[Story] Once upon a time, there was a wealthy man who liked to collect things. He venture into an antique shop where he came upon a large object covered with a sheet. [point to the object]
He asked the storeowner what it was. The owner said, “It is a special mirror.” “What makes it special?”
“Well,” the owner reluctantly said, “the story is that this mirror will only reflect that part of you that is alive in God. I keep it covered because it is bad for business. Too many people don’t see what they expect to see. And then they run out of my store without buying anything.”
“May I have a look at it?” asked the wealthy man. “Well I don’t advise it, but if you insist.” So the wealthy man pulled back the sheet [I pull off the sheet]. The man looked at the mirror and then cried out, “I don’t see anything.”
The owner rushed over saying, “That has not happened before. Look again.” So the man looked up and down in the mirror, then finally he spotted something down at the bottom. The storeowner said, “I think that is your toe.” “That’s all?” the man cried. “That’s all for now.” “Do you mean that it can change?” “Some say it can.”
The man announced, “I want to buy this mirror.” The owner was more than happy to sell it, for it was bad for his business.
The man took the mirror home with him. Many times each day he stood in front of the mirror, but nothing ever changed. Only his big toe was visible in the mirror. He tried everything to change this fact. He wanted to appear “alive in God.”
-he stood in front with his expensive suit on . . . nothing.
-he stood there with the spiritual books he read . . . nothing.
-he stood there with the service award he received for helping with a fund-raiser. nothing
-he stood there with a certificate of dismissal from a highly recognized psychotherapist.
-he went to church each weekend, sometimes twice a weekend and showed the bulletins
to prove it . . . nothing.
No response. No change in the image of the mirror . . . only his big toe visible. Finally the man sat down and started to cry. He wept for his weakness and for his emptiness. He wept out of frustration and for reasons he couldn’t explain.
Then in the next moment, he let go. He let go of his need to be in control of everything. He let go of his need to figure out how the mirror worked. He let go of his need to be wonderful and perfect before the mirror.
His eyes were so full of tears that he did not notice that . . . dimly at first, but then with great clarity, his other toes, foot, feet, legs arms, torso shoulders, neck and head filling up the mirror.
In the gospel, Jesus uses the image of a grain of wheat. This would have been a common image of his day for everyone knew about planting and growing things. It is a metaphor that in order for the grain of wheat seed to produce something, it must die to itself. A wheat grain just sitting there is not good. A grain of wheat must go down into the dark underworld . . . give up its image, die to itself and so that new life can emerge from it.
It is common, but often difficult. The image is for us . . . of dying to whom we think we need to be and letting go and owning what God sees . . . not perfection. Not someone who has everything in control. Not someone who always needs to be right . . . or at least “be wonderful” in every task (every recipe, every homework assignment, every gathering with friends.)
Saint Irenaeus, from the second century wrote, “The glory of God is a man/person fully alive.”
If you looked into such a mirror . . . what would you see?
how much of you feels alive in God?
what parts of you would not be reflected in the mirror?
what parts of you do not feel alive in God?
If you want to know what gives God glory . . . it is not your clothes, or degrees, or books you read or the therapy that you went to or even how often you go to Church. According to St. Irenaeus . . . the glory of God is when you become fully alive.