A WING AND A PRAYER "The Secret Places of Your Heart"

Jesus' parables about the kingdom of God are about the great dream that God dreams for all creation. A piece of that dream is planted in each one of us. All those examples--the mustard seed that produces a tree shrub to house the birds, the bit of yeast that leavens enough dough for a hundered loaves of bread, the hidden treasure and the fine pearl that searchers are willing to give all to possess, and the fishnet that gathers in all kinds of fish--all those images are pointing to the ways in which God's dream gathers substance. - p. 103

I know that it's silly sometimes to dream of a perfect world, especially in light of the world that we face. We are constantly confronted with humanity's cruelty to one another and to nature. We are shocked at our own inability to maintain a loving and forgiving posture when confronted with the horrors of aggression. We feel that the forces of industry and commerce are so interwoven and complicated that even if we did come together to take steps to end warfare, to end poverty, to end pollution, that our measly attempts would be futile in light of the great powers that drive humanity to the brink of madness.

Yet as we begin Holy Week, we step into the series of remembrances that remind us of an incredible image worth emulating. A single person, a person with a dream, God incarnate who faces the powers of humanity's worst evils, and somehow takes that evil to the vortex of the Cross, and disipates that same evil, ending the cycle of vengeance and aggression, and providing us all with an opportunity to respond to that gift of love and forgiveness.

When you dream of the "perfect world," is it the same dream that Jesus Christ gave us in his teachings? Is it a world of love and forgiveness, where those who have little or nothing are suddenly given abundance, where anger and violence is met with peace and calm, where the powers that attempt to control our earthly existence are reminded that they are only temporary in the plan of God's creation? When you dream, is your dream one in which every person comes invited to the table of salvation, or is it one that only a select few of God's loved creatures are awarded access? Jesus' arms spread very wide on the Cross; why are our elbows clenched so closely together that there are many who are not invited into our embrace?