Here is the Good News proclaimed by our Lord Jesus Christ:
Jesus began to preach in parables.
The Kingdom of God is like two brothers who were called by God to give up all that they had and serve humanity.
The older responded to the call generously, though he had to wrench his heart from his family and the girl he loved and dreamed of marrying. He eventually went off to a distant land where he spent himself in the service of the poorest of the poor. A persecution arose in that country and he was arrested, falsely accused, tortured and put to death.
And the Lord said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You gave me a thousand talents' worth of service. I shall now give you a billion, billion talents' worth of reward. Enter into the joy of your Lord."The younger boys' response to the call was less than generous. He decide to ignore it and go ahead and marry the girl he loved. He enjoyed a happy married life, his business prospered and he became rich and famous. Occasionally he would give alms to the poor.
And when it was his turn to die, the Lord said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have given me ten talents' worth of service. I shall now give you a billion, billion talents' worth of reward. Enter into the joy of your Lord."The older boy was surprised when he heard that his brother was to get the same reward as he. And he was pleased. He said, "Lord, knowing this as I do, if I were to be born and live my life again, I would still do exactly what I did for you."
Anthony De Mello, from The Song of the Bird, as seen and stolen in its entirety from Brian's The Beautiful Heresy
Sounds uncomfortably like Christianity to me.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting you should say so, GFN. In what way does it sound like Christianity?
ReplyDeleteI actually liked it because the performance pressure, and the strange pushing from every quarter to act out of your ego and your falsity while couching it all in bullshit "service unto the Lord" religionese are absent. At the same time what remains is the essence of things done out of love. And an egalitarianism that is appealing to many Australians :)
A penny for your thoughts?? :)
I love Tony de Mello's stories. If I can put in my two cents, it does sound like Christianity to me, a purer kind that you often hear. It speaks of the unbounded love and generosity of God who calls different people to do different things -- essentially, what their heart draws them to do. Both fellows followed their heart. The one who seemed to sacrifice more, did not consider it as such. If you are the recipient of all that love from God, you couldn't possibly experience jealousy, but would instead rejoice in the benevolence of God to the other brother.
ReplyDeleteWe're talking grace here and not the way of our societies.