One Person

"one human being can do more evil than all the other species put together."

          Thomas Aquinas

 

To make the same point differently, people like Jesus and Paul were not executed for saying, “Love one another.” They were killed because their understanding of love meant more than being compassionate toward individuals, although it did include that. It also meant standing against the domination systems that ruled their world and collaborating with the Spirit in the creation of a new way of life that stood in contrast to the normalcy of the wisdom of the world. Love and justice go together. Justice without love can be brutal, and love without justice can be banal. Love is the heart of justice, and justice is the social form of love.

          Marcus Borg, Dominic Crossan,  “The first Paul”

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one person

one person who is not reconciled to Love

and not reconciled (awake) to their true self

can do so much damage

 

whether it is Putin with his weapons of destruction

killing innocents

and reducing cities to rubble

 

or Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham

posturing and spewing lies and hate on the Senate floor

 

or an angry person

abusing their spouse and their children

 

or a resentful person with a gun

 

one person can do more evil

than all the other species put together

 

we see this

we feel it in our bones

we see it in the rubble of Mariupol

in the battered bodies of children in the ER

 

so what do we do?

 

are we hopeless and helpless?

can we do nothing more than stand by and lament?

 

Sometimes it feels that way!

for sure

for sure

 

and yet

we are reminded by Paul

and we see this truth lived out by others

by Martin Luther King Jr.

Nelson Mandela

Desmond Tutu

Gandhi

and more

 

we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us

 

this is not a meaningless platitude

 

we can stand

we can resist

 

Jesus did

Paul did

 

others to have stood against the domination systems that

all too often rule the world

 

Spirit-filled

They used love and compassion

energy and intelligence and imagination to fight for a new way of life

that is in stark contrast

to the way of domination and wealth

 

we can too

we can overcome

we can overcome evil with good

 

we can refuse to vote for those who peddle hate and lies

we can stand against oppression and suppression

we can choose service over domination

we can include rather than exclude             

we can respond with compassion rather than anger

 

it is not easy

it will not always look as though we are effective

it will not always go well

we will often pay a price

sometimes a very dear price

 

Jesus died on a cross

Paul experienced many a tribulation

Gandhi and King and Mandela and so many others

lost position, power, freedom

and even life

 

but they persisted

and so must we

 

not just loving

not just fighting for justice

but using love to push the world toward justice

 

for

“Love and justice go together.

Justice without love can be brutal, and love without justice can be banal.

Love is the heart of justice,

and justice is the social form of love.”