Return to the Father Over and Over

So we must celebrate today, and that's very important because it is the birth of the Son of God. But it's also important to remember the reason why he had to come. And are we now part of the same invitation for him to come again, or is our life reassurance that he doesn't have to come? In the human condition, the problem is difficult. It seems difficult because letting go of self-will seems to attack the very premise of our existence, of our knowledge, of our righteousness, of our self-respect. But that is what all of us need to learn: to let go and accept the incarnations of God themselves to show us the way.

There is no human historically that I'm aware of who did not fall for individuality, who did not fall for the human condition. But our job is to, moment to moment, thought by thought, to the best of our ability, make that choice. Do not go with the temptation of the mind. And yet we fear, and yet we must not give up. We must try again, because it is in that trying that we can stay in His life. We cannot give up and say that this is too difficult. We cannot even give up and say that the life has to change, circumstances have to change, people have to change. We cannot make any of those conclusions, although the mind tempts us to. We must make that change within ourselves.

So notice the moments that you go with your own will; it is the same biblical moment of Adam eating the apple. So it is coming to say now—and if it sounds foolish, I apologize—but we must imagine that we are like Adam after eating the apple. So now, what is our move? We realize that because there is suffering, because the heat of the world, the heat of the seeming hell—which is the way life seems when we live in our mind—is burning us, what must our next move be?

There are many stories like this, of course. The Prodigal Son gives us a great clue. Many times the prodigal son may say, 'Okay, now that I've done this, I'm going to make this work. I'm going to make my self-will actually work for me and lead a life which is good.' But it just doesn't happen. So the only thing that we can do is to return to Him. Let go of our mind, let go of our right and wrong. That is the meaning of repentance; that is the meaning of being contrite.

Yesterday some of us went to the mass in the church close by, but to be 'contrite' is not a word that is very familiar in India; in our culture, it is not so well known. So to be contrite is a word where you have contrition in the sense that you recognize that you went with your right and wrong, your will, your ideas, and that is causing the heat in your life. That is causing the suffering in your life. To recognize that and to admit that you will not make this mistake again, you will not make this error again with full heart, with true heart, is contrition.