In the Beginning Was the Dream

I would wish to put a pic here, but have not obtained permission. Please click on this link to view pic... Cosmic Dream by Tina Salvesen

Suzanne Guthrie, Episcopal Chaplin at Cornell University has been staying with us this past week over the school break. She presided over the Mass with us yesterday. Her reading of the gospel had me totally entralled.

You know how sometimes you can read something over and over again until it becomes so rote you stop paying attention? Maybe you pick up a new perspective based on where your life happens to be at this time. This is especially true when reading scripture. One of my all-time favorite scriptures from the Christian texts of the Bible is the first 18 verses of the first chapter of the Gospel of John.

Yesterday at the reading of the gospel, Suzanne substituted
one word throughout, and it wrapped me around a deeper understanding of the passage than I'd ever had before. Slow, contemplative reading will give it life beyond the mere words.

in the beginning was the dream,
and the dream was with God,
and the dream was God.
the dream was in the beginning with God.
all things came into being through the dream,
and without the dream not one thing came into being.
what has come into being in the dream was life,
and the life was the dream of all people.
the dream shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not overcome it.

there was one sent from God, whose name was john.
a witness to testify to the dream,
so that all might believe.
the dream which enlightens everyone,
was coming into the world.

the dream was in the world,
and the world came into being through the dream;
yet the world did not know the dream.
the dream came to what was its own,
and the people did not accept the dream.
but who received the dream,
who believed in the dream,
became children of God.

and the dream became flesh and lived among us,
full of grace and truth.
from the dream's fullness we have all received,
grace upon grace.
the law indeed was given through Moses;
grace and truth came through the dream.
no one has ever seen God.
it is the dream,
close to God's heart,
who has made God known.

Just think. You and I and all created beings are an answer to God's dream. There is only unity.