When I was younger, my parents would read me stories from Prayer of the Frog by Father Anthony Di Mello. I’d like to share one of my favourite stories.
The Guru meditating in his Himalayan cave opened his eyes to discover an
unexpected visitor sitting there before him — the abbot of a well-known monastery.
“What is it you seek?” asked the Guru.
The abbot recounted a tale of woe. At one time his monastery had been famous
throughout the western world. Its cells were filled with young aspirants and its
church resounded to the chant of its monks. But hard times had come on the
monastery. People no longer flocked there to nourish their spirit, the stream of
young aspirants had dried up, the church was silent. There was only a handful of
monks left and these went about their duties with heavy hearts.
Now this is what the abbot wanted to know: “Is it because of some sin of ours that
the monastery has been reduced to this state?”
“Yes,” said the Guru, “a sin of ignorance.” “And what sin might that be?”
“One of your numbers is the Messiah in disguise and you are ignorant of this.”
Having said that the Guru closed his eyes and returned to his meditation.
Throughout the arduous journey back to his monastery the abbot’s heart beat fast
at the thought that the Messiah — but the Messiah himself — had returned to earth and
was right there in the monastery. How is it he had failed to recognize him? And
who could it be? Brother Cook? Brother Sacristan? Brother Treasurer? Brother
Prior? No, not he; he had too many defects alas. But then the Guru had said he was
in disguise. Could those defects be one of his disguises? Come to think of it,
everyone in the monastery had defects. And one of them had to be the Messiah!
Back in the monastery he assembled the monks and told them what he had discovered.
They looked at one another in disbelief. The Messiah? Here? Incredible! But he was
supposed to be here in disguise. So, maybe. What if it were so-and-so? Or the
other one over there? or….
One thing was certain: If the Messiah was there in disguise it was not likely that
they would recognize him. So they took to treating everyone with respect and
consideration. “You never know,” they said to themselves when they dealt with one
another, “maybe this is the one.”
The result of this was that the atmosphere in the monastery became vibrant with
joy. Soon dozens of aspirants were seeking admission to the Order — and once again
the Church re-echoed with the holy and joyful chant of monks who were aglow with
the spirit of Love.
Of what use is it to have eyes if the heart is blind?
It always amazes me how once the members of the monastery realised that the Messiah was among them, everyone began to look beyond the imperfections of their colleagues to see the divinity in them. If the world was our monastery, ’seeing the Messiah’ and goodness in the other members would help each of as not only see the divinity in others, but also, see the divinity in ourselves. In words of Michelangelo, ‘Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.’ We must strive to be the like skilled sculptor who can truly see that each soul is potentially divine.
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