Peace Train
“You see the splinter in your brother’s eye, but you do not see the beam in your own eye. When you remove the beam from of your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.” All of us, brothers and sisters, need purification, and every religion needs purification as well. Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Moslems … can best help each other by giving one another the good example of focusing on their own purification.
Today we remember those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. But how do we remember? Do we remember our brothers and sisters with the same hate that led to their deaths? Is more burning the answer? Or do we remember our brothers and sisters with acts of service? Couldn’t the world use a lot more love? Isn’t it time to heal?
Those who died on September 11, 2001, including the terrorists, were victims of religious intolerance and fanaticism. The spewing hate from that day and from many centuries past and from all sides poisons our world. But by taking the beams from our own eyes, we can build bridges for the whole human family.
Yes.
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Thanks Leo! Beautiful.
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Thank you Leo. Your words are so inspirational. God Bless You
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Thanks Leo,
This is a very complicated issue as you have stated has been festering for centuries. What we need to realize is that we have it within our hands to pass on that hate or terminate it. For a long time after 9/11 I carried the “Them” vs “Us” angst in my heart with no sense of pity for the over 150,000 human beings that lost thier lives during the invasion of Iraq. I think Americans wanted their pound of flesh to appease a blind sense of “riteous” anger. After all that has been said and done, I believe we Americans have wanted to distance ourselves from the hawkish approach to self preservation. I always felt uneasy with my attitudes towards the least of these and tried many times to rationalize my attitudes.
Three years ago, Jesus in His humor changed my job. In the new position I met a Muslim man from Palestine. A very warm, caring and sensitive person with whom I started to have lunch with. I learned many things from him about Muslims. Parenthetically, I am NOT Muslim nor do I credentialize Islamic theology. What i did learn from John Paul II was that we have a responsibility to honor and respect our brothers who are Muslim. We, as our Christian duty need to, as Christians, help them to be the best Muslims they can be. It will be the manifestation of this degree of the love of Jesus that will help them experience Jesus in a manner that is unadulterated by our own self interest of seeing them on the “Us”side of the line.
What I have learned over the past three years is that Christians and Muslims get along very well in Palestine. Whenever a wedding is taking place, The entire village goes to the wedding whether it be at a mosque or to a church. Muslims actually belive in Jesus more than Jews do. To them He is a prophet that will be coming back before Mohammed does. (As I said, this is not my Christian understanding) There is more written about Mary in the Koran than in the Bible.
So although the Theology is very far apart, we can if we choose to build bridges of charity by respecting “them” as our brothers who are indeed children of God. So it is not a matter of who is right or wrong, at this point, it is a matter of can I see Jesus and love Jesus in my brother who does not understand Him the way I do or know how to recieve His love in the manner I am priviliged to do? If we cannot love this brother/sister we do see, how can we love God whom we cannot see?
May the love peace and joy of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the Holy Family, be with yours always,
David
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