looking for a win/win scenario?

In our Western civilization, the main frame for understanding daily life is the competitive frame. Everything is seen in terms of winning and losing, up or down, with me or against me. In my opinion, this is why the West has largely not understood the Gospel. You can’t understand the Gospel if you’re looking for a win/lose scenario.

I believe Jesus was the first clear non-dual teacher in Western civilization, but he has for the most part been interpreted by dualistic thinkers and competitive churches. By eating with sinners and associating with outcasts, Jesus showed what he felt about all exclusionary systems. And yet, that is what our churches have largely been, starting with an early enmity toward our own Jewish roots.

Jesus said, “My Father’s sun shines on the good and the bad. His rain falls on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5: 45). Try to make systematic theology out of that! Who can you exclude from the table with that kind of thinking? Jesus has always been way too much for us. He is offering civilization a win/win scenario, and frankly for most of us that is not very interesting.

Richard Rohr 

On the Blessed Trinity

Let's just think for a moment about a young woman who is pregnant, and who is delighted that she is. She is a reflective soul, and she loves to spend some time on her own each day, contemplating the miracle that is happening within.

As time goes by, she is more and more conscious of the stirring of new life within her, and her response is a whole-hearted and a grateful yes. Her prayer has never been more profound, even if she is not conscious that she is praying. She is in the midst, and in the process of creation; she is opening her heart totally to the possibility and to the potential. Her baby is already being created and nourished with love.

This is a sacred time, and hers is a very sac­red call. There is a trust that is totally dependent on the process, and it is not a trust that she would have in herself of her own ability to see this through. That trust is nurtured by the love she experiences; it is that love that strengthens her trust. She just believes that all will be well.

'For God so loved the world ... ' When Jesus speaks of the great love of the Father, he immediately appeals for trust in that love. Jesus entered the womb of the world ... His coming among us was an expression of the Father's hug.

'They who see me, see the Father; they who hear me, hear the Father, because I and the Father are one.'

What controls my life?

Fear is almost always behind hate.

Sometimes it looks like taking necessary control, but control freaks are usually afraid of losing something. It is almost always fear that justifies hatred, but a fear that is hardly ever recognized as such.

For fear to survive, it must look like reason, prudence, common sense, justice, or even religion.

It always works. What better way to veil vengeance than to call it justice? What better way to cover greed than to call it responsible stewardship? What better way to cover arrogance than call it Biblical obedience?

Only people who have moved beyond ego and controlling all outcomes, only those practiced at letting go, see fear for the imposter that it is. To be trapped inside of your small self is always to be afraid.

There is an intrinsic connection between fear, hatred and violence. Fear always needs a hiding place, and one of the best is supposed morality or truth-speaking. Then, you can hate with impunity, and even grandiosity, or validation from the Scriptures.

Then you can be hateful and not feel the least guilty about it, but in fact feel morally superior.

Richard Rohr 

The speed of light

If you had been present at the moment of the resurrection of Jesus, what would you have seen? If there had been a video camera outside the tomb, what would it have seen recorded? Probably there would have been a huge flash of light.

The historical figure, Jesus of Nazareth, moved beyond any confinement in space and time and became Light Itself, which we now know from astrophysics is omnipresent in the universe, and its speed is the ultimate measure of all things. That’s why you and I have total access to the Christ. He morphed from the confined Jesus to the Cosmic Christ, which includes all of creation—and even you and me.

We are a part of that one shared light (Ephesians 5:8), that "enlightens all people" (John 1:9), and has come down from "the Father of all Light" (James 1:17). In John's Gospel he predicted the same: "I am the Light of the world" (John 8:12). One could even say that in Christ, God and Light have become the same. And nobody on this earth can control the light. It goes where it goes—instantaneously.

Hallelujah - He is risen

That God loves us is evident by our existence. Living in this time and space and Universe is enough to be grateful for. But even more so than any human parent, He has also sacrificed and raised from the dead His son in order that whatever we may do wrong will be forgiven, and that we will have eternal life.

In return for this wondrous gift, we have only to do two things:

1. Love God with all our heart and soul
2. Love our neighbours as we love ourselves

...the rest is just show business!