Page 111 - Built For God Handbook (Annotated and Explained Edition) - The Christian Edition of the Tao Te Ching - The New Evangelization - Pope John Paul II

45

The first stanza of this chapter, and much of what follows, presents us with
the teaching power of paradox, much as Jesus relied on parables to
communicate his profound spiritual teachings to a very earth-bound people.
For the most part, matters of faith and the Spirit can only be communicated
through parable and paradox, seeking to break us out of narrow ways of
thinking and acting, and out of our resistance to what is new and
challenging.

The reversal of values in the second stanza, such as the poor receiving and
abundance being confused, touches on the Magna Carta of Jesus’ teaching
in the Beatitudes. This teaching holds up the values of humility,
compassion, gentleness, mercy, peacefulness, purity, justice and patient
suffering as the way to fulness of life.

The Oneness embraced by the Master resonates with the heart-felt desire
for unity and Oneness Jesus expressed in his passionate prayer before his
arrest, that his followers might be one with him as he is one with the Father
(John 17).

The next stanza highlights the content of the first beatitude, being humble
and poor in Spirit, which is eloquently proclaimed by St. Paul in his epistle to
the Philippians. There he tells us that Jesus did not cling to his equality with
God but humbled himself and became human, to the point of accepting
even death upon a cross.

In the end, the invitation of the ancients to remain yielding so we can
become whole is not a superficial invitation, but one that holds within itself a
world of wisdom connecting with many of the teachings of Jesus, the
ultimate model of the wholeness and harmony he wants us all to
experience.

a Psalm 37:7-24; Luke 3:4-6; Hebrews 13:5; Matthew 11:28-30;
e
d
b Isaiah 40:31; John 17:22-23; John 17:11; Matthew 23:12; Luke 16:15;
c
Matthew 27:11-26; John 17:1-9; John 8:54-55 .
f