Honey

The old saying is that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. I think that is not only true for flies, but for us too.

Father Richard Rohr’s devotion on Sunday, September 6, 2015 was somewhat on this topic. See the excerpt below:

“Rather than making dogmatic statements about how to get to heaven, Jesus modeled and taught how to live on earth in a loving way, and he said that this was indeed heaven! But Christians have all too often pushed heaven into the future. We’ve made Jesus’ death and resurrection into a reward/punishment system for the next world, which creates tremendously self-absorbed and self-preoccupied people. It doesn’t transform anyone into compassionate, loving individuals. Instead it leads to a kind of morbid self-analysis in which people feel guilty, inferior, and inadequate or superior and self-righteous.

“This dualistic approach has corrupted the true meaning of the Gospel. I would go so far as to say that by sending Christians on a path of well disguised but delayed self-interest, we prostituted the entire spiritual journey from the very start. You cannot easily get to love when you begin with threats and appeals to fear. The driving energy is completely wrong. Rather, you come to love by attraction. Change must begin with positive energy or the final result is never positive.”

To this I say YES! That is why I’m so glad to find a path to God that is marked by love and acceptance instead of fear and manipulation. But oh how may people have experienced the latter instead of the former.

The irony is that LOVE drives the universe. God is not far away; the loving Divine is closer than our breath.

God is sweeter than honey; and He/She is always trying to attract us.

May we be filled with so much love, maturity and security that we can accurately model the Divine in the ways that are more true to reality.

Be sweet and sticky; others will be drawn to you.

Royalty-free image by Csuka András. Retrieved from: http://www.freeimages.com/photo/honey-1479896