Page 175 - Built For God Handbook (Annotated and Explained Edition) - The Christian Edition of the Tao Te Ching - The New Evangelization - Pope John Paul II

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As in the biblical parable of the Sower, the seed is the Word of God, meant
to be shared with others and lived in one’s own life. Those who do so will be
confidently grounded in truth. Interestingly, they will also be honored and
remembered for all time within an eternal sacrifice.

While most Indigenous and world religions have some notion of sacrifice
(from sacrum facere – to make holy or sacred), such as the High Place of
Sacrifice of the Nabateans who flourished in Petra, Jordan before and after
the time of Christ, there is only one eternal sacrifice. That was and is the
freely accepted sacrifice of Jesus’ life on the cross, which he ritually
presaged in the consecration of bread and wine as his body and blood at
the Last Supper, the evening of his arrest.

During that celebration, the one who is the Word made flesh commanded
his followers to do the same in memory of him, and so the Eucharist has
become our one great act of fidelity for over two thousand years.

The Word of God is alive and active, as the scriptures tell us, and like
ripples in a pond, when proclaimed and lived, permeates the circles of
influence in our lives, moving out from self to family to community to country
and then to the world. There is a saying, “When a drop of water falls into the
ocean, the ocean is changed.” Likewise, the Word of God, proclaimed,
heard, integrated into our lives, and lived, has the power to bring about
positive change all around us.

To recognize someone is to respect that person, to look at him or her again,
to, in the end, love that person. Thus, we are invited to keep the Word of
God by loving God with our whole being; loving others as we love ourselves;
loving others as Jesus has loved us and, ultimately, even loving those who
hurt us by trying to forgive them from the heart.

Like the beloved disciple John at the Last Supper, leaning against the chest
of Jesus, hearing and feeling his heartbeat, and looking out at the world
from the perspective of the eyes of the Lord - when we allow the Word of
God to make its home in us, we can also begin to see others and the world
as God sees them.

b
a Luke 8:11-15; Proverbs 10:30; Galatians 6:7-10; Colossians 3:16;
John 8:31; Matthew 7:12.
c