The Countercultural Gift of Christ: The up side down side
“The path of Jesus the Way cuts against the grain of conventional wisdom and the ordinary way of doing things, against power and pride and injustice.”
Jim Manney
In side out side
up side down side
from what side of the Maginot Line
do I weigh success?
Elite education? Own a business? A house?
Large social media following? Size of my savings account?
Sweet sanctioned signifiers of success?
Or do I privilege
Action aimed at what aligns
me in the Way of Jesus? Simple living learning to give my life away? Compassion? Benevolence? Humility?
And, what might that look like?
The Jesuit priest Anthony de Mello tells one of my favorite parables. He calls it “The Diamond.”
The sannyasi (wise person) had reached the outskirts of the village and settled down under a tree for the night when a villager came running up to him and said, ”The stone! The stone! Give me the precious stone!”
“What stone?” asked the sannyasi.
“Last night the Lord Shiva appeared to me in a dream,” said the villager, “and told me that if I went to the outskirts of the village at dusk I should find a snnnyasi who would give me a precious stone that would make me rich forever.”
The same sannyasi rummaged in his bag and pulled out a stone. “He probably meant this one,” he said, as he handed the stone over to the villager. “I found it on a forest path some days ago. You can certainly have it.”
The man gazed at the stone in wonder. It was a diamond, probably the largest diamond in the whole world, for it was as large as a person’s head.
He took the diamond and walked away. All night he tossed about in bed, unable to sleep. Next day at the crack of dawn he woke the sannnyasi and said,”Give me the wealth that makes it possible for you to give this diamond away so easily.” **
Inside outside upside downside from what side of the Maginot Line do I weigh success?
The Anthony de Mello quote is found in “The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything,” by James Martin, SJ. (177–178)
The Manney quote is found in to today’s selection in An Ignatian Book of Days by Jim Manney, a series of daily reflections from the Spiritual Wisdom of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Throughout the book we hear the voices of St. Ignatius as well as many great thinkers and writers, long gone and present day, each uniquely revealing the way of finding God in all things.And that is my intention; to find God/Divine Presence/Ultimate Reality in whatever presents itself to me each day in 2024.
Each day I read, reflect and write on the selection, hoping to articulate the ways in which I come to know God/Divine Presence/Ultimate Reality via personal experience, impelled by the leading of my inner life.
INVITATION
Would you like to join me? The book is accessible on Amazon. Let me know in the comments to this post and sign up to get an email whenever I post. I would love to read your reflections too, public or private messages welcome!
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https://www.debraasis.org
All words are generated by grace and the grit of a real human being,
Debra Asis
