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I am created as Person essentiallyopen to other persons, and I cannot discover myself apart from that openness. I am not just a static being, fixed for a time or always; I am Person be-ing in relation to other persons be-ing. I cannot discover God and be discovered by God alone. I meet Christ and am met by Christ in the otherness of the other, an otherness that in a unique way mirrors the wholeness of the Divine Presence. The Holy Spirit reveals the Face of God in the face of the other in his or her otherness. I find Otherness in the other, or I am left alone, unknown, unknowing, and lost. There is no Heaven without this openness. The darkness of Hell is the darkness of a closed heart. The fire of Hell is the fire of a self turned in on itself.
*Brian K. Wilcox
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Kathleen Norris tells, in Amazing Grace, of reading of a story in a friend's sermon of a Croatian of Serbian descent. The Croatian was a Christian in charge of managing refugee resettlement in Croatia. He worked on plans for rebuilding a Muslim village that had been destroyed in the war. The man, to his surprise, found out that no plans had been included to rebuild a mosque.
The Christian inquired on this matter of no mosque in the plans. The mayor told him that he assumed Christian organizations would not be willing to help fund the rebuilding of a Muslim mosque. The relief worker replied that it was because they were followers of Jesus Christ that they would help rebuild the mosque. "Jesus told a story about a good Samaritan," he observed, "who helped his neighbor without asking him about his theology."
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The above story, like the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10.25-37), demonstrates the irony at the heart of the Way of Jesus Christ. Why the irony? For the true Christian Way is a Path of spiritual Love.
Irony presents us with surprise, an event or outcome incongruent with the expectation of the setting. For a Jew in the Gospel to take care of, touch, and spend money for the healing and housing of a Samaritan, was ironic. Orthodox Jews just did not act that way. Jesus says, however, to an inquiring Jew seeking the Way to Eternal Life: "You go, and do likewise" (ESV).
In our opening story, a Christian relief worker acts in ironic Love. Yes, many Christians would consider it to be a compromise of Christian faith to help rebuild a Muslim mosque. His reply, however, to the lack of plans to do so, suggests for us the irony at the heart of the Gospel. Jesus could say to us, "Yes, I know that this is contradictory. You will be considered being untrue to the faith. Well, if you are going to follow and honor me, you must accept being untrue to the faith, when that conflicts with the Way of Love. The Way of Eternal life is not essentially about any faith, not even what many call Christian faith. My way is the radical Love that cannot but not fit into popular expectations, even majority religious ones. You go, then, and do likewise."
Of course, this Love does not mean a compromise of essential defining traits. To say "I am a Christian" means to say something essential about tradition, belief, and practice. To say "I am a Muslim" does, also.
Yet, what can bring us all together to celebrate shared truth, our common created sacredness, and make our world a safer and more peaceful planet? Divine Love, and only This, can allow our differences and likenesses, as people of many faiths and cultures, to engage us in blessed community for the good of all peoples and our shared environment.
This Love is not owned by any faith or people. This Love birthed us all. This Love is our hope for the future. Where do we begin practicing it? Where we are now. When do we begin living it? Now. Whom do we share it with? Everyone.
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*Brian K. Wilcox lives with his wife, Rocio, their two dogs, St. Francis and Bandit Ty, and their fish, Hope, in Southwest Florida. Brian is vowed at Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in Georgia. He lives a contemplative life and inspires others to experience a deeper relationship with Christ. He advocates for a spiritually-focused Christianity and the renewal of the focus of the Church on addressing the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons and empathic relating with diverse spiritual traditions, East and West. Brian has an independent writing, workshop, and retreat ministry, for all spiritual seekers.
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