Sunday Thoughts

From One Mountain, Many Paths
An American Freemason Speaks Out for Peace

by Dr. Patrick Swift
Click book or here to go to the page and buy it for yourself,

Patrick has added a beautiful video to his site. I recommend you go and watch it.

Today the book opened to the following"

"In bringing harmony to an intense conflict, lingering feelings can remain. How can such harmony be considered a success? The wise forgive the debts of others."

Tao Te Ching 79, Adapted
Taoism

And on the opposite page

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

Matthew 5:7

Christianity

A couple of weeks ago I cited this from the Spiritual Interpretation of the Lord's Prayer by Mary Baker Eddy

"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And Love is reflected in love;"

To understand the first quotation you have to have a concept of the word debt. The Catholic Encyclopedia says this:

"That which is owed or due to another; in general, anything which one person is under an obligation to pay or render to another."

You can read the entire article by clicking on "says this" above. But it seems to me to be mostly talking about material debt. I think the quotation refers to a "spiritual debt"

In Romans it says

"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law."

So, what is this saying to me. I generally am going to ignore the money take on this because I don't think that is what underlies the quotations. I am going to talk about the intense conflict. Teachers on playground duty or parents of siblings see intense conflict all the time. Many times these conflicts just "flare up" for no apparent reason. Children have not always learned to control their emotions or as we say in masonry "subdue our passions." They get mad fast and sometimes the anger will go on for a long time. Many times it carries on into adult lives and they never do get over it. This is truly sad. Adults need to guide them to better ways of dealing with hurt feelings and emotions.

In our world today we have a lot of intense conflict. Entire nations are at war. Sometimes for not very good reasons. Perhaps a president thought he was doing something right or perhaps he had a darker motive. Regardless a lot of people are dead or will live with wounds because of his actions.

Worse than that, in my opinion, is the conflict between religions. One religion claims that they are the correct and only religion. Another says, "No, our religion is the only one." Even within a particular religion one sect will claim that they are the one true interpreter of their religion. Most times they are so far removed from the original founder of their religion that their founder might not even recognize the religion.

Religions are established (in my opinion) as a way to teach people how to live with each other and in so doing how to honor and live with God (however they perceive that God). When they become a way for one segment of the religion to gain control over the others they lose their way.

I particularly like the admonition from Micah:

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

For me that is probably enough. And that brings me to the quote on the other side of the page. Blessed are the merciful. I do not think that Patrick was arbitrary in his arrangement in the passages of this book. He did not just toss them out on a table and pull them out one by one for placement in his book. He took a lot of thought and effort in the arrangement of the quotations.

So the wise forgive the debts of others and the merciful will receive mercy. If I am wise I will forgive those who (to put it another way) "have trespassed against me" as I expect my trespasses to be forgiven. If I do that I shall receive mercy (which I am to love) and by so doing I will walk humbly with my God. WOW! That is great advice but it is easier to type here than it is to live.

Over time I have had "intense conflict" with others. There are some people who do not like me. And there are some people who I really do not like. I do try to like them but honestly sometimes it is much better to "go to the other pasture" and let them live their lives without me in it. With one individual the hurt seems so deep that I doubt that I will ever forget it. I invested too much in that person and it was thrown back in my face. We are at a point where we talk to each other and are civil but there is no real friendship there anymore. But am I willing to forgive the debt. I suppose I already have. It is just that there is a barrier there which will seemingly never be breached. This makes me sad but not depressed as I once was. I am moving on. I am hoping that by my being and loving mercy I will receive mercy. That is all I can ask for.

With others I just don't even try.

In actuality over the past six months or so there are a couple of Brothers who have grown very close to me. They make up for a lot in my life and I guess that they are fulfilling another of Mary Baker Eddy's sayings: "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need."

I find that I have touched the lives of many others with my f*****king Blog and usually it is for good. One of my poems has even helped some people. I have also received very positive feedback about how some of my posts have helped others. Sometimes I did not know why I was writing it. It only became apparent after it was up and posted and someone gave me feedback. I guess that is what this has evolved into. I started out as a way to communicate with my sister and friends about what I was doing. Then I started posting some about Masonry. Once in a while (OK a lot of the time) it was a way to gripe about things. It became a place for me to post my pictures and the pictures of my friend Bob. So it is a lot of things. But mainly I hope it is a blessing to others and once in awhile will make them think about the great problems of life.

We need to realize that God is (has) speaking to us today. We need to listen. We need to forgive the debts of others and reflect Love in love. That and "doing justly and walking humbly" will bring us the mercy we need in our lives.

I thought I had better look up mercy:

1. Compassionate treatment, especially of those under one's power; clemency.
2. A disposition to be kind and forgiving: a heart full of mercy.
3. Something for which to be thankful; a blessing: It was a mercy that no one was hurt.
4. Alleviation of distress; relief: Taking in the refugees was an act of mercy.

I like #3. And Patrick your book is a blessing. Thank you, once again, Patrick for writing your book. It has given me much to think about and to ponder and it is helping me to become a better person.