The Crystal

"Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up to the mountain to pray.  While He was praying, His face changed in appearance and His clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory  . . . Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw His glory, and the two men standing with Him. As they were about to part from Him, Peter said to Jesus, 'Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.' But he did not know what he was saying. While he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, 'This is my chosen Son; listen to Him.' After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.". -[Luke 9: 28B-36].


This story of Scripture is arguably the most beautiful in the Bible. Many would misinterpret this event as the moment when Jesus is taken up in glory, after His crucifixion. But, actually, no one witnesses Jesus' Resurrection. Jesus is laid in the tomb one moment and is gone before daybreak. It is Mary Magdalene who rushes into the tomb, fully realizing what has happened, that by Jesus absence, a miracle has occurred.

In Luke 9 here, Jesus is on the mountaintop, praying, and dazzling in appearance. Jesus' appearance is described as "His glory."

In the end of this "Transfiguration", a voice speaks from a cloud, saying "This is my chosen Son; listen to Him."  This disembodied voice is, of course, God. I always hoped that if God's voice came from out of a cloud, that He would have a lot more to say than the tautological and the obvious, "Here is my Son."

But the truly significant import of this statement is that God does speak to us mere mortals, if only we could listen and recognize who He is. After all, Peter, James and John are initially asleep and come very close to kissing the Transfiguration entirely.

And God in His Trinity points clearly to Jesus as His Son, in case anyone could doubt. This statement of God's is God's deliberate and firm affirmation of who God IS, in and of Himself, and in His Son.

Peter, helpful and pragmatic, proposes pitching tents. What a completely ordinary and earthly response to a wholly dazzling and supernatural moment. Not only does Peter betray his quotidian self, he apparently means to stay on the mountain awhile if he is building tents.

But Jesus and His disciples are meant to descend the mountain and do the difficult work of encountering other human beings.

In his book, "The Seven Story Mountain", Thomas Merton writes a beautiful metaphor about the Transfiguration. He writes that "Grace" is God's own life, shared by us. God's life IS Love.

Merton goes on to say, "The soul of man, left to its own natural level, is a potentially lucid crystal left in darkness. It is perfect in its own nature, but it lacks something that it can only receive from outside and above itself. But when the light shines on it, it becomes in a manner transformed into light and seems to lose its nature in the splendor of a higher nature, the nature of the light that is in it."

"So the natural goodness of man, his capacity for love which must always be in some sense selfish if it remains in the natural order, becomes transfigured and transformed when the Love of God shines in it. . . . Christ established His Church, among other reasons, in order that [humankind] might lead one another to Him and in the process sanctify themselves and one another. For in this work it is Christ Who draws us to Himself through the action of our fellow men."

Loving one another is incredibly difficult. Think of fractured relationships, bias, hatred, jealousy, war, abuse, conflict, egoism, manipulations. But loving one another is our WORK. We perfect ourselves on a spiritual level by loving others. We draw closer to the model of Jesus, the more and better that we love. We inspire others, in our Love, to work on loving more fully and more perfectly.

And to know Jesus and to try to imitate His virtues, is to draw closer to Jesus and to God.

Many today believe that Christians are intolerant, rules-bound, judgmental people who cannot possibly love someone who falls short of the glory of God.

The reality is that our job is to love one another, and to "lead one another to Christ."

One cannot love another if we hold ourselves apart as either superior or inferior to those around us. In this work of Love, we are in the trenches together.

Others may believe that the holiest Christian remains on the mountaintop, dazzling in glory but too transfigured to ever relate to someone who is all too imperfect, all too human. Yes, there is a place for the contemplative, cloistered life. But the vast majority, along with Jesus and the disciples themselves, descend from the mountaintop and confront the spiritual warfare that is Love.

Others still, believe that they are, in their natural state, a fine, very serviceable crystal. But, not believing in God, or deriving light from His Love, they won't fully perfect their spiritual potential.

In fact, Merton states, "Indeed, outside of Him [God], there is nothing."  Later in his book Merton writes of the time "in which he was to become conscious of the fact that the only way to live was to live in a world that was shared with the presence and reality of God."

