Continuing the conversation re Fr. Keating's article
So, we are talking about the search for God, or god, or gods...or as Fr. Keating puts it: UM - Ultimate Mystery.
Click on the title for Fr. Keating's writing.
He then writes: see paragraph 5 & 6
"One aspect of the search for Ultimate Mystery requires special emphasis today. I refer to Its identification with other human beings and with their needs, rights, and heartbreaks. The seeker must search for Ultimate Mystery not only in Itself, but also in Its manifestation in individual human beings, especially in those who are suffering unjustly."
The term "its" - second line, 4th. word - refers to the search for God to be identified with the needs, rights and pains of other human beings. Not only to search, but to search in the manifestation of God in others...especially in those who suffer. But not only who 'suffer', but who suffer unjustly.
This is complex, complicated. God manifests (forget the terms himself, herself, itself, etc. and its initial letter capitalization, please!) in human beings...and the 'search' is to emphasize those who suffer...furthermore...unjustly: that is out of my comfort zone, and I ass -u -me, many of 'us's' comfort zones! So that when I saw the extended hands of thousands seeking vouchers for federally subsidized housing in East Point Atlanta in last night's TV News, and the images so similar to those Cable TV - U.S. - shows of victims of poverty, hunger, tsunamis, disasters, in 3rd. world countries, banana republics, non capital - istic societies, most probably socialists and communists, and idol...well you know, as in a fantastic, "Discovery Channel" type documentary of something strange and rare, the god of my seeking and Yours!...was manifesting in that pain and heat, and in the compression of bodies attempting to wrench one form from the hands of a white uniformed Official seating on the top of a car to protect himself as hundred of non-white hands extended toward him in despair. Wow! You - God - were there?
If you, YOU, were, why did not only TV commentators showing the video as a "rarity in East Point", but my mind - once in a while, quietly, succintly, almost subconsciously - did judge the seekers - sufferers now - as lazy, overweight, ugly, stereotypical of abandonment of self into the worse pleasures of diet and life - and before the scenes gave way to commercials, a slight 'gasp' came up from my lower abdomen, signaling the fear and possibility that something similar could happen to me...that 'i' was there, but not really, and that for now, "I" was safe in the chair, sitting where I was looking at the news. Looking at a new version of "Katrina" - right in my backyard.
And you God were there?
I see an answer in the next paragraph: "In the Judeo-Christian tradition, these people are the apple of God’s eye, and everyone will be judged in the last analysis on the basis of one’s response to their needs."
Fr. Keating continues: "If seekers of Ultimate Mystery perceive themselves as citizens of the planet earth, then their first loyalty is to the human family as a whole. The particulars of race, nationalism, religion and culture can be transcended without reacting against them or trying to destroy them.
What would my life be like if I did not judge...that is, judge others...? And "be" loyal...loyal;?!?!?! to others? And see God..., or god..., but MY god, in them? In others?
Without building fences?
Click on the title for Fr. Keating's writing.
He then writes: see paragraph 5 & 6
"One aspect of the search for Ultimate Mystery requires special emphasis today. I refer to Its identification with other human beings and with their needs, rights, and heartbreaks. The seeker must search for Ultimate Mystery not only in Itself, but also in Its manifestation in individual human beings, especially in those who are suffering unjustly."
The term "its" - second line, 4th. word - refers to the search for God to be identified with the needs, rights and pains of other human beings. Not only to search, but to search in the manifestation of God in others...especially in those who suffer. But not only who 'suffer', but who suffer unjustly.
This is complex, complicated. God manifests (forget the terms himself, herself, itself, etc. and its initial letter capitalization, please!) in human beings...and the 'search' is to emphasize those who suffer...furthermore...unjustly: that is out of my comfort zone, and I ass -u -me, many of 'us's' comfort zones! So that when I saw the extended hands of thousands seeking vouchers for federally subsidized housing in East Point Atlanta in last night's TV News, and the images so similar to those Cable TV - U.S. - shows of victims of poverty, hunger, tsunamis, disasters, in 3rd. world countries, banana republics, non capital - istic societies, most probably socialists and communists, and idol...well you know, as in a fantastic, "Discovery Channel" type documentary of something strange and rare, the god of my seeking and Yours!...was manifesting in that pain and heat, and in the compression of bodies attempting to wrench one form from the hands of a white uniformed Official seating on the top of a car to protect himself as hundred of non-white hands extended toward him in despair. Wow! You - God - were there?
If you, YOU, were, why did not only TV commentators showing the video as a "rarity in East Point", but my mind - once in a while, quietly, succintly, almost subconsciously - did judge the seekers - sufferers now - as lazy, overweight, ugly, stereotypical of abandonment of self into the worse pleasures of diet and life - and before the scenes gave way to commercials, a slight 'gasp' came up from my lower abdomen, signaling the fear and possibility that something similar could happen to me...that 'i' was there, but not really, and that for now, "I" was safe in the chair, sitting where I was looking at the news. Looking at a new version of "Katrina" - right in my backyard.
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| East Point, GA Aug 11, 2010 |
I see an answer in the next paragraph: "In the Judeo-Christian tradition, these people are the apple of God’s eye, and everyone will be judged in the last analysis on the basis of one’s response to their needs."
Fr. Keating continues: "If seekers of Ultimate Mystery perceive themselves as citizens of the planet earth, then their first loyalty is to the human family as a whole. The particulars of race, nationalism, religion and culture can be transcended without reacting against them or trying to destroy them.
What would my life be like if I did not judge...that is, judge others...? And "be" loyal...loyal;?!?!?! to others? And see God..., or god..., but MY god, in them? In others?
Without building fences?
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