Like begets like

The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children.

Shakespeare, "The Merchant of Venice," act III, sc. V, l. 1

(xref Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)

 

Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.

          Lamentations 5

 

If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.       

          AA and many others

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It seems to be an immutable rule of the universe

Like begets like

 

Hate creates more hate

War creates more war

Violence creates more violence

 

The worst behaviors (and attitudes) of human creatures

Seem to have a life of their own

 

Like the infamous Tribbles

They also multiply

In a troubling manner

 

Not just continuing

But escalating

 

Give a person a little power

They will use it

Use become abuse

The abuse becomes more profound

 

We see it in politics

In the church

In schools

In families

 

The destructive and the damaging

Get carried forward

From generation to generation

Person to person

Causing us to repeat the same mistakes

Create the same suffering

 

When will we ever learn?

That answer is truly blowing in the wind!

 

Not even death ends the process

An abusive parent may die

But the seeds planted by that abuse are often carried forward

By the children

 

A ruthless totalitarian may be deposed, even killed

But the ideology lives on

To be picked up by another

And blossom again

 

How do we stop those things that steal the joy from our hearts;

our turn our dancing into mourning?

 

It is easy to say, simply

All we need is love

 

It is not that this is not true

But it is perhaps not enough

 

Because we can love the wrong things

Such as guns

Or power

Or money

 

So specifically, we have to love Love (the Sacred / the Divine / God)

And we have to love the way of Love

Which involves humility, justice, generosity, equality, sacrifice

Which involves the common good

 

And which involves letting go

Letting go of power (and our love of domination)

Letting go of retribution

Letting go of greed (the need to accumulate)

Letting go of hate

Privilege

Superiority

The list is endless

 

Letting go too of hurt, forgiveness

And the past, self-forgiveness

And saying

(in effect)

 

This stops here

In the same way Jesus took hate, violence, and all the sins of humanity

Onto the cross

And said, this ends, now!

 

I am not sure how we stop gun violence

But I am very sure it is not with more guns

 

I am not sure how we stop hate

But I am very sure it is not with more hate

(I know people who hate people and I hate people like that ?)

 

But I suspect when Jesus said “I am the way”

He meant just that

That his way of humility, forgiving, healing, listening, caring, giving

Sacrificing

Is indeed

The way

 

I know the arguments

About accountability

About how, if we go the path of Jesus

“They” (whoever “they” are)

Will walk all over us!  Even kill us.

 

Well, yes!

Jesus died on a cross, didn’t he?

 

But it seems remarkable that this one who died

Ignobly

Is still a driving force in our world

 

A force for good

When followed

A force for evil, when claimed but not followed

 

There are lots of ills in this world

We are trying to solve most of them the wrong way

By always doing what we’ve always done

And always getting what we’ve always gotten

 

(How’s that working for you?)

 

Maybe we should try something else?