Merton concludes from his realizations that "God has willed that we should all depend on one another for our salvation, and strive together for our own mutual good and for our own common salvation."

It is perhaps a shocking revelation today, that we shall all find our salvation together, or otherwise, we shall all perish together. In this age of personal identity and of individual needs overshadowing any sense of the collective community, the notion that we "should all depend on one another" is counterintuitive and even astonishing.

For we all possess the capacity to absorb the Divine Light, and to reflect it back unto the world. In fact, that is precisely why God placed us on this earth. But we cannot ever experience our own spiritual transformation or transfiguration, if we believe that we are individual cells, alone in the world and totally disconnected from each other - or divorced from the Divine Being.

Merton concludes, " We are born with the thirst to know and to see Him [God], and therefore it cannot be otherwise."

God's voice, emerging from a cloud, proclaims, "This is my chosen Son."  - But will we listen?

[Related postings: "Be Dazzled", 2/27/18; "Transfigured", 2/22/16; "This is My Son", 3/16/14; "My Transformation", 2/24/13; "Transfiguration of Christ", 3/5/12; "Transfiguration", 3/20/11.]

(C) Spiritual Devotional 2019. All Rights Reserved.

Temptation

"Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil.  He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, he was hungry. The devil said to Him, 'If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.' Jesus answered him, 'One does not live on bread alone.'
Then he took Him up and showed all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, 'I shall give you all the power and glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All of this will be yours if you worship me.'  Jesus said to him in reply, 'You shall worship the Lord, your God, and Him alone shall you serve.'
Then, he led Him to Jerusalem, and made Him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to Him, 'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: 'He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you,' and 'With their hands they will support you.' Jesus said to him in reply, 'You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.' " - [Luke 4: 1-13].


This Scripture forms the very basis of our Lenten practices. Because of Jesus' hunger, we give food to the poor. Because of the devil's holding out the temptations of power, we intentionally minister to the powerless, the sick or the imprisoned. Because of the devil's holding out the temptations of testing God, we strengthen our Faith.

But this Scripture also represents a warning about how to live. This account of Jesus, wandering the desert for forty days and forty nights, may seem like an exaggeration or even a metaphor, but its lessons are all too real.

Christians may not believe in a devil cast as an actual red man running around, with horns and a wicked grin. But, just as we believe in a Good and Holy Spirit, so we also believe in a Dark Side.

In the first temptation, the devil entices Jesus to turn a stone into bread. What is this about?

This is about our fixation on materialism and greed. We want all the bread, as much as we can grab for ourselves, and we want it now. It is also about the real temptation of taking shortcuts to gain the most "bread" for ourselves.

Perhaps we are thinking, WHO would do that?!

In the news this week: Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign manager, has been sentenced to many years in prison, for conspiracy, for witness tampering, and for bank fraud, and for hiding income overseas to evade taxes; and has just been indicted in NY state for mortgage fraud, such as inflating the value of properties or falsely stating material facts about the property in order to get a more favorable loan.

As the judge in his case said, this is about greed. "Why? Not to support a family  but to sustain a lifestyle at the most opulent and extravagant level" - referring to more homes than anyone could possibly live in, custom suits, expensive clothes.

Legal commentators have said that this was about "gaming the system".

Also in the news, arrests and charges against prominent people for conspiracy and bribes, aimed at gaining college admissions for their sons and daughters. Again, "gaming the system". Taking the easy way out of the college process. Magically turning stones into bread.

Also in the news, actor Jussie Smollett being indicted on 16 felony counts for allegedly staging a hate attack on himself; the motive reportedly being that he wanted a big pay raise.

I am often left wondering, 'WHY would people who are already intelligent, accomplished, and so very blessed, be tempted to commit these crimes?' Don't they already have everything?'

In my mind, while these folks may be richer, more prominent, more accomplished, they are just as prone to temptation as anyone else.

All of us are also just as prone to the temptations of power and of pride. A person who tests God and demands things, as proof of Divine Existence, is entitled - plain and simple. He thinks that even God owes us something.

