20/09/2024

Each morning when I begin to read the mass readings I also question myself as to what are my intentions. Why am I doing this self-imposed task?

When we read St Paul's preaching and encouragement we are in no doubt that he is striving with the whole of his being to share what he learnt from Christ on the road to Damascus. It was not only the sight of the Glory of the Resurrection that he received; he also received a mission in which he continued until the day of his martyrdom.

In today's letter he is desperate that he is losing some of his converts. Some are denying that the Resurrection ever happened but he is sure that we all are going to experience the same event that he witnessed the "first fruits of" in the personal epiphany that changed his life for ever.

Today's martyrs had been brought up in a civilization that had managed to bring order into the lives of millions of men and women for centuries. It was an order that was able to achieve a peaceful stable society that must have impressed the first Europeans from the continent of wars who first witnessed it. 

In many ways it was a delight of peaceful calm as was the Empire of the Chinese. It was however a totally human order with an unknowable world of Spirits that had to be appeased and ancestors for whom they brought immortality in Buddhist inspired "rebirth". 

The Christian FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT's revelation to Westerners in Palestine has no equivalent in any other place in this World.

I cannot not believe in FatherSonHolySpirit and in the Bible as the true story of God's intentions for mankind. I do not believe that to be one of the chosen people of the Lord is a result only of God's Providence, my birthright. I do believe that I can live in this world and by following the way, truth and life of Jesus become the holiness that God makes possible for all human beings.

Manmade technology means that all the world can receive the revelations that were first preached in Palestine. Even these ideas, weakly expressed but my own, can be accessed  anywhere on Earth. Could this be the reason that God has tolerated all the evil perpetrated in his name all over Europe and the Middle East?

I cannot forget that God is complete Truth and Mercy but his Justice can only be complete if each individual is proffered the opportunity to respond to his teaching.

This is today's answer to my self-imposed question.

Dear Lord, I have always felt sympathy for the unknown thousands slaughtered and driven out in the first land clearances of the Holy-Land recorded in the Old Testament. Also the aboriginal peoples encountered by European settlers in all the "new worlds" discovered outside of Europe were given short shift. You know that I am trying to be aware as much as is possible for me to find the "good" that you saw in creation. I can only be responsible for the soul that is the centre of my being, but hope my profession of faith is not a pandering to my pride but a true confession of how I try to know love and serve each day that I begin in this way. May my prayers be joined with those of Andrew Kim and the many others of all races who have accepted death rather than deny you. May your mother continue to lead all Angels and Saints and we sinners on earth and in Purgatory in praise of you and pleas for the Mercy that is needed by all the other souls that you have created.