Imagine a circle marked out on the ground. Suppose that this circle is the world and that the center of the circle is God. Leading from the edge to the center are a number of lines, representing ways of life. In their desire to draw near to God, the saints advance along these lines to the middle of the circle, so that the further they go, the nearer they approach one another as well as God. The closer they come to God, the closer they come to one another . . . Such is the nature of love: the nearer we draw to God in love, the more we are united together by love for our neighbor. ~ Dorotheus of Gaza, sixth-century C.E.

We also might think of it this way: For Christians, this is our geometry of faith. The nearer we move toward Christ the nearer we move toward one another. Not just Christians, but friends, strangers, foes who do not share our faith. Especially with those people who are difficult for us to be with or for those who seem impossible to love, Dorotheus gives us wise counsel—move toward Christ. Just as important to remember while on earth is that the closer we move toward others in self-giving love, the nearer we move toward Christ who is the aliveness at the center—of everyone and everything. This is the geometry of the Christ-life.

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