Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Will you ever understand
how near God is to you?

Lalla, fourteenth century C.E.


She was a mystic Islamic poet and saint from the 14th C, born in Indian Kashmir. She wrote:

“God does not want meditations and austerities
;
Through love alone canst though reach the Abode of Bliss.

Thou mayst be lost like salt in water
;
Still it is difficult for thee to know God.”


Lalla is, I think, right. “It is difficult for thee to know God”. And human beings had better remember this if we do not want to fall into delusions of grandeur leading only to destruction.

For most of my life, various “teachings” – especially those in preparation for my ordination to the priesthood some 39 years ago – misled me. On the other hand, perhaps we need to be misled ….. until we come to that point where we have the inner courage and learning to acknowledge the truth. And so I say, Thank God for age!

Now I know how near God is ….. to me and to you and to all of us. In fact, inseparable, indistinguishable. Until we know this, any deity we think we have discovered will be false.

And our humanity will be defective.

As we see.

Brian+