Journal of Sacred Work

   "Let the one among you who is without sin cast the first stone." – Jesus 

   The inside pages of the weekend paper carried a tiny, one paragraph story of the kind no one wants to read. It was nearly buried on page 9.
   On October 27, 2008 in the city of Kismayo, Somalia, a crowd of one thousand people gathered in a stadium to watch a horrifying scene. 13-year old Aisha Duhulow appeared before the crowd as the victim of a gang rape. But her judges had somehow found her guilty of adultery. There in that stadium, in front of a crowd that had become an image of hatred, young Aisha was stoned to death.  
   This appalling display of savagery and twisted religion is hard to comprehend. Yet, these kinds of atrocities extend even into the United States where, recently, a Georgia man strangled his 25-year old daughter to death as an "honor killing." The daughter's crime? She left her husband.
   How does God permit such things? The clear answer is that God/Love does NOT encompass evil. Love is powerful, but, sadly, Love does not control the world. That is why we must constantly awaken to Love and let her flow through us.
   Love waits for us to engage her energy. When we turn our backs on Love, she can do little to help us. When caregivers meet the crying need of another, they are reflecting God's Love.  
   God is reflected back to us every time we see Love. We can only see Love outside of us when we have first seen Love within. If a single one of person in the 1000-member crowd had stepped forward and tried to shield Aisha, that would have become the true expression of God in that stadium.
   As I've often written, it's odd how we all look up for God when God is not up but in. Beauty outside of us is a mirror for beauty within. When we are open to the beauty of a rose or a wrinkled face or three notes of music we are gazing at or listening to the presence of God in this world.
   Mirror theology is the idea that we can reflect back Love's light into the world. We don't create Love, we reflect it.  
   I wonder what thoughts Aisha had about God in her final moments? Perhaps, I pray, she was able to see past the crowd of hateful faces to find the eyes of compassion. Surely, she is with God now.

-Erie Chapman