The Messiah is at the gates of Rome, sitting among the poor...

Like them, Messiah changes the bindings of his wounds, but you will recognize him because he binds only one wound at a time, in order to be ready at a moment’s notice when the Holy One sends him forth to heal the world

The Shalom Report

Today! – If you will listen to the voice of God, crying out –

What is the meaning of “Today”? At one level, Today is the last day of the civil year 2012 (may the next year be more civil than the last one!)...

What is the deeper spiritual meaning of “Today!”? ...Any loving act ...that honors...Beloved Community....and honors...The time when all cultures and communities recognize in their sacred differences...refractions of the Infinite...Each culture seeing itself and all the others potentially a distinctive, necessary part of a cultural eco-system... part of the great interwoven flow of life upon this planet, and will act to heal the wounds of Earth.

For the task of “Messiah” is to bind all wounds and heal them for a fuller life. Even at the gates of Imperial Rome – especially at the gates of Empire.

I, Connie (blogger) took the above excerpt from this fuller text:

The Talmud tells this story: Rabbi Joshua ben Levi, who lived in the first half of the third century, was visited by the Prophet Elijah. (According to legend, Elijah never died but was carried up to Heaven in a fiery chariot. He often visited the ancient Rabbis in the guise of a wise old man who gave them spiritual guidance. Elijah is supposed to return in a fuller way to announce the coming of the Messiah.)

“When will Messiah come?” asked Joshua. “Ask him,” replied the Prophet. “The Messiah is at the gates of Rome, sitting among the poor, the sick, the wretched who have been deeply wounded by Imperial Rome. Like them, Messiah changes the bindings of his wounds, but you will recognize him because he binds only one wound at a time, in order to be ready at a moment’s notice when the Holy One sends him forth to heal the world.”

So Rabbi Joshua went to Rome, recognized the Messiah, and asked, “When will you be coming?” Messiah said, “Today!”

Joshua went back to Elijah and said that the Messiah had not told him the truth, because he had promised to come today but had not. Elijah explained, “This is what he said to thee, ‘To-day, if ye will listen to God’s Voice!’ ” (A quotation from Psalms 95:7)

So any loving act on any day, any act that responds to the Call that comes from the Breath of Life, may be “Today!” Any loving act that honors the Voice of Unity helps to bring what we might call the planetary Beloved Community. The time when all cultures and communities recognize in their sacred differences not lies and enmity but refractions of the Infinite – each one a crucial aspect of the human species as the liver and the heart and the brain and the big toe are distinctive parts of the one body. Each culture seeing itself and all the others potentially a distinctive, necessary part of a cultural eco-system. The Beloved Community when all human cultures will also see themselves as part of the great interwoven flow of life upon this planet, and will act to heal the wounds of Earth.

For the task of “Messiah” is to bind all wounds and heal them for a fuller life. Even at the gates of Imperial Rome – especially at the gates of Empire, for in every generation some new version of Imperial Rome wounds us again and again – we must do the work of healing. Not only “he,” not only “she,” but you and me. I and Thou. All of us.