Good Morning Digitial Neighbors! Happy Sunday ADD Irregulars, WSN Aficionados, Friends & Refugees, Early Birds & Later Dayers, PHAM & Misfits, Conversants, Lurkers and Wanderers. In Cath-O-land it is Divine Mercy Sunday, and we celebrate the Mercy of God revealed in Jesus. Even if you are not a believer in Da Jesus or even the great Sky God, I suspect most of us at Locals agree that the world needs more mercy, more reconciliation. more healing of the division that separate humanity.
One can forgive another without that person ever knowing he or she was the object of forgiveness. The injured, the wronged can chose to forgive and let go of the pain and angry associate with the violation against them. It is a choice. Living in the wound of the injury, letting it define your life narrows your acceptance of life and mutes your own growth as a person. It is very difficult, many cannot grow past horrid injuries that others inflict upon them. Humanity can be cruel and acts against our neighbors can be monstrous. It is the stuff of real nightmares, Only grace and the presence of kind souls might open the door to healing and even then it might be beyond many.
One can be sorry for their past and willing to make amends and not find forgiveness. People do not have to forgive one another, mercy can be withheld. For Disciples that should not be the case, but not all are Disciples of Divine Mercy. Others embrace and practice mercy as they see fit according to their own morality and ethics.
Forgiveness is difficult for some to grasp, it is not an erasure of the wrong that was experienced but a willingness to look beyond that moment or series of injury. You can never undo the wrong you have done, you can take accountability for it, make amends were possible and strive to live better in the future. It is the spiritually of many 12 Step groups. I am not a fan of forgive & forget, I think that leads to a life of disassociation with the past and does help us learn or grow from past lessons. Momma Peggy said "Sorry is the beginning- changing shows that you mean it." The changing part is rarely perfect, but rather a difficult climb out of bad behaviors, distorted desires and the brokenness that no one can escape.
In the world sandbox, not all views, attitudes and behaviors can be reconciled. Some are so opposed to each other that strife and conflict seem unavoidable. One can chose to let bygones be bygones, but you are only free to do that as long as you are ignored. Once the neighbors comes a knocking, you have to deal with it. Today is a day of prayer for me for mercy and reconciliation. For Disciples I pray for reconciliation with God and neighbors. For all of Seekers and Questioners on the path, I pray that you can find reconciliation in your life if it is needed with family or friends.
One final thought on mercy, one cannot seek mercy to escape justice with one exception. The Luminous offers mercy now so that we can stand before His justice with gratitude & joy. In this world, mercy does not give you a pass on justice. Yes, I am aware that justice is poorly applied these days and I am one of the cynics of how it is manipulated in society and in the world. It is not a cause for contentment.
Have a great Sunday Digital Neighbors! Know of my appreciation and prayers for all of you. - The Friar
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
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XIII
The Proud Minister
One day there came into the Garden a man in torn clothes badly bruised and cut, who said to the Lover, “In the name of the Beloved I demand your help.”
So the Lover and the Disciple let him in and dressed his wounds and prepared the best of the vegetables from the Garden for him to eat. When his wounds had been dressed and he had eaten and rested the Lover asked him how he had fallen into this plight, to which the man replied, “I was Minister of the Beloved in a city near this place, where I preached His gospel and expounded His doctrine to the people. I pointed out to them how their sins had made them wholly hateful to the Beloved and how therefore they were utterly beyond the range of His love and He would condemn them to eternal torments, whereon some fell into despair and wept bitterly but many were angry. One day the magistrates called me before them and begged me to leave the city and preach elsewhere for they said I had made many people so angry and desperate that they feared there might be a riot and they might not be able to protect me but that I might suffer some injury. I, however, very zealous for the Beloved and believing that the magistrates only feared that their own sins might be proclaimed, preached the more vehemently, denounced the magistrates and made it abundantly clear that the whole wicked city was foredoomed to eternal punishment by the just provision of the Beloved. Whereon a mob, stirred up no doubt by the corrupt and venal magistrates, fell upon me with sticks and stones, nearly killing me and driving me out of the city in the state in which I came to you.”
“My friend,” said the Lover, “this was not a good deed of yours, for besides denying the unfathomable compassion of the Beloved, you have by your obstinacy caused these people to commit a grievous sin, and this cannot be pleasing to the Beloved, that through you who profess to be His minister the people should become worse. Surely you remember that He Himself said, ‘If they persecute you in one city flee to another.’”
Therefore the man was very angry, and cursing the Lover, said, “I see that I have had a very false report of you and I do not believe that you are a servant of the Beloved at all. When I came to you so injured for the Beloved’s sake you set before me only herbs and fruits although the garden is full of birds which you could have killed to make me a worthy meal. I shall proclaim everywhere that you are no true servant of the Beloved but a mere falterer who dares not suffer in the cause of the Beloved. Be sure that you are foreordained to eternal torments who suffer nothing here.”
For the man was so blinded by his own pride that he could not perceive the scars on the hands and feet and the brows of the Lover nor how the cloth beneath the armpits of his tunic was dyed with a red dye. So he went out of the Garden cursing and shouting.
But the Lover looked sad and said, “A man like this does much harm to the cause of the Beloved, for by thus speaking falsely about the Beloved he may bring men to fear Him but none to love Him, and by love alone can any man approach the Beloved.”
