World: Do unto others before they do unto you.
Reality: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
World: Life is something I have.
Reality: I am a part of life.
World: Love is a part of me.
Reality: I am a part of love.
World: Freedom from something.
Reality: Freedom for something.
World: Reduces the greater to the lesser.
Reality: The lesser reflects the greater.
World: Because God loves everyone, God loves me.
Reality: Because God love me, God loves everyone.
World: I pray so that I can change God.
Reality: I pray so that God can change me.
World: Love things, use people.
Reality: Love people, use things.
World: Man’s search for God.
Reality: God’s search for man.
World: The universe is dark and human understanding is an expanding circle of light.
Reality: The universe is light and human understanding is a shrinking circle of darkness.
World: It is better to receive.
Reality: It is better to give.
World: It’s all about me.
Reality: It’s all about the other.
The risen Christ stands at the border between doubt and belief.
“Holy crap!” I hear this expression occasionally from my students.
I wonder, is this to be found only in Jesus’ latrine?
The prayer of listening makes things simple but it also makes us vulnerable, and that is frightening. Listening makes us open to Christ, the Word of God, spoken in all things: in the material world, the Scriptures, the Church, and sacraments and, sometimes most threateningly, in our fellow human beings. To listen at prayer is to take the chance of hearing the voice of Christ in the poor, the weak, those whom we love and those whom we do not love.
To listen, one needs to be silent.
“Calamities can bring growth and enlightenment,” said the Master.
He explained like this: “Each day a bird would shelter in the withered branches of a tree that stood in the middle of a vast deserted plain. One day a whirlwind uprooted the tree, forcing the poor bird to fly a hundred miles in search of shelter—till it finally reached a forest of fruit-laden trees.”
The Master concluded, “If the withered tree had survived, nothing would have induced the bird to give up its security and fly.”