17/01/2024

 David killed Goliath.

Jesus totally condemned the use of violence even to defend ourselves, but the wars and slaughter of the Old Testament were continued by the Church founded by the same Jesus.

The Church of the first centuries began in the Pax Romana when the ambitions and egos of local rulers throughout the Middle-East and Western-Europe had been made subservient to the Roman Legions and their master, the Emperor. The egos of successive Emperors were so swollen that they decided that they must be Gods and they founded temples to promote this idea.

The Commandments of the only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, forbid killing and all the behaviour that results in the blind anger that can only be assuaged by inflicting violence on the perceived source. All violence is self-destruction for our love of God is to be shown by the way we treat the other people for whom Jesus gave up his life. I am other people.

Many who realised the depth of Jesus' teaching paradoxically removed themselves from other people by opting for a solitary life alone in the desert. There have been many of us who since those times have remained in the World and been corrupted by its delights. There have also been many saints known only to God who have remained in the world and with God's Grace have beaten its temptations.

The institution that Jesus founded on St Peter has become evermore tangled in the things of this world and has evermore displayed the  main characteristic of any human institution, self preservation. The burning of heretics, Holy Wars and now the coverup of the crimes of sinful clergy mock not only the teaching of Jesus but also his body broken on the cross.

Jesus told the Apostles to go out and teach all nations, he told us to respect the world of other people. He  told us "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's" he did not found an alternative empire but a way through life leading to his Kingdom not of this world.

This is what St Antony sought in the desert and to which we can all open our hearts and souls. 

Dear Lord, You do not need me to tell you my thoughts and longings but doing so means that I can remember these few moments when I have the desire to pray by raising my heart and soul to you the Evergreater and the Ever-present. May all the world and purgatory benefit from the prayers of Mary and all the Saints. May my deceased parents know on this eve of the anniversary of my birth that I am still striving towards you and that their first child is not a total disaster.