Wednesday, March 29,
2017
I offer you a wonderful Sufi story
that reminds me of a parable of Jesus.
“A man of piety was following
Christ. A thief seeing this thought to himself, ‘If I sit in the company of the
pious one, perhaps God may for his sake forgive me.’ Prompted by humility in
his heart, the thief started condemning himself for the impious life he had
led. He considered himself unfit to sit by the side of such a saint. On the
other hand, the pious man, seeing the thief seated by his side, reprimanded him
lest his shadow corrupt him. Immediately Christ heard the Divine Voice say, ‘Tell
the pious one and the thief that I have washed clean the scrolls of both. The
virtues of the pious and the sins of the thief are washed clean. Now they must
start life again. The virtues of the pious are washed away because of his
pride, and the sins of the thief are washed away because of his humility and
repentance.’” A parable of al-Ghazzali
in Essential Sufism, © Harper
Collins, San Francisco, p. 63
Can you remember the parable of
Jesus where two men went to pray? The Pharisee thanked God for his virtuous
life, essentially congratulating himself that he wasn’t like the other man
praying in the back of the temple. That man kept praying, “God have mercy on
me, a sinner.” Jesus explained that the second man went away justified, while
the pride-filled Pharisee did not.
Have a nice day!
God bless you!
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