Fr. Richard Rohr gets it right … on God’s perfection

Those of you who have read Chapters 4 and 5 of my new book will understand why I was struck by these words from Richard Rohr in his daily email meditation today:

PATH OF DESCENT
Question of the Day: How does one incorporate imperfection?
In a Navajo rug there is always one clear imperfection woven into the pattern. And interestingly enough, this is precisely where the Spirit moves in and out of the rug! The Semitic mind, the Eastern mind (which, by the way, Jesus would have been much closer to) understands perfection in precisely that way. The East is much more comfortable with paradox, mystery, and non-dual thinking than the Western mind which is formed by Greek logic.
Perfection is not the elimination of imperfection, as we think. Divine perfection is, in fact, the ability to recognize, forgive, and include imperfection!—just as God does with all of us. Only in this way can we find the beautiful and hidden wholeness of God underneath the passing human show. It is the gift of non-dual thinking and seeing, which itself is a gift of love, suffering, and grace. In fact, this is the radical grace that grounds all holy seeing and doing. ~ Richard Rohr, February 2010

This is very much the conclusion I come to in my reading of Genesis in the early chapters of A New Kind of Christianity. God’s perfection doesn’t merely reject or punish evil: it overwhelms it with good. Amazing grace!