It is all too easy to fall for the half-truths and the lies of temptation - "Everyone does it."  "Anyone who gets things by hard work and honesty is just a patsy." "You have had some rough times in life, you deserve this." "No one will know."  "You will never get anywhere unless you play the game." "This is just the way the world is."  "The rules are unfair, how can a guy ever get ahead." "You will get everything you ever wanted."  These half-truths and unctuous platitudes are no different than the devil telling Jesus, "All of this can be yours."

We are sucked in on a slippery slope of half-steps: "If donating money is merely 'getting into someone's good graces', then an outright bribe is no different- RIGHT?"  "I am in so deep now, I might as well keep going".  "If I take this money now, I can always repay it later and no one will notice."

My son is in his late teens now. I talk to him a lot about the things that are priceless and that no amount of money can buy - Love, hard work, respect for others, humility, patience. I tell him, Anyone can walk right over even his own mother to grab more power. Anyone can have more money than you, or a shinier car, or more fancy homes. These don't impress me - at all.

What I AM impressed with is the person who walks away from the corruption of power, from the greed, from the egotism that engenders entitlement, and from the lure of the easy way out.

I tell my son that we must all be vigilant against the Dark Side. Even if you have it all, the temptation is always there. No one is above the peril of temptation. No one.

And if you have perhaps less than you desire, but you fall for the easy way out, then you lose everything.

(c) Spiritual Devotional 2019. All Rights Reserved.

The Plank

" Jesus told His disciples a parable, 'Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? . . . Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,' when you do not even notice the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye.' " -[Luke 6: 39-15].


When I read this Scripture, I have to laugh. Yes, Jesus does have a sense of humor. He also has a perfect sense of the ironies of life.

I can imagine this story, in Luke 6, as part of a modern-day comedy routine, it is that fresh and modern.

We contemporary folks tend to dismiss Scripture as awkwardly worded with its thee's and thou's; or, as filled with archaic advice.

The fact is, the Bible is filled with advice that is just as relevant today. In Matthew, for example, Jesus teaches, "Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear . . . Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? . . . Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, [for] each day has enough worry of its own." -[Matthew 6:25-34].

And then, we encounter Luke 6.  Jesus asks, "Can a blind person guide a blind person?  Will not both fall into a pit?"

Martin Luther King, Jr. said essentially the same thing in his statement at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama: "The reason I can't follow the old eye-for-an-eye philosophy is that it ends up leaving everybody blind. Somebody must have some sense, and somebody must have some religion."  He gave the example of driving from Atlanta to Chattanooga with his brother one night. The cars traveling in the opposite direction were not dimming their lights, and so King's brother vowed, "The next car that refuses to dim the lights, I'm going to refuse to dim mine."

King told his brother, "Wait a minute, don't do that. Somebody has to have sense enough on this highway to dim the lights, and if somebody doesn't have sense enough to dim the lights, we'll all be destroyed on this highway."

In other words, somebody has to have sense enough to be kind, first.

I am struck lately about the amount of judgment and hate speech emanating from so many sources. [Of course, evil and criminal acts can, and must, be investigated and punished by the proper authorities].

Most of the news that is broadcast today is ALL about pointing out the splinter in the other guy's eye.  One political side will expose corrupt behavior about the other side. So, the other side will ratchet things up with an expose about the first guy's behavior.

The news media even has a name for this - "What about-ism".  News item: "What about the Republicans. Look what they did wrong." Next news item: "What about the Democrats. Look what THEY did wrong." What about, what about, what about. Endless counter charges, no solutions.

We can go along this way forever, until we are ALL blind.

The danger is that in my personal life, I can be lured into the same pattern of speech. In my daily life, I am finding that I have to fight to stay objective, and fight to insert positive observations into my talk. Consuming too much "blaming speech" tends to tempt me to lose sight of self reflection and discernment about my own behavior.

In Luke 6, Jesus suggests "Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye."

In other words, we have strayed very far today from the concept of minding our own frailties, first, before we excoriate the other guy.

We have also strayed very far today from the concept of removing the splinter from our brother's eye. In other words, instead of minimizing our own sins, or of skewering the other person, maybe we ought to pitch in and help the other guy to be a better person - in other words, help the other person to lighten his burden of blindness and darkness.

Because, in the end, taking care of our own soul and of our own spiritual health, does not always mean rubbing it in that we are right and the other guy is so very wrong. Spiritual health means sometimes exercising Mercy over self-righteousness.

