Our struggle
02.27.06 (3:38 am) [edit] I guess there are as many ways of prayer as there are people who pray, and I guess the same can be said of its first cousin mediation. Each person has his or her own inner world, a unique past with all of its blessings and drawbacks that lead each of us to a very private path to the Presence that dwells within each of us. Even those who share the same faith trod a different path, and the Presence deals with each as if we alone were alive, such is what being eternal means. Each moment is complete, full of potential because the Presence, the eternal one’s moment which is truly ‘one’, incorporates all moments in to the ‘one’. Eternity is not a succession of events but all events in the ‘now’, always new, never growing old, exploding with life and healing, it is that moment that we are all called to. Religion is having a hard time now days, its dark past is catching up too it, and being Catholic I know what I am talking about. My own particular faith is very old, and so it has had a great deal of time to commit just about every evil deed and injustice known to man over its 2000 year history….. And many Catholic’s carry wounds from their own individual past from the treatment they have received from those who represent the church. I am grateful that the church is now rocked by scandal’s, it is calling us all to account, and a chance to at least not repeat the horrible mistakes from the past that come with forgetting the message of the Gospel, which is to simply love one another, not as easy as it sounds, hence the commandment and not a recommendation to love. The will-to-power when it comes into the mix with religion is really a great evil and in the end destroys the faith’s mandate to again simply love and heal others, to stop the cycle of violence and hate, instead of being the force that perpetuates it. In the past things were not talked about, brought into the public eye, things were hidden forgotten about, or at least that is what was hoped for. Well it all went underground and it grew until finally with God’s grace, it erupted in to the public eye, not only the power hungry aspect of my faith which is bad enough, but also thank God the child abuse that seemed to be so prevalent in the Church. Predators look for victims, and then a number of those victims become predators, not all, not even most, but enough over time for their number to grow, and with that in each generation it victims increase. Shame does that, keeps it hidden and it takes on a life of its own, and spreads like a cancer, the self hate and shame the fuel that feeds it. Victims are mourned for until they become predators themselves, then they are hated and despised. I am not sure that helps in the long run. We have a long way to go when it comes to dealing with those in our society that are a danger to others. We lock them up, then we release them, well maybe there is another way. Put them in communities were they can live apart and then try to find some way to heal them, if healing is not possible, then help them to live as best they can were no harm can be done to others. If that is done, less victims and the problem could shrink somewhat hopefully. I know there is no easy answer to this dilemma but the way we are handling it now is not working. I suppose thinking outside the box is needed, but to come up with a solution will take a great deal of time and money. From one article I read it said that 3 out of 5 women and 2 out of 5 men were sexually abused as children, either by one of the parents (the biggest group), coaches, extended family and priest, ministers, Boy Scout leaders etc, and that a large percent of these predators were predated upon as children themselves. To hate the predators and to seek revenge only creates another problem; rage that cannot be expressed, nor closure experienced on any level. Love and forgiveness as difficult as it is to achieve is the only way out of this dilemma…..Christ forgave those who betrayed, tortured and killed him, he did that on the cross…….to bad the church over its long history was not able to follow that example. Another fruit of the bad choices made by the church; anti-Semitism and the ghettoes were started by the church, forgetting the example of its founder, hence the beginning of a long path that caused great pain to the Jewish people over the centuries culminating in the holocaust. As I say this I know that I would have done no better if I was in some position of power in the past. So I am not looking down on anyone, I know what I am capable of. I think the way I do because I am simply a man of my time, hopefully because of our time things can change, we can change. In Christianity we use the term “sinner” to express our situation in the world, a tendency to take the path of self destruction towards ourselves and others. Other religions speak of “ignorance”, perhaps these two ways of expressing our collective struggle are closer together than we imagine. In the parable of the “Good Samaritan”, it shows that the divine is found in helping our neighbor, and that neighbor is our enemy, the one we are taught to hate and despise, the parable calls us to move beyond our instinctive urge to love only those close and dear and to look on those outside as other, the enemy who need to be hated and ignored or killed, take you pick. Yes to say “all we need is love” is true but is not easy, it is not based on some naïve feel good fantasy, or some easy way to use others in gratifying sexual desire, but an actual death in how we look and relate to others and the world, and in the end how we treat ourselves. To finally understand (something I am still trying to achieve) that the worst that humanity can produce is loved by the Presence, longed for and pursued, is hard to achieve, perhaps impossible without grace from our Creator, and as a Christian I will say from Christ, but that is what we are all called to do; to look into our hearts without fear and face our own demons, and allow our Father to heal us, slowly for sure; three forward and two steps back seems to be the way we all grow and progress in grace. Atheism is not the answer, for in the end the “State” merely replaces the use of “God” as an excuse for its evil deeds. It is the “Will to power” that is the culprit and whether it is religion or the state that uses it, the fruit is the same, suffering and hate is the harvest, and it is our human tendency to either “sin’ or “ignorance” that plants it. Pointing fingers does no good; each must work on themselves and then move outward; in loving works and in prayer, embracing all of our brothers and sister, yes even the “worst” or the most evil. Unless we come to realize that all or loved we will never get it, but will be trapped in an eternal cycle of violence, power and revenge. |