Where is holiness to be found?
Where are the thin places
The fjords between
This shore and that Great Beyond?
Where is the fabric of reality
Most easily rent
To reveal the Ultimate Reality
.
I’ve searched and searched
Atop Mount Zion
All round the Dome of the Rock
Beneath the Wailing Wall
Inside Christ’s Tomb
And prostrate on Golgotha
In ancient grottos of Nazareth
Within the razor wired walls of Bethlehem
And on the streets of Ramallah and Nazareth
.
In African Cathedrals
And at the source of the Nile
Touring orphanages and office buildings
Eating in hovels and in mansions
Climbing Mesoamerican pyramids
Viewing Prehistoric wall art
Wandering through canyons carved by glaciers
Inhaling plumes of incense
Standing behind the Altar
As I elevate the Body and Blood
Before the faithful assembly
.
And I know I haven’t seen everything
Not Michelangelo's heavenly ceilings
Nor Saint Peter's hallowed arches
Neither the Prophet's Tomb
Nor the Buddha's Tree
Nor the Sacred Rivers flowing from Shiva's bosom
So many holy Mountains and Valleys and Shrines and Temples
Are left for me to explore
.
But I have seen enough to know
That all these places are disfigured and defiled
By walls and locks and fences and barbed wire
By the desire to exclude and keep out
By the need to protect and keep safe
By the hatred and greed that turns them all
Into commodities to be bought and sold
Into empirical "proofs" that some are saved
While others are damned
That some are worthy
While others are worthless
That "we" are right
While "they" are wrong
.
So where is holiness to be found
If not in these holy places?
Look rather to love
To forgiveness
To kindness and compassion
To joy and peace and harmony
To the places where the Unconditional and Infinite
Pours itself into the conditions and limits
Of our care and concern for each Other
.
These are the thin places
Fleeting and ephemeral
Where we truly catch a glimpse
Of the shore of that Great Beyond
Which Grounds and conditions our lives
Even when we are unaware.
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