Sunday December 10, 2017
The Freedom to Give It Away
There was a rich man who dreamt that if he went outside the city he would find a poor man under a mango tree who would give him a great treasure. Early next morning he drove out in his Mercedes Benz and sure enough there was a poor man sleeping under the mango tree. He roused him from sleep and told him of his dream. The poor man yawned and stretched in a very relaxed way. He then reached into his haversack and said, "Maybe this is what you are looking for, I found it a few days ago walking in the forest." He presented the biggest diamond that the rich man had ever seen. "How much? How much?" the rich man asked excitedly. "Oh, if you think it will make you happy just take it away," answered the other and he rolled over to go back to sleep. The rich man sang his way back to town and laughed at the poor idiot who would give away a diamond worth millions without asking even for a cent. But that night he could not sleep. And the next night he could not sleep. On the third morning he drove back to the poor man who was still sleeping happily under the mango three and he said, "Please, take back the diamond. But could you give me your real treasure." "What is that?" asked the poor man in surprise. "Your real treasure" answered the rich man, "is the freedom that enabled you to give away the diamond!"If you are one of those who like to divide the world into two classes of people: there are those who live with grabbing fists and those who live with open palms; there are those who seek to possess and those who believe in dis-possession. When it comes to prayer we find these two basic attitudes also. There are those who pray wanting to control God and those who pray wanting to submit. The first kind of prayer, if indeed it can be called prayer at all, is an effort to seek power over God, indeed, to be God. Adam and Eve, in the creation myth, ate the fruit because they "wanted to be like God;" they were rejecting creaturehood. When we want to control God and make him dance to our tune we can also be rejecting creaturehood.
Perhaps one of the people most open to God in all of history was John the Baptist. In today's Gospel he announces to the people the good news that the long awaited day of salvation is about to dawn upon them. He urges the people to prepare "a way for the Lord." But he makes it clear by word and example that the Lord's coming does not depend on their efforts. He ate and dressed simply and proclaimed clearly that he was only the forerunner of the Lord and not the Lord himself. John the Baptist is a great example of one who is secure in himself and is not dominated by his ego. He does not desire power, prestige or possessions and for that reason he is a really free man. Knowing that he is loved by God he desires no other possession. We too have to allow ourselves to be loved by God, and having experienced that love we become more secure. When we are aware of all that we have as gift, we will feel that we have more than enough and will want to share that and ourselves with others.
It is very easy to get the Gospel wrong, to turn it upside down, and say that God loves us and saves us only because we have earned it. But the Good News is that it is God who loves us first and all that is asked of us is to try to return that love. When we know that love we will be as free as the beggar under the mango tree. We will not be prisoners to any possession. Like John the Baptist we will not need to cling to anything.
In meditation this is precisely what we try to do - to let go of all clinging, planning, desiring. Just to BE in love, and knowing that we are loved we are free.