No one likes a hypocrite. Jesus says as much here, very plainly - "You hypocrite! You do not even notice the plank in your own eye!"

After all, we are ALL sinners. And in a never-ending spiral of recriminations and hate, do we even see clearly enough to stop rejoicing at another's faults, long enough to put our energy into solving the real problems at hand?

(c) Spiritual Devotional 2019. All Rights Reserved.

Spiritual Warfare

"Jesus said to His disciples: 'To you who hear, I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless whose who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. . . Do unto others as you would have them do to you. . . Stop judging and you will  to be judged. Stop condemning and you will  not be condemned. . For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.' " -[Luke 6: 27-38.]

Children are "held captive" to the conditions under which they are raised. As long as they reside in their parents' home, they remain subject to the conditions there.

In the home where I grew up, I was hit; I was not fed consistently; I was told there is no God; after I reached age 14, my chronic medical condition was no longer treated; if I said that I was cold and needed a sweater, I was told to stop 'acting up just to get attention.' I went to school with black eyes.

In any situation in life, whether a child or an adult, we have a choice - to respond to conditions with either Hate or Love.

I was the younger child and the only daughter. I knew I had no power. I knew that I had to bide my time until I was old enough to make my escape. This would take 1) saving money, because a bit of savings make you beholden to no one; and 2) getting my education, because that is something no one can take away from you.

But I also knew that if I stayed angry and vengeful, I would be the one to lose. So, as the old expression says, I chose to "lead, follow or stay out of the way." Often, I would lead by making peace. If family members argued, I would pitch in to share the work load; even as a child, I would mend clothing, tend the garden or run mail to the postal box.

Or, I would "follow", by going on family outings I did not care much for, or sitting quietly waiting for time to pass.

Or, I would "get out of the way", literally by stealing off to sit under a pine tree in a neighbor's yard, or by spending many hours in my room, reading books, singing songs or doing needlework.

Sometimes, anger and Hate overwhelm the human psyche. We explode with emotional force, destroying everything in our path, including ourselves. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "A riot is the language of the unheard. . . Riots are massive temper tantrums from a neglected and voiceless people."

There are those who intentionally live a life of riot, and schemes to overpower. They believe that this violent resistance equates to strength. These are the folks who seriously misinterpret and underestimate the Christian who walks in Love. Christians are seen as weak, foolish, and naive.

Those who level this charge often quote Luke in this Scripture - "To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic." In other words, this Scripture is taken to mean that in a case of any conflict at all, a Christian will lay down and capitulate.

But, I have heard one brilliant interpretation of this version, that if a person offers the other cheek, then witnesses will see the attacker slap the person both front and back-handed. And if the attacker takes the person's cloak AND his tunic, then the person will be left naked. And so, in this instance, who appears worse in others' eyes, than the attacker himself?

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "True nonviolent resistance is not unrealistic submission to evil power. It is rather a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of Love, in the faith that the recipient of violence . . . may [prompt] a sense of shame in[side] the opponent, and thereby bring about a transformation and change of heart." He also said, "There's a great deal of difference between
non-resistance to evil and nonviolent resistance. Certainly I am not saying that you sit down and patiently accept injustice. I'm talking about a very strong force, where you stand up with all your might against an evil system. You are resisting but you come to see that tactically as well as morally it is better to be nonviolent."

Martin Luther King talked about how "the world doesn't like people like Gandhi. They don't like people like Christ, they don't like people like Lincoln". This is because their pure Love acts as a powerful rebuke to the Haters.

King always urged his civil rights activists to never retaliate or respond with violence or hate. During the protests in Birmingham, Alabama, Police Chief Bull Connor used firehoses with water pressure so strong, the bark peeled off trees, and one civil rights activist was propelled by the force of the water into the side of a building. When young teens joined the protests, the nation could see Connor turn his dangerous tactics onto children. At that, the world began to truly see the Evil in the perpetuation of the segregated South, for what it was.

