Jesus tells us first and foremost to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. He tells us second to love our neighbor as ourselves.*
In these two most important commandments, Jesus directs us to love. We are to let love flow out of us to God and to our neighbor. God asks us to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, to help us to love Him.** God asks us to consent to Him loving our neighbor through us.
To love God, I must also love my neighbor. Anyone who claims to love God but hates his or her neighbor is a liar.***
To love my neighbor, I must not judge my neighbor.**** If I am judging my neighbor, there is no room in my heart to love my neighbor.
We judge persons when we see what we do not like in them. When I encounter thoughts, words and actions I dislike, I am to despise them in myself. I am to be outraged at the appalling tendencies I notice in myself.
I believe that the path to salvation is paved with despising my own horrible tendencies and begging God to forgive me out of His great mercy. We receive the infinite gift of God's immense mercy when we turn to look at ourselves, acknowledge our own sinfulness, and implore His mercy.
Since I prefer to direct my energies toward how I need to improve, rather than on where other people might need to change, last week I made a choice reflecting this aspiration I have. As I have previously mentioned, Catholic Workers regularly protest outside the facilities of a manufacturer of armaments here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Last week I was asked to choose the short writings we would read before and after our protest.
In line with the sentiments I have expressed about trying to focus on how I need to improve, for our brief reading just before the protest, I selected a composition in which the Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote
Instead of loving what you think is peace, love other men and love God above all. And instead of hating the people you think are warmakers, hate the appetites and the disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed--but hate these things in yourself, not in another.
I strive to love my neighbor, though often I find it challenging, and although often I fail. We love our neighbor by taking an honest look at ourselves and how we need to improve so we can better love our neighbor.
Thus I prefer to focus on what I need to do to treat people better than I do. To help work for peace, we can examine our own thoughts, words and actions. As Gandhi suggested, "You must be the change you want to see in the world."
Herein rests the reason why I don't protest more than I do and why I don't write about protesting more than I do. While I find it important to speak out against injustice, I strongly contend that it is far more appropriate to try to improve myself than it is to point out why others are inappropriately acting. Since I wish to witness to peace, I want God to bring about peace through me. For God to bring about peace through me, I must open my heart to God so He can transform me and thus create peace in the world, right now, in this very moment.
Consequently, for our short reading together immediately after the protest, I selected the prayer commonly attributed to Saint Francis, which beseeches God
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offense, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.
We can agree to God's plan to be channels of His peace. We can consent to God bringing peace to the world through us.
In every little fragment of time, in the present moment God is always extending His hand to us, inviting us to open our hearts to Him. He is requesting that we assent to His will and open our hearts to Him, and love Him, so that He may enter into our hearts and love our neighbor through us, and thus bring peace into the world through us. Let us open our hearts to God so He may abide in us,***** love through us and bring us peace. Amen.
* Matthew 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Deuteronomy 6:5; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
** Romans 5:5
*** 1 John 4:20
**** Matthew 7:1; Luke 6:37
***** John 15:7
In these two most important commandments, Jesus directs us to love. We are to let love flow out of us to God and to our neighbor. God asks us to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, to help us to love Him.** God asks us to consent to Him loving our neighbor through us.
To love God, I must also love my neighbor. Anyone who claims to love God but hates his or her neighbor is a liar.***
To love my neighbor, I must not judge my neighbor.**** If I am judging my neighbor, there is no room in my heart to love my neighbor.
We judge persons when we see what we do not like in them. When I encounter thoughts, words and actions I dislike, I am to despise them in myself. I am to be outraged at the appalling tendencies I notice in myself.
I believe that the path to salvation is paved with despising my own horrible tendencies and begging God to forgive me out of His great mercy. We receive the infinite gift of God's immense mercy when we turn to look at ourselves, acknowledge our own sinfulness, and implore His mercy.
Since I prefer to direct my energies toward how I need to improve, rather than on where other people might need to change, last week I made a choice reflecting this aspiration I have. As I have previously mentioned, Catholic Workers regularly protest outside the facilities of a manufacturer of armaments here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Last week I was asked to choose the short writings we would read before and after our protest.
In line with the sentiments I have expressed about trying to focus on how I need to improve, for our brief reading just before the protest, I selected a composition in which the Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote
Instead of loving what you think is peace, love other men and love God above all. And instead of hating the people you think are warmakers, hate the appetites and the disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed--but hate these things in yourself, not in another.
I strive to love my neighbor, though often I find it challenging, and although often I fail. We love our neighbor by taking an honest look at ourselves and how we need to improve so we can better love our neighbor.
Thus I prefer to focus on what I need to do to treat people better than I do. To help work for peace, we can examine our own thoughts, words and actions. As Gandhi suggested, "You must be the change you want to see in the world."
Herein rests the reason why I don't protest more than I do and why I don't write about protesting more than I do. While I find it important to speak out against injustice, I strongly contend that it is far more appropriate to try to improve myself than it is to point out why others are inappropriately acting. Since I wish to witness to peace, I want God to bring about peace through me. For God to bring about peace through me, I must open my heart to God so He can transform me and thus create peace in the world, right now, in this very moment.
Consequently, for our short reading together immediately after the protest, I selected the prayer commonly attributed to Saint Francis, which beseeches God
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offense, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.
We can agree to God's plan to be channels of His peace. We can consent to God bringing peace to the world through us.
In every little fragment of time, in the present moment God is always extending His hand to us, inviting us to open our hearts to Him. He is requesting that we assent to His will and open our hearts to Him, and love Him, so that He may enter into our hearts and love our neighbor through us, and thus bring peace into the world through us. Let us open our hearts to God so He may abide in us,***** love through us and bring us peace. Amen.
* Matthew 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Deuteronomy 6:5; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
** Romans 5:5
*** 1 John 4:20
**** Matthew 7:1; Luke 6:37
***** John 15:7
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