Have you ever changed your mind? Have you ever not changed your mind? Of course both are true. I am a researcher and analyst be training. If I research and come across convincing arguments, I will change my mind. Of course, I have on occasion, not changed my mind when I should have. That usually happens when I feel backed into a corner or need to defend myself. And quite often, when this happens, it is because of fear of the unknown.
Fr. Richard Rohr is a profound writer. I was reading a statement he said and it hit me hard, “Jesus did not come into the world to change God’s mind about us, but to change our mind about God, and one another”. Think of this statement. God has never changed his mind about us. He has loved us from the first moment. It is us who need to change our mind, about Jesus, about God, and about one another.
During this election season, (trust me I am weary of it and this is not a political rant) you can watch person after person refuse to change their mind about people and issues, regardless of the facts and information they are presented with. We tend to believe what we want to believe and even in research, most experiments or studies confirm what they set out to confirm.
You see the life of Christ was not to show God he could do it right. It was to show all of us that we could. Look at his life, that life that changed the whole world. He was non-violent in a violent world. He made the distinction between doing what is right (following the letter of the law) and doing the right thing (following the spirit of the law). It was all to convince us that the way God saw Jesus is exactly how God sees each one of us.
Jesus said, “I and the Father are One”. Let that sink in. Now, say that to yourself, “I and the father are one”. It is very hard to do isn’t it? We stop at the man made chasm we call sin. We made that chasm. Us, not God, not Jesus, not the preacher or the priest, US. There is not now nor has there ever been a gap between us and the Eternal. Now, some of you will stop right there and think at length about sin and the great divide between yourself and God. There is no divide!
To paraphrase Merton and others, we search everywhere for what we most deeply desire, only to discover that it has been right there inside of us all the time. So, I am going to change my mind. I am stopping the search. I am good enough just as I am. I can rest. I can let the love of the Eternal of all universes wash over me. I am the beloved.
TMM