Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Heaven cannot brook two suns, nor earth two masters.

- Alexander the Great, who died on this date, 323BCE, in Babylon
[ the date is slightly dicey, given the shiftiness of calendars ]


Jesus is reported to have said, “No one can serve two masters.” To my mind, included in that is Religion.

Jesus, at least according to the Gospel called John, deeply yearned and prayed for Unity of the human community with "God" and with each other. I have never believed that He meant that all should be “Christians” – this was the later interpretation of His followers as they unfortunately slipped into exclusivity as a way of attempting to scare people into adherence. Further, I have never believed that Jesus intended to “found” another religion; only to bring the Jewish people into a more profound understanding of the nature of their God and of God’s “will”.

The human community will never be “one” if that means that we will all eventually follow one faith or philosophical path. The Gospel proposes that Love is the only path that will unite all peoples – with Love’s handmaidens of Justice, Respect, Kindness, Dignity, Peace. And when we speak of “Love”, we are not speaking of feelings or emotions. We are speaking of an act of the will, a solemn commitment to choose Love, based on all that all human beings have discovered about the nature of Love over the millennia, as the basis for our interactions on all levels.

For the human community to live together in a deep honouring and nurturing of Life, there must be only one “master”. Not a “master” that has imposed itself. But a “master” whose ability to bring Freedom and Peace and Trust and Compassion we have experienced. If there is any task, then, to which all human beings are called, it is to Know Love. On that Knowing depends our survival, and our ability to taste the Joy of Life and to sustain it for each other.

I hope for a World in which every encounter is of the discernment of Love. A world in which every Faith and philosophy calls us to this encounter. Only this will heal the brokenness that so wounds us.

Brian+