In the Gospels we read how Mary is told that her heart must be broken so that the secrets of many shall be revealed. To each of us will come a time when this happens – a rejection at work, the end of a love affair, sudden illness, or the death of someone close to us. We have to endure the pain and the loss, learning from the experience. This in turn will enable us, when the time comes, to be able to respond to the needs of others.
Month: June 2024
Easter eggs
Once, I was invited to take part in an Easter Egg-painting session. On my egg I painted the words ‘God is a broken egg.’ For the chick inside has no knowledge of the ‘without’, only the ‘within’. It is cramped in a tight, dark space and has no concept of the space and freedom that lie outside. Obeying a primal instinct, the chick begins to peck at the hard shell until it cracks, whereupon it discovers what lies beyond, and with it the freedom to fly. So it is in life; we constantly have to break the outer form in order to make a discovery and so move on. Only then can we embrace the totality of experience.
As Kaneko Shoseki observes in Nature and Origin of Man,
‘Let go of your fixed notions and feelings, indeed, let go completely of your present “I”. Original truth reveals itself only when we give up all preconceived ideas.’