Removing Our Blinders: The Loving Message Of Hanh

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Removing Our Blinders: The Loving Message of Hanh
“A fish living in muddy water has no conception of what clean water is.” Likewise, so many Americans are blinded by our country’s capitalistic mentality that they are trapped from entering Jesus’ loving path. My monsignor at St. Ignatius Parish in Yardley, PA gave a very insightful homily last Sunday on this very topic. He said that so many adult Americans feel empty inside, like they have wasted their lives, because they are concerned with money, the brand of their car, and the size of their house. They are not empty because of a lack of material possessions, but rather due to a failure to follow their true vocation of Jesus’ loving philosophy. Jesus did not preach, “Do whatever it takes at whatever the cost in order to achieve success in business,” although many Americans are tricked into thinking the meaning of success lies in the size of one’s wallet. Rather, Jesus preached to love your neighbor as yourself. Similarly, Socrates stated, “The only important thing is to do good.” Likewise, in Living Buddha, Living Christ, Thich Nhat Hanh’s message of Interbeing, that we are all in this world together and should love each other collectively in an effort to attain peace, can be used in lifting the blinders off the eyes of the American people.
My favorite Hanh quotation is, “People kill and are killed because they cling too tightly to their own beliefs and ideologies. When we believe that ours is the only faith that contains the truth, violence and suffering will surely be the result” (Hanh 2). Jesus preached that however you treat the least of man, that is how much you truly love Him. To believe the sophists controlling our country into thinking America is the chosen people of God does not follow Jesus’ teachings or exemplify the idea of Interbeing. The sophistry amongst our government teaches that “Islam is evil” and that we “Must go to w...