THE CLEANSING FIRE

The Teacher bears witness that what we know in our hearts to be true is true.  He reveals to us that we don't have to find our greatness. It is already there.  If this is hard to see, a little time spent in the company of the little ones will illuminate it.

But the problem for the first disciples is much like our own, we are human beings.  Notice how, no sooner has the Teacher spoken, the disciples are busy marking their territory.  The Exorcist isn't one of us!!  It doesn't matter that someone has been set free from their prison.  They don't even see them.  

​So the Teacher teaches again.  Not only are those outside the club worthy of our respect, they have much to teach us.  Those who offer simple hospitality - who perform little tasks with love - might well be ahead of us on the spiritual path.  And woe betide any disciple who says otherwise.  If those who wish to be 'great' do not draw close to the least but cause them to stumble, then the great need to think again.  The rhetoric of disaster is meant to get our attention.  Think of the worst thing you can possibly think of - sinking to the ocean floor with a millstone round your neck - and it isn't half as bad as putting out the light of love in another persons heart.

The fear that we are insignificant can drive us to Lord it over people and chronically promote ourselves at great cost to others. But when we go into that 'fearful tomb' with Jesus, and allow Him to purify our desires, our innate greatness rises like the dawn. 

A true awareness of our greatness means we do not have to exclude, demean or overlook others to maintain a false sense of power. The Teacher calls to us to find ways to express our natural greatness.  Once we have been purified of all our grandiose projects, and cut away all that keeps us from life, we begin to see an amazing thing.  What we see, in the words of Sam Keen is that, " Sanctity is given with being.  It is not earned".