“The world today is closer together and adherents of non-Christian religions live among us. In this situation, for the sake of understanding and peaceful coexistence, it is necessary to take a look over the fence of our own cultural context into the world of religions. In the process, we ascertain that compassion and beneficence are not restricted to our cultural context, but rather are universal human and primordial religious phenomena.”
― Cardinal Walter Kasper, Mercy: The Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life
We have ways of dealing with each other that have never worked, yet we continue. When a man or nation becomes enamored with the desire “of the will to power”, everyone knows that it will end in tragedy, both for the man as well as the nation. Yet people and nations still seek this power over others. We know that revenge leads to more bloodshed. Blood feuds never end. No one wins, but the blood still flows.
Yet all religious faiths at the core, or near the core of their teachings, expound love and compassion for all…yet it is ignored. In my own faith traditions it is easy to see how easily we got off track during certain epochs of our history. A time when politicians sought out high places in the church for personal power and gain..and the havoc and suffering it caused. As a species we seem to have a strong tendency to forget what is truly important and go after what can be grasped at once. Power seeks only its own self worship and the subjection of others. Greed, as well thinks nothing of the future, or the affect it has on those who are touched by it.
People still desire a peaceful loving world and then do everything possible for it not to happen. I see this in myself with my own inner struggles. Yet the “true-north” for our race seems to be ‘love’ and when we lose that and go to our “false-north” we end up with war, carnage, destruction of people and of our world in general.
What we say we seek, we often deny, and then look for what we seek in ways that lead to deep pain, despair and oblivion in the end. We seem to be in a maze with no way out… in reality there may be no exit. We have ‘insane’ ways of dealing with our problems. Perhaps mercy is the only way back to sanity.
Each of us is shown mercy by God, offered it. Maybe we should think about offering mercy more and seek justice less