Martin Luther King called the power of nonviolent resistance, "Creative Suffering."  In Birmingham, the city ran out of jails and paddy wagons to transport and arrest protesters. As many as were jailed, more came streaming out to protest. Just as in the same way, in Rome, they ran out of crosses and they nailed Christians to fences; and yet, the Christians were not extinguished. If anything, the violent persecutions made the Christians even more determined.

King said, "Hate is just as injurious to the hater as it is the the hated. Like an unchecked cancer, Hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate is too great a burden to bear."

In the end, King said, "The great tragedy is that Christianity failed to see that it had the revolutionary edge. You don't have to go to Karl Marx to learn how to be a revolutionary. I didn't get my inspiration from Karl Marx; I got it from a man named Jesus, a Galilean saint who said He was anointed to heal the broken-hearted."

And so, in my own Life, I engage in Spiritual Warfare, by loving others radically. I refuse to destroy myself by Hate. As St. Paul said, I do not "repay evil with evil but repay evil with good."

King said, " I don't care who you are, I don't care where you live, in every one of us there is a civil war going on in your life. Every time you set out to be good, there's something pulling on you, telling you to be evil.  . . trying to get you to hate. "

But NO, I fight the good fight, I keep the Faith. I LOVE, as a strategic countermove calculated to neutralize Hate. My Love is a strong light that illuminates the Evil around me, and delineates that Evil for what it is - a cowardly, destructive force that cannot win in a world where God always has the last Word.


[Related Postings: "I Hate Evil", 3/18/18.]

(c) Spiritual Devotional 2019. All Rights Reserved.

[Quotes from "The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborn Carson, 1998).




 

The Empty Earth

"Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit." -[Jeremiah 17: 5-8].

The first time my husband came to see me at my parents' house, he was uncharacteristically quiet. Usually relaxed and telling stories, full of humor and life, he shut down, sitting on the couch hunched over and silent.

I attributed this to his nervousness over meeting my parents in their home for the first time.

But his change in demeanor continued, visit after visit. I asked him, What came over him when he entered my family home?

He confessed, ' Their house is like a quiet death. Lifeless. Lacking compassion or Love. No joy, full of grim outlooks, like everyone just came from a funeral.'

It took me awhile to even see what my husband was talking about. I guess I was used to it, all my life.  I wasn't even sure the reason for the lifelessness.

Until it hit me- I grew up in a home lacking in Faith. My mother used to lecture my sibling and me about how Christian were the worst sinners of all. She said Christians sat in the pews on Sundays, but drank, lied, stole, and cheated on their spouses every other day of the week. She called Christianity, "the opiate of the masses." In other words, it was a sucker belief system, designed to have people become complacent- satisfied with mediocrity or even misery- because the people were trained to ignore the desperation in this life, in promise of a better life in the Great Beyond.

But she did not believe in God or the Great Beyond. She thought it was all a fairy tale, a foolish myth to prop up people who were not capable enough to succeed in life on their own.

My mother worshipped at the Altar of Human Achievement. If someone suffered a tragedy, she blamed them for being weak. There were no "accidents", only fools.

Yes, she trusted fully in human beings. Because in the book, there was No One else to rely on.

I will always remember the day when my mother told me that she had almost died in childbirth with me, and I had almost never been born. She praised the skill and excellence of the obstetrician. I had not doubt she told the truth here, but I also believed that God had guided the hand of that doctor that day. There is no inevitability about Life! - I was born, but could have just as well died that day, and my mother as well! And so, when I heard this story of my birth, I silently professed, "Praise God."

Without Faith and Hope, my mother turned to despair. When anything went wrong in Life, she blamed others. Or, she blamed herself. She turned to anxiety, because if she could not do it all by herself, she thought there was No One to turn to.

When she died several years ago, my mother was anxious and depressed. She had no Hope. I came to see, as she navigated life, that it was her efforts alone which she drew upon. And, of course, when we understand that we humans are so faulty, and have such limited perspective, just getting through the day becomes fraught with peril.

I don't know why I suddenly understood as a young girl, that there is a God, and that He was always there at my elbow, walking with me in good times and bad. I came to see that I don't have to do everything myself perfectly. I can become as proficient as I can at what I need to do. I can strive for excellence . . .

But if everything fails, I am not alone! I trust God and I have Hope in Him. I have Faith that, like a tree planted beside a deep stream, I can draw deeply from the presence of God.

