(This reflection continues a previous reflection “Seeing Beyond My Nose”)

Our dreams

Dreams energize us, give purpose and meaning to our life.

Sometimes we get to live our dream; other times we give up on our dreams whether consciously or unconsciously.

Sometimes our dreams just fade away,  unnoticed… and unmourned;  other times dreams are taken away from us violently in a diving accident or the death of a fiancee.

Can you relate to any of this?

For now, I ask did you ever give up on a dream?

God dreams ..and never gives up on us

Over the past few years I have been struck by the image of God’s dream. Is it even possible to think of God having a dream

Actually, we have a record of God’s dream. We find it in scripture.

God shared the dream with Adam and Eve. It is a dream rooted in love shared. God, who is love, shared, created our human family, provided our common home, and “saw that everything created was good.” God dreamed that we would wake up and grow up to love every one and everything as God loves.

The Old Testament is the history our how our ancestors thought they understood but so often didn’t really live the dream. They continually lost sight of God’s dream. In the New Testament God revives and clarifies the dream “that all may be one” in Christ Jesus. (John 17:21)

Pope Francis reminds us of God’s dream today

Something finally clicked when I realized that Pope Francis, deeply rooted in scripture, frequently, reminds us of God’s dream. In words and actions, he unpacks what that dream would look like today if we would take it seriously.

In Evangelium Gaudium he highlights the joy and excitement of waking up to the truly “Good news” that we are God’s beloved children called to love our God and our neighbor as ourselves.

 Then “Laudato Si’’’ taught us that everything is connected; “‘Fratelli Tutti’ teaches us that everyone is connected.”

In Laudato Si, he emphasizes that everything God created is good and meant for sharing. We are made in the image and likeness of God and therefore called to share with one another as God shared everything with us.

In Fratelli Tutti he stresses that every one has dignity. He uses the image of the Good Samaritan to highlight Jesus’ call to be neighbors to all, not just those we identify as close to us. He presents a dream of how the structures of society must support living as a truly “neighborly” society.

Specifically, in chapter 3 “Envisioning and engendering an Open World”, he presents a world where we move beyond the original fault of self-centeredness to recognizing the worth of every human person.

He concludes Chapter 3

127. Certainly, all this calls for an alternative way of thinking. Without an attempt to enter into that way of thinking, what I am saying here will sound wildly unrealistic. On the other hand, if we accept the great principle that there are rights born of our inalienable human dignity, we can rise to the challenge of envisaging a new humanity. We can aspire to a world that provides land, housing and work for all. This is the true path of peace, not the senseless and myopic strategy of sowing fear and mistrust in the face of outside threats. For a real and lasting peace will only be possible “on the basis of a global ethic of solidarity and cooperation in the service of a future shaped by interdependence and shared responsibility in the whole human family”.

Is this a dream worth dreaming… and not giving up?