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February 15
David Barnhart
February 15, 2025
A display of a frieze at the Smithsonian exhibit on Buddhism, 2019.
Today is the day most Mahayana Buddhists celebrate Parinirvana Day, when the Buddha transitioned from physical existence in 486 BCE. In Buddhist terms, death is simply passing from one state to another. Having already achieved enlightenment, leaving behind his physical body (possibly from food poisoning), the Buddha ended his cycle of death and rebirth once and for all.
Today marks the births of Galileo Galilei, in 1564; Susan B. Anthony, in 1820; and Bishop Steven Charleston, in 1947.
Galileo considered becoming a priest before he began his study of mathematics, physics, and astronomy. His theory of heliocentrism (that the Earth orbits the Sun) challenged the authority of the Roman Catholic church, which was already on edge because of the Protestant Reformation. He was sentenced to imprisonment, and lived the rest of his life under house arrest.
Susan B. Anthony was an activist against slavery and for women’s and labor rights. Her mission for justice was informed by her Quaker faith. Though she was a powerful force for women’s rights and abolition, her work for women’s suffrage was sometimes at the expense of African-American rights.
Steven Charleston is a retired Episcopal Bishop and member of the Choctaw Nation. He has written and taught extensively on Native American interpretations of Christianity and maintains a strong presence online.
Reflection:
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.
Here is one way to look at yourself through spiritual eyes: you are a message. When you wonder what existence is all about, when you ask about your purpose in life, or when you feel small in comparison to the troubles of the world: remember that you are a message sent by the Spirit into creation. What you say, what you do, how you think and feel: your whole life is a long and sustained message for others to encounter, experience and receive. You are a living message: sent to touch more lives than you can imagine.
Prayer: God who spoke the universe into being and spoke us as messages to the world; send a word that enlightens, and inspires us to reason and action. Amen.