“Man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” -- Mister Jesus, Matthew 4:4
Once again we have the material versus the spiritual. Or rather, the need, the necessity to eliminate the “versus.” Let me put it in more muscular terms -- not just a need, an absolute survival requirement.
Our society promotes quantity over quality. The numbers, the bottom line, are more important than the quality of life. As a result, the numbers have been sucked up to the realm of the few, to the harm of not only other humans but to all life on this planet. Though it is helpful, having the numbers spread around more equally is not the final answer.
“Bread,” slang for money. We do not live by bread alone. I tried to eat a dollar bill once. I had no larger denomination. I thought “I know how this is going to turn out, but I want to try it out.” I put salt on it. The salt kept sliding off so I made a little crease to hold it. I put it in my mouth and started chewing.Yuck! My saliva would not penetrate it. The taste was foreign and crappy and awful. I spit it out, gagging. You better believe I rinsed my mouth with lots of water after that. Never again! I am here to testify: You cannot live by bread alone.
What do we live by? Spirit, the Life Force. That which proceeds “out of the mouth of God.” (For all you who get your panties in a wad over the word “God,” I mean the Origin, the Source, the Great Mystery that births and continues birthing All That Is. I am going to say God, so get over it.)
We live by the energetic vibrations of God, the Life Force, the Flow, the Tao and its Virtue. We do not breathe ourselves. We are being breathed. God is giving us mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. I am thankful.
We live by the reverberations of the Word, not by Wall Street, not by political demagogues, not by mirrored reflections of ourselves. We live by Quality, not Quantity. We live by the quality of our hearts. This is what sustains us as humans.
We have what we need to transform this planet. We simply need the nerve. The nerve to be compassionate to all life -- from the subatomic to the metagalactic.
If that sounds too huge, start with being compassionate toward your self. After all, we are to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” You can’t love your neighbor if you don’t love yourself. And who is our neighbor? Why, that squirrel, that tree, that person, that rock, that atmosphere, that water.
