The Abbot summoned a young monk to the chapel. The monk always showed great respect to the Abbot. But the Abbot, being a man of great humility, knew that he was not to receive such a degree of respect from anyone. When the monk arrived in the chapel, the Abbot said, "My dear son, you show too much respect to me." Pointing to the windows, the Abbot continued, "Windows are only the means of light. Why venerate the windows? Be attentive to the light."
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He is the image [Greek, icon] of the invisible One, the firstborn of all Nature.
*Colossians 1.15 (Christian New Testament)
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Being in Christ, we, with Christ, share in being an icon of the Light This is part of the mystery of everyone being the Body of Christ
The church failed in trying to limit this Body to itself and in trying to limit Christ to itself sought to limit Christ - which was doomed to failure from the start
Yet, now we are beginning to see - thankfully ! - Christ everywhere, Buddha everywhere, Love everywhere a Mystery taking many shapes, seen and unseen, including you Christ, in some sense, being set free among us, in us, through us, as us
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Respecting persons most arises from seeing each one as a window of the living Christ. You are a window of the Beloved. When Buddhists say in seeing you they see Buddha or Hindus say "Namaste" to you, this is substantially the same - call This what you will, This just is and cannot be limited by our ideologies, words, or prejudices. That that cannot belong to anyone or any people is everyone and, yet, is more than the sum of persons making up everyone.
Like ordinary windows, with differing degree of openness to share light, we each, to varying degrees, are means of the splendor of Grace. Some persons are more porous to the mystery of Grace than others.
The Sun does not differ in capacity, for it shines equally everywhere. If the light is not as bright and clear through one window as other windows, we cannot rightly say, "Look, the light shines differently from one to the other." The Light does not parcel Itself out, but gives Itself wholly. Rather, the capacity of one window is different from the other, based on the degree of clarity of the glass itself.
Some persons are practically closed to Light. Other persons are almost pure means of Light. Still, those who appear to be devoid of transmitting any Light, by moral and spiritual cleansing and formation, can grow as means of the Beauty of Gracefulness. In this sense, we are becoming what we are; so, Christ is being and becoming through us - this is part of the spiritual intuition of the teaching of the death and resurrection of Jesus in the Christian Scriptures.
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*Lotus of the Heart is a Work of Arem Nahariim-Samadhi ~ a Hospice Chaplain, interspiritual author, writer, poet, and bicyclist. He is someone in love with Life and inviting others to that same ecstasy of Love ~ and, by the way, herein is nothing he claims as his own.
