Christmas Eve seemed like a good time to begin a devotional look at some of the work by Mohandas Gandhi. We will begin with material about Gandhi by Thomas Merton and a few notes about a tie to Christianity.
Gandhi had the deepest respect for Christianity, for Christ and the Gospel. In following his way of satyagraha (holding on to truth) he believed he was following the Law of Christ, and it would be difficult to prove that this belief was entirely mistaken - or that it was in any degree insincere.
One of the greatest lessons of Ganhdi's life remains this: through the spiritual traditions of the West he, an Indian, discovered his Indian heritage and with it his own "right mind." And in his fidelity to his own heritage and its spiritual sanity, he was able to show men of the West and of the whole world a way to recover their own "right mind" in their tradition, thus manifesting the fact that there are certain indisputable and essential values - religious, ethical, ascetic, spiritual, and philosophical - which man has everywhere needed and which he has in the past managed to acquire, values without which he cannot live, values which are now in large measure lost to him so that, unequipped to face life in a fully human manner, he now runs the risk of destroying himself entirely.
This may be enough to ponder on the Eve of the Nativity of our Lord, Jesus. We are always at the point of leaving behind such wisdom that allows us to look outside of our tradition and grow within our tradition because of the strength and power and beauty we see in another. Maybe the Shaker song is a good reminder to us to turn, turn, will be our delight, until turning, turning, we come down right.
Connection: Do not fear and do not be held back or put in place by powers that are afraid to let you enter into that "right mind."
Come, Spirit of New Life. Come and open our hearts to your word of peace and the experience of shalom as it takes place around us and as we enter into its living presence. Come, and walk with us. Amen.
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