A Holy Holi Moment in Time
A Holy Holi Moment in Time
The problem I’m trying to solve in our community, with real people in our community, is an old one…how to live together in peace. It has to do with neighbors getting to know neighbors, and getting along together. The images I have are of animals living together in peace, a lamb, and the leaves of a special tree. The image of animals living in peace is from the Quaker sign painter from Lower Bucks county, Edward Hicks, who is drawing upon the Peaceable Kingdom from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 116-9):
A Living Knowledge of God
6-9The wolf will romp with the lamb,
the leopard sleep with the kid.
Calf and lion will eat from the same trough,
and a little child will tend them.
Cow and bear will graze the same pasture,
their calves and cubs grow up together,
and the lion eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child will crawl over rattlesnake dens,
the toddler stick his hand down the hole of a serpent.
Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill
on my holy mountain.
The whole earth will be brimming with knowing God-Alive,
a living knowledge of God ocean-deep, ocean-wide.
The image of the lamb and the tree comes from the last book in the Bible, Revelations. It is how the Lamb of God will be the Lord of History the leaves on a tree can be the cure for the nations Rev 22:2:
1-2 Then the Angel showed me Water-of-Life River, crystal bright. It flowed from the Throne of God and the Lamb, right down the middle of the street. The Tree of Life was planted on each side of the River, producing twelve kinds of fruit, a ripe fruit each month. The leaves of the Tree are for healing the nations. ( Read whole chapter: Revelation 22)
This tree does not have apples where it all began in Genesis ..it has moved from the garden to the city…but a Lamb leading all the nations of the world and their different religions. How can this be?
The best solution I have found to date is in Thomas Merton's approach as defined in Signs Peace Interfaith Letters Thomas Merton (Apel ,2006).
It records his letters with leaders in other faiths who are also interested in dialogue between the world’s major religions, including letters with Abraham Heschel (clips on YouTube), Thich Nhat Hanh and many others.
In his dialogue with Dona Luisa Coomaraswamy concerning the writings of her husband Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) who, among one of his many accomplishments, was the curator of Indian and Muslim art at the Museum of fine Arts in Boston from 1917-1931. Books that he has written include: Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism (1916), The Dance of Shiva (1918 and reprinted in 1957) and Am I My Brother’s Keeper? (1947)
The chapter title given to the dialogue between Coomaraswamy and Merton is Unity. It is defined as …. “Unity here does not mean uniformity or conformity. Merton would reject such notion. The exchange of letters between Merton and Dona Luisa Coomaraswamy speak of another sort of unity-a special unity achieved only through the honest recognition of differences as well as commonalities” (Apel p.162). In their dialogue Merton was looking for “my true country”….”the true country that Merton shared with Ananda and Dona Luisa Coomaraswamy was a homeland free of religious manipulation of people into places they did not want to go. In Ananda Coomaraswamy’s efforts to interpret Indian culture to the West, he had emphasized the need for spiritual freedom:
“The heart and essence of the Indian experience is to be found in a constant intuition of the unity of all life, and the instructive and ineradicable conviction that the recognition of the unity is the highest good and the uttermost freedom” (Apel p.170)
The Unity…the Tension
While Coomaraswamy’s approach was more universalist, Merton expressed his vocation to interfaith unity in a slightly manner.
“Rather than dissolve differences between his faith and others….Merton chose to live within a spiritual and philosophical creative tension. The path to God had granted him (life in Christ) could not be compromised. Yet at the same time the robust trajectories of other spiritual traditions also contained that truth that Merton could not deny. His solution: live in the tension.” (Apel p. 176). I couldn’t’ agree more or have said it better myself.
In his book, Mans Search for Meaning, Victor Frankel simplifies it even further. He goes deeper than religion, politics, or skin color….He says there are two races of people…”those who are kind and those who aren’t.” This is something everyone can understand and do something about…even the marginalized who are labeled with an “intellectual disability”, understand this very clearly, however for the most part, do not understand or care about religion, politics or skin color.
And I believe this is one of their defining questions..”Are you kind?”
To me kindness may be the thread that can connect our diverse community.
I shared this devotional on March 7th as an opening to our International Voluntary Service Unit meeting, graciously hosted by members of the Bharatiya Temple in Chalfont. As it happened it was Holi. Shortly after the meeting got started, there was a gentle knock on the door. The women who were preparing food for the Holi celebration later that day wondered if they could bring us a “small” snack. Well yes of course. Soon the women came carrying in a full course meal. What a delight! What fellowship and conversation ensued! It was a Holy Holi Moment.
Joe Landis
Executive Director
Peaceful Living
2210 Shelly Road, Suite 2
Harleysville, PA 19438
PH:610.287.1200
FX:610.287.7121
email jlandis@peacefulliving.org
web:http://www.peacefulliving.org
Please join us for:
“Sowing Hope: Hearing, Respecting, Our Veterans”
Tuesday, evening, May 1, 2012 6:00 PM at, 6:00 PM for our 3rd Quarterly Mini-Conference
Keynote: Ann Marie Donahue, Ph.D.—Founder and faculty advisor of the Student Veterans Organization at Montgomery County Community College, and contributing member to the 2007 Brain Injury Consensus Conference
For additional information and to register: Veterans Conference May1,2012
