On this day we remember and pray for the victims of 9/11, those Christians, Muslims, and Jews, believers and people of good will who lost their lives in that senseless tragedy.
“The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in himself, merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth.” (Second Vatican Council, Nostra aetate 3) As we look with esteem upon our Muslim brothers and sisters, let us draw today from the spiritual riches of Islam’s Sufi mystical tradition.
Here are some poems by the 14th century Persian Sufi mystic Hafiz, from The Gift in Daniel Ladinsky’s translation. The mystical ecstacy of these Islamic poems helps me look at my Christian tradition with fresh eyes, for example as I sing an exuberant text such as “Let the rivers clap their hands.” (Psalm 98) I’m confident that the God of Jesus Christ, the One Triune God, has spoken powerfully through Hafiz. – awr
* * *
Everywhere
Running
Through the streets
Screaming,
Throwing rocks through windows,
Using my own head to ring
Great bells,
Pulling out my hair,
Tearing off my clothes,
Tying everything I own
To a stick
And setting it on
Fire.
What else can Hafuz do tonight
To celebrate the madness,
The Joy,
Of seeing God
Everywhere!
.
* * *
Stop Being So Religious
What
Do sad people have in
Common?
It seems
They have all built a shrine
To the past
And often go there
And do a strange wail and
Worship.
What is the beginning of
Happiness?
It is to stop being
So religious
Like
That.
.
* * *
The God Who Only Knows Four Words
Every
Child
Has known God,
Not the God of names,
Not the God of don’ts,
Not the God who ever does
Anything weird,
But the God who knows only four words.
And keeps repeating them, saying
“Come Dance with Me.”
Come
Dance
.
* * *
Getting the Blame Straight
Understanding the physics of God,
His Indivisible Nature,
Makes every universe and atom confess:
I am just a helpless puppet that cannot dance
Without the movement of His hand.
Dear ones,
This curriculum tonight is for the advanced
And will
Get all the blame straight,
End the mental
Lawsuits
That
Clog
The
Brain–
H
a
l
l
e
l
u
j
a
h
Baby!
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