“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the
center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization
that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could
not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like
waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special
world…. This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief
and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud…. I have the immense joy of
being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the
sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I
realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot
be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around
shining like the sun.
“Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their
hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor
self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is
in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only
we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no
more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed…. But this cannot be seen, only
believed and ‘understood’ by a peculiar gift.”
Watch for your own “Fourth and Walnut” corner (now Fourth and
Muhammad Ali Boulevard in Louisville) wherever you find yourself today. Allow
the gates of heaven to open, showing you that God is here, now, in all. Let one
person or creature or stone remind you of their and your own identity, indwelled
by God’s presence.
Gateway to
Silence:
The kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:2).
The kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:2).
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