many people on Earth, bread remains a key staple in feeding themselves and their families.

Jesus sanctified bread during his last supper with his disciples.

In our modern world, the term bread means money; money has become the new irreplaceable staple of life. Bread is the world of cut-throat economies, soaring credit and debt (just look out our national debt), high costs of education, and the high cost of feeding ourselves and one another. Greed has taken over to replace the sanctification of bread.

We have sold our future to the dark side of bread. No longer are we willing to sacrifice our own comforts for the benefits of others. This is too limiting for the future of our country and the future of our own beings.

We cannot be selfish with what God provides. All is meant to be shared.

Life should be open to all; humaneness is something that is possible, only if we are willing to share, share both kinds of bread. We cannot allow greed to withhold life from those in need.

Life is a miracle. We must generate the sharing of this and organize our society to see whether we can indeed eliminate despair and suffer. Sharing is the key; sharing bread is the key; sharing the bread of life is the key. The success of our community demands this effortless deed. This is a simple request of God, simple to do.

It is when we love the most intensely and most humanly that we can recognize how tepid is our love for others. When you love people, you see all the good in them.

Consciousness

Consciousness is defined as the awareness of one’s own existence, one’s own sensations, thoughts, and surroundings. This disregards any awareness of these same factors in others. So, I like to think of consciousness as mindfulness, and not in the philosophical or metaphysical mode. I mean mindfulness in that fact that there are others in this world besides me, or my limited view of the surrounding world.

I read many different types of books and magazines. I cannot understand some of the things that I read, such as a young boy or girl in Africa having to walk miles to get a bucket of fresh water. When I was their age, we were not monetarily rich, but I could walk over to the faucet in the kitchen and get fresh water to drink.

I think I can say that I am aware of the conditions that others live in; but I also like to think that I am mindful of the problems these conditions are for the people. They do not share in the wealth of the European world. The boy or girl fetching water is happy for fresh water, where I am complacent due to the ease of having a drink of water.

Complacency is not happiness. This is am very mindful of. The fact that I am complacent with a cup of fresh water can mean that fresh water is something I deserve. It is my right to have this. And, in current western society, the idea of deserving more is troublesome. If I deserve more, then someone deserves less.

I am mindful; I am conscious of the fact that I do not deserve more just because I live in middle class, western society I am mindful of the fact that my pleasures are achieved by the sacrifice of others. I am also mindful of the fact that this is not the way things should be. This is not the way things can continue. We must do something to change this.

My call is to talk with people with the idea that we can soften our demand for what we deserve and risk a little discomfort on our part for others to benefit from the basics in life. I pray that this is the lighted path.