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.
Greetings,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for this Connie.
I sense there is depth to who precisely is "sitting among the poor, the sick, the wretched who have been deeply wounded by Imperial Rome."
May we all move beyond that which binds, and find the locus of this sitting place.
All good wishes,
robert
Robert, thanx so much for coming here. I really love the way you put that beautiful line: "May we all move beyond that which binds, and find the locus of this sitting place."
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