T. 24. VII. 1 – 3. Jesus: “How bitterly does everyone tied to this world defend the specialness he wants to be the truth! His idle wish is law to him, and he obeys. Nothing his specialness demands does he withhold. Nothing it needs does he deny to what he loves. And while it calls to him he hears no other Voice!
For the one who wants to see himself as ’special,’ no effort is too great, no cost too much, no price too dear to save his specialness from the least of slights, the tiniest attack, the faintest whispered doubt, the merest hint of threat, or anything but deepest reverence. This is your seeming ‘son,’ beloved of you as you are to your Father.
Yet this specialness stands in place of your real creations, who are truly son to you, that you might share the Fatherhood of God, not snatch it from Him. What is this ‘son’ that you have made to be your current strength? What is this child of earth on whom such love is lavished? What is this parody of God’s Creation that takes the place of the creations that are truly yours? And where are they now, that the host of God has found another son whom he prefers to them?
The memory of God shines not alone! What is within your brother still contains all of creation, everything created and creating, born and yet unborn, still in the future or apparently gone by. What is in him is changeless, and your changelessness is recognized in its acknowledgment. The holiness in you belongs to him. And by your seeing it in him, that holiness returns to you!
All of the tribute you have given to specialness belongs to your brother, and thus does it return to you. All of the love and care, the strong protection, the thought by day and night, the deep concern, the powerful conviction that this is you, belong to your brother. Nothing you gave to specialness but is his due. And nothing due to him is not due to you!
While specialness claims your allegiance, how can you know your own worth? If instead, you recognize it in your brother’s holiness, how can you fail to know it in yourself?
Seek not to make your specialness the truth, for if it were, you would be lost indeed. Be thankful, rather, that it is given you to see your brother’s holiness simply because it is the truth! And what is true in him must be as true in you.”