THE WORD OF GOD

and become partners, working on this in the spirit of God, who is there for the entire humanity, even if we may understand God differently. We might learn to see a different face of God’s grace in the other’s eyes. How can we do this? The Maulana explains this by invoking something that Jesus teaches us: that man shall not live by bread alone. The Maulana says (in a video podcast) that for him this means that although bread is just baked flour, in the eyes of a believer it can become more than bread: we could call it “bread-plus”. That is, he or she will be able to see the deeper spiritual lesson in everything. When a believer eats food, he will not simply engage in the act of eating. Rather, he would also think about all the many processes in nature that help in the production and development of food. This would engender profound thankfulness to God for creating so many beneficial things for human beings. In this way, a believer would try to see the spiritual in every material event, causing him to develop God-consciousness. Accordingly, he would exist not only at the physical level but would be nourished at the spiritual level also. This is how a believer converts “bread” into “bread-plus”, or the material into a non-material or spiritual lesson. By understanding the spiritual character of things, we see things and people who are with us as gifts from God. God nourishes us, makes our environment and life beautiful, gives us love and wisdom, which we cannot produce out of ourselves. Water not only quenches our thirst, it also freshens and cleanses us. In hot weather, a glass of water can cool us down. It becomes “water-plus”. Likewise, two persons are not only two, but a community, if they come into contact. They become a community, “people-plus”. The ones, who see the “plus” in life, will flourish. I was very inspired by a great Muslim scholar sharing his view of Biblical stories and sayings of Jesus, and even asking Father Victor Edwin and me to share our opinions on his camera. This was the dialogue we talk about all the time! The Maulana went further and asked Father Edwin to pray for all the Muslims in the room who had come to hear the Maulana speak before they started to offer their namaz (prayer). ` Did we pray together? Yes, everybody prayed—to God, the One and Only! I cannot say exactly what was on other peoples’ minds—the other Christians and the Muslims—but I’m sure God hears and knows. Many people came to us afterwards and the whole room was filled with conversation, and I realized: Yes, God had brought us together! This was “dialogue-plus”! o