The reality of religion in the 21st Century is that it has survived to guide the millions. There is also the reality that others have moved on to a different understanding of life. Perhaps they entered that reality as a child raised by a family of the same basis of life.
The idea Pope Francis carries to all nations of people is that God is nondenominational. In his upcoming address in the USA to a large gathering of religious leaders this September, Pope Francis seeks to heal wounds and close the gap on hatred. He wants the world of diversity to find peace, a lasting peace that accepts all people as part of God's creation regardless of any personal differences. I find his message divine. God came long before religion. Religion is man-made and in realizing it is man-made; it is imperfect.
Pope Francis is not alone in his acceptance of diversity as a gift from God.
Kahlil Gibran in "The Prophet" write of religion. (click here)
And an old priest said, "Speak to us of Religion."
And he said:
Have I spoken this day of aught else?
Is not religion all deeds and all reflection,
And that which is neither deed nor reflection, but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul, even while the hands hew the stone or tend the loom?
Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations?
Who can spread his hours before him, saying, "This for God and this for myself;
This for my soul, and this other for my body?"
All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self.
He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked.
The wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin.
And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage.
The freest song comes not through bars and wires.
And he to whom worshipping is a window, to open but also to shut, has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows are from dawn to dawn.
Your daily life is your temple and your religion.
Whenever you enter into it take with you your all.
Take the plough and the forge and the mallet and the lute,
The things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight.
For in revery you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures.
And take with you all men:
For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair.
And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles.
Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children.
And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain.
You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.
Gibron's "Prophet" is sometimes the first book a person reads to realize understanding the world is more about open mindedness than strict rules.
