The Word was, is and will eternally be God. God is Love, the Word is God,
and so I believe, the Word is Love.
Matthew 25:40
...whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
Today, the same Christ is in people who are unwanted, unemployed, uncared for, hungry, naked, and homeless. They seem useless to the state and to society; nobody has time for them. It is you and I as Christians, worthy of the love of Christ if our love is true, who must find them, and help them; they are there for the finding.
- Mother Teresa, A Gift For God
Galatians 3:28
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no
longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
God's Love is for all,
God makes no distinction between rich or poor, common people or
wealthy aristocrat or political leader, fools and wise, female, male,
employer,
or employee. There is no justification for bigotry, intolerance nor hate.
Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity.
Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity.
It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and
to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength To Love, 1963
Those who have created the evil are those who have made possible the hideous social injustice our people live in. Thus, the poor have shown the church the true way to go. A church that does not join the poor in order to speak out from the side of the poor against the injustices committed against them is not the true church of Jesus Christ.
Here is indomitable courage and utter humility. Here is a message of hope.
O Lord, open my eyes
that I may see the needs of others;
open my ears
that I may hear their cries;
open my heart so
that they need not be without succor;
let me not be afraid to defend the weak
because of the anger of the strong,
nor afraid to defend the poor
because of the anger of the rich
... And so open my eyes and my ears
that I may this coming day
be able to do some work of peace for thee.
- Alan Paton
He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth
and he who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.
Proverbs 29:7
The righteous care about justice for the poor,
but the wicked have no such concern.
For Christians,
Favoritism is Forbidden
James 2:1-7
1My brothers, as believers in our
glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism.
2Suppose a man comes into your
meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes
also comes in. 3If you show special
attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you,"
but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet,"
4have you not discriminated among
yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5Listen, my dear brothers: Has
not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith
and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?
6But you have insulted the poor. Is
it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging
you into court? 7Are they not the
ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?
Something religious is going on even in scientific work, not in the scientific
information itself but in the commitment to the idea that the universe is
intelligible and truth is worth seeking. Those are religious convictions. You
can't prove scientifically that truth is worth seeking, but it's the conviction
that it is worth seeking that underlies all good science. Religion lifts this up
and makes it more explicit. It symbolically names that depth, that truth, that
meaning, and refers to it in Western theology as God or Allah, or in Eastern
thought as Brahman or Tao.
...Fox's "Moment of Truth" game show, which really does turn real life into a game, and has apparently bribed at least one marriage into oblivion through paying for public confessions of adultery.
...when people's adulterous affairs are being played out, not only for our entertainment, but in a context where the moral failure is being rewarded with a cash prize, I have to wonder if we should not be organizing a campaign to switch off until the networks treat us – and themselves – with some respect.
And thus I understood that any man or woman who deliberately chooses God in this
life, out of love, may be sure that he or she is loved without end. This endless
love produces grace in them. For God wants us to hold trustfully to his: that we
be as certain, in home, of the bliss of heaven while we are here as we will be,
in fact, when we are there. And always the more delight and joy we take in this
certainty, with reverence and meekness, the better it pleases God. – Julian of Norwich
The seed of God is in us. Given an intelligent and hard-working farmer, it will
thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is; and accordingly its fruits will be
God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God
seeds into God.
– Meister Eckhart
Jesus had a remarkable way of being a friend to every person he met. We
sense in him the ability to welcome the stranger, to find the hidden gift in
those others called sinners, to strengthen the ability of the loving to love
more. He loved some by confronting them with the ways in which they were
unloving and exploitative of others. He challenged the hypocritical in those
who made it their right to judge others with constant reminders that we not
only must not but cannot judge another He found important ways to invite all
to discover and cherish the lovable in themselves. – by Paula Ripple, in "Called
To Be Friends"
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly
be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact,
you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully
round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe
in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark,
motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become
unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least
to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you
can be perfectly save from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. – CS Lewis, "The Four Loves"
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
– an incantation spoken by fictional characters in Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune
"I have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased to let fear control me. I have accepted fear as a part of life--specifically the fear of change, the fear of the unknown; and I have gone ahead despite the pounding in my heart that says: turn back, turn back, you'll die if you venture too far."
–
Erica Mann Jong
No Worries
– Common Australian phrase for, "alright"
Themes
for
Worship
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.
- Francis of Assisi
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