The presence of God is not just a shallow, isolated belief. I have had many prayers answered, both for myself and for family and friends.

God is a source of Joy, because I can let my worries go, and let God take over at the point where my abilities fade in fruitfulness. Where I leave off, God begins.

In times of grief, chaos or crisis, I am strong because I "borrow" strength from God. It is not I who is strong, alone, but who is strong in leaning on God. He is the One who makes me strong.

[Related Postings: "A Living Death", 6/30/12; "Dry Bones", 4/7/14.]

(C) Spiritual Devotional 2019. All Rights Reserved.

The Least

"Last of all, as to one born abnormally, Jesus appeared to me [Paul]. For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me. Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed." -[1 Corinthians 15: 1-11].


In this Scripture, Paul calls himself "the least of the Apostles."  He is not talking about his station in life, as the first-named apostles were largely fishermen.

Paul is talking, not about what he was, but about what he DID. In the early days of the church, he was someone who persecuted Christians. He went on to a cathartic conversion (Acts 9). Paul had to work harder as an apostle, because everywhere he went, he had to combat the power of his previous reputation.

Paul calls himself "abnormally born", because he never knew Jesus when He was alive on earth. Paul knew Jesus only as "the Risen Christ." Paul considers this as not organically grown, but in a way, derivative, or second generation. And yet, arguably Paul became the most traveled apostle, and certainly highly respected for all the obstacles hat he overcame.

I return to this verse often, especially today. I wonder what History would have been like, or what the present day would be, without the deeply sinful and flawed men and women, who went on to change the world?

I think of King David in the Bible who had an affair with Bathsheba and who even arranged the death of her husband Uriah, in wartime battle. From the branch of David, came the root of Jesse.

I think of John Newton, who wrote the beloved hymn "Amazing Grace". Newton was a notorious slave trader in the mid-1700's. He was not particularly religious, and so his story is even more miraculous from that standpoint. In 1748, his slave ship was caught in a dangerous storm. Newton cried out to God for mercy and his ship was saved. He went on to study theology and became ordained in the Church of England. He is best remembered for the hymn Amazing Grace.

Or, I think of Martin Luther King, Jr., who - History shows - was a known womanizer who had many affairs, despite being married with four children.

Or, I think of Thomas Jefferson, who penned the history-changing words, "all men are created equal" - who owned slaves his whole life, and who carried out an affair with a slave he owned, Sally Hemings, and fathered children with her.

In current news, Jermaine Wilson, the mayor of Leavenworth, Kansas, was in prison in maximum security for dealing drugs. He had lost the ability to see his infant son. He sat in prison and plotted how to redeem himself. This included reading stories in the Bible about how "God uses people who made mistakes."

We want our heroes to be flawless. Well, they are not. Neither are you. Neither am I. Welcome to the human condition.

In no way do great second-acts wipe clean the sins of the past!  Today, forgiveness and reconciliation are greatly misunderstood. We erroneously believe that if anyone did anything wrong, that forgiveness means that the bad act never occurred! That is foolish. We all need to live in community, and we need to call each other out for our mistakes, whether for everyday errors, or for egregious sins. If we all had amnesia over Sin, we could not battle the Evil which we could not even name.

Forgiveness does not equate with ignoring the Evil that went on. Pretending Evil does not exist is just as foolish as committing the Evil to begin with. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "He who passively accepts Evil is as much involved in it as he who helps perpetrate it."

But Christianity believes in Redemption. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God. Forgiveness is a "process" - ideally, we call out the immoral act; the person recognizes his sin, then asks for forgiveness; then, the transgressor works to CHANGE in the future.

Today, I detect a viciousness in calling out others for their sins and misdeeds. Once we call out a sin, we can never move past it. We drive the transgressor "outside the city gates", as if the person is forever marked with the sign of Sin. The transgressor can never live down his misdeed, can never pay his debt to society, can never live openly or freely. The transgressor cannot make a living, and loses his wife and his financial stability. He is hunted down and destroyed.

