Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 37, Number 04, 1 April 2020 — Reverend Abraham Akaka's sermon on the Aloha Spirit...and how it ties into our incubation, isolation because of this virus... [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Reverend Abraham Akaka's sermon on the Aloha Spirit...and how it ties into our incubation, isolation because of this virus...

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Idedicate this eolumn toMrs. Loma Paeheeo, who appeared on Kathy Muneno's KHON2 Kupuna Life news segment on March 12th. She was featured as a lauhala weaver who truly believes the "ALOHA SPIRIT" will save our world!

I

magine that you are completely dependent on others, imagine

spending all day asking "Now 1 ean make believe He 's here! Sometimes I walk alone at night when

everybody else is sleeping. I think of Him and then l'm happy with the company I'm keeping. The city goes to bed...and I ean live inside my head. On my own, pretending He's beside me...All alone I walk with Him till morning. And when I lose my way, I close my eyes and HE hasfound me!" -Iyrics from Les Miserables Below is a reprint of a sermon delivered by the Rev. Abraham Akaka at Kawaiaha'o Church, Honolulu, Hawai'i, on March 13, 1959. These beautiful words are just as appropriate and meaningful today as when he first spoke them. " Aloha is the power of God, seeking to unite what is separated in the world - the power that unites heart with heart, soul with soul, life with life, culture with culture, race with race, nation with nation, and man with woman. " Aloha is the power that ean reunite when a quarrel has brought separation. Aloha is the power that reunites individuals with them-

selves when they become separated from the image of God within. Thus, when a Person or a People live in the spirit of Aloha, they live in the Spirit of God. " Aloha consists of this attitude of heart, above negativism, above legalism. It is the unconditional desire to promote the true good of other people in a friendly spirit, out of a sense of kinship. i

" Aloha seeks to do good, with no conditions attached. We do not do good only to those who do good to us. One of the sweetest things about the love of God....about Aloha, is that it welcomes the stranger and seeks his and her good. A person, who has the Spirit of Aloha loves even when the love is not returned...And such is the love of God. . . . UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. " Aloha does not exploit a people or keep them in ignorance and subservience. Rather, it shares the sorrows and joys of people. Aloha seeks to promote the true good of others.Today, one of the deepest needs of mankind is the need to feel a sense of kinship, one with another. Truly, all mankind belongs together. "From the beginning, all mankind has been called into being, nourished, watched over by the love of God. The real trae Golden Rule is 'ALOHA.' This is the way of life we shall affirm. "Let us affirm forever what we really are - for Aloha is the Spirit of God at work in you and in me, and in the world." Mālama, A hui hou, Aloha mai, Trustee Leina'ala Ahu Isa ■

Leina'ala Ahu lsa, Ph.D. TrustBE, At-lsrge