The great commandment is not “Thou shalt be right.” Instead, the great commandment is, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Just stay inside of the Great Compassion, the Great Stream, the Great River of Divine Love. Don’t push that river, just stay in it. You are already there!
All that is needed is surrender and gratitude. Our job is simply to thank God for being part of it all and allow it to happen. The many burdens we carry are not just ours. We are in this together. The sin that comes up in us is not just our sin; it is the sin of the world. The joy that comes up in us is not just our personal joy; it is the joy of all creation. We are in this together as the living Body of God.
All we can do is accept and give thanks.
~From Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs
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When Job’s life is about to be taken away from him, he can say one of two things. He can curse God, as he is tempted to do, and say, “God, why not fifty-one years of life?” Or he can surrender to love and say, “God, why even fifty years?” Why did I deserve life at all? When we take on that attitude, we’ve made a decision for grace.
“Naked I came into the world, and naked I will leave,” Job says (Job 1:21). What do we have, brothers and sisters, that has not been given to us? All is grace. All is given. Who gave me this hand? Who wiggles these fingers? Who created these eyes which I cannot explain or understand? I cannot even make this hair grow. It is all gift.
From beginning to end, everything is grace, everything is given. There is nothing that we have a right to or that we deserve.
~Adapted from Richard Rohr, Radical Grace: Daily Meditations
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In the Eucharist, or Lord’s Supper, Jesus gave us something that he did not say we needed to “think about” or “agree upon,” “understand,” “look at,” or even “worship.” Instead, he just said, ”Eat this” and “give thanks” (eucharisteo, Luke 22:17) to the one who gives you bread, and who is the origin of your own life and goodness. It is something we do at the cellular level more than the cerebral level.
Every day we must make a deep choice for gratitude, abundance (“there is enough”), and appreciation, which always de-centers the self and its cravings. It is the core meaning of worship. Your life is pure gift, and it must be based in an attitude of gratitude.
~Adapted from Richard Rohr, Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, and Everything Belongs