In America, former prison convicts cannot get credit or find a job. People who file for bankruptcy have a very hard time obtaining a place to live, let alone buying a car or even finding a job. We treat people who acted very badly as if they were scapegoats, forever hounded and cornered, and flung off a cliff.

We erroneously believe that people are either all good, or all bad. We judge everyone by the one worst thing they did, many years ago. We give no chance to the person to grow, to change and to find a way to become good again.

What would our world be like if everyone with the capacity for greatness were to be hounded, cornered and destroyed? Is every single mistake "unforgivable"?

Jesus said, at His crucifixion, "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do." And three days later, he rose again.

Out of loss and even violent Sin comes Redemption.

[Related Posting: " Confronting Sin", 9/3/11].

(c) Spiritual Devotional 2019. All Rights Reserved.

Love Never Ends

"But do you strengthen yourself for battle; stand up and tell them all that I command you. Be not crushed on their account, as though I would leave you crushed before them; for it is I this day, who have made you a fortified city, a pillar of iron, a wall of brass, against the whole land. . They will fight against you but not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord." -[Jeremiah 1: 4-5, 17-19].


In my childhood home of cruel dysfunction, I gradually shut down, over a period of years.

My mother would admonish me about my brother's taunts, and his hitting of me. She told me, "If you do not react, he will not do those things. You are too sensitive." So, I concluded, this abuse was all my fault.

He would singsong ugly names at me. I would get angry or cry. Since my mother did not stop him, his abuse expanded. He would get physical - he would hit me. I would go to school with black eyes. My mother would tell me, Do not get any more black eyes, you embarrass me.

I tried to stop his abuse. First, I practiced showing no emotion. His abuse continued. Maybe he could "see my emotions" inside of me?

Next, I practiced feeling no emotion. His abuse continued. Maybe it was my fault because I spoke to him?  I stopped speaking altogether.

My family had means. We were not poor. My mother fed me four-day old left-overs. I gagged on it. I largely stopped eating.

My family sent me to school in fancy dresses, fancier than most of the school girls. But I had black eyes and rarely spoke.

I stayed awake at night, until all in the house were asleep. I thought it was safer not to sleep when they were still up and prowling about.

I did not believe in the money they threw at me to try to control my behavior. My life was scripted - what colors to wear, what school to attend, what to study, with whom to be friends, where to work, what department to work in. If I did not do as they said, they would withdraw money and threaten abandonment.

When I began dating, they would hiss at me if they disapproved: "This is not how we raised you." All because I was a different denomination of Christian than my beau.

So, I could not believe in their blackmail, or their money, or their materialism, or their superiority over others, or their deeply cold hearts.

What could I believe in?

Years later, my father died abruptly one early spring day- here one moment, gone the next. Suddenly, I was free. A long-time friend said I looked ten years younger.

I ran to speak with my pastor. How could I begin anew? My pastor told me he was amazed at how I had turned out.

I told him, "I believed in Love."

When a lifetime of crushing memories came down on me like a sudden downpour, a lifetime of trauma hitting like a tsunami, I had to find a way to strengthen myself for battle all over again. Trauma visits in spiraling rounds of grief and fear- the first experience is the real life one, the next experiences come in flashbacks and nightmares.

One day, I sat in a church pew and opened the Missal. The page fell to Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born, I dedicated you." I read on about the fortified city, the pillar of iron, the wall of brass. Tears fell on the page. I didn't have to be their daughter, I was God's child.

I memorized these words, I recited them to myself each time I felt weak from the horrible memories.

Since that day, I have studied the Bible. I know the meaning of what St. Paul says in Corinthians about Love: "If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have Love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. If I comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have faith so as to move mountains, but do not have Love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast, but do not have Love, I gain nothing."

For all their educated lectures, all their worldly assets, their weekly trips to church, their standing in the community, their self-satisfied belief in their own abilities - without Love to give, or Love in their hearts, my parents were sad, clashing, self-important cymbals, signifying nothing.

During my childhood, I walked away from their abuse, I displayed Love where they showed Hate, I gave grace and patience where they gave jealousy and bitterness.

All that they had, their beautiful home, their respect in the community, their lovely material things - were temporary.

But, Love? Love never ends.

(c) Spiritual Devotional 2019. All Rights Reserved.