Subject/Object

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Ezekiel, loving heart, Matthew, reconciliation, relationship, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I remember when I first heard – I mean really heard these lines in Matthew’s gospel: “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother and then come and offer your gift.” (Mt 5: 20-26) It seemed a bit backward to me—not that I might have something against my brother but rather that I was being blamed for wrongdoing. It made me look deeper at my willingness to own up to my failings in relationship.

Today I need to entertain another step on the way to maturity. Not only do we have Matthew’s advice quoted above, but the gospel acclamation adds another layer to the need for truth telling. It says: “Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, says the Lord, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.” (Ez 18:31) It’s as if we’re called before a God who is not willing to do all the work in telling us what we’ve done that we ought to regret in our relationships but that we ought to be conscious enough and honest enough to “say it like it is.” For those of us who are used to the Scripture that says, “I will take away from you your stony hearts and give you a new (or “natural”) heart, this is a new moment. Still believing the truth of that generous promise from God about new hearts, it now seems incumbent on us that we work with God to create those new, natural, loving hearts that beat more clearly than ever before.

Everyday Miracles

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A Deep Breath of Life, Alan Cohen, awareness, consciousness, creative mind, human, intelligent force, life, loving heart, miracles, perfection, planets, prayer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, universe

Here is an interesting thought for pondering that brings my awareness to the importance of how I look at life. I invite you to suspend judgment and just read the words, then see if you can agree with the concept. If not, spend some time assessing your objections and ask yourself what it would take to adjust your attitude.

The universe was designed to work and in spite of appearances, it does. All of life, from the tiniest amoeba to the trillions of stars, planets and galaxies, operates with clockwork precision. Surely there is an intelligent force with an unfathomably creative mind and loving heart behind such magnificent perfection! (Alan Cohen – A Deep Breath of Life)

What are the most amazing miracles that you observe in life? For me it’s the incredible cooperation of systems in the human body and the way the planets keep moving without colliding. Or it could be the way that the change of seasons is so vibrant in my neighborhood or the prayer plant in front of my window whose leaves move from a horizontal position in the day to verticality at night so I can sleep knowing that there is, in fact, a creature lifting up prayer in my stead throughout the night. I could go on (big surprise, right?) but each of us must choose what it is that stuns us into consciousness of the amazing universe given to us even in our darkest days.