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.
Taken
from Sundays
into Silence - A Pathway to Life. Copyright © 1998 by Claretian
Publications
