The Mystic Christian Reader

Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 23, verses 35-37:

The rulers, meanwhile, sneered at him and said, "He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God." Even the soldiers jeered at him. As they approached to offer him some wine, they called out, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself." Above him there was an inscription that read, "This is the King of the Jews." Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us."

How many of us in the educated, liberal-thinking community have not jeered at the idea of devout religion? I know that in my past, I have subscribed to an attitude of superiority over those who would put faith in God over science and education. Today, however, I see God as the fountainhead of Science, the instigator of education. In these verses, as Jesus is jeered by those who would seek to secure their own beliefs by belittling those of Jesus' followers, I see myself, and many of my contemporaries. We must remember that when we mock those with strong faith in God, we are mocking God and Jesus themselves. That is not to say that we shouldn't have religious dialogue, but there is a poem by the Sufi mysic Jalalladin Rumi called "Moses and the Shepherd" in which this attitude is attacked by God to Moses:

You have separated me from one of my own. Did you come as a Prophet to unite, or to sever?

I have given each being a separate and unique way of seeing and knowing and saying that knowledge. What seems wrong for you is right for him. What is poisonous to one is honey to someone else.

Purity and impurity, sloth and diligence in worship, these mean nothing to me.

I am apart from all that.Ways of worshipping are not to be ranked as better or worse than one another.

Hindus do Hindu things.the Dravidian Muslims in India do what they do. It's all praise, and it's all right. It's not me that's glorified in acts of worship. It's the worshipers! I don't hear the words they say. I look inside at the humility. That broken-open lowliness is the reality, not the language! Forget phraseology. I want burning, burning.

(As translated by Coleman Barks)

Therefore, if our criticizms are meant to strenghten someone's burning for God, to bring them closer to Love, then OK. If what we are doing is out of spite or ideas or right and wrong, then we are doing them for the wrong reasons. God is Love. Those who Love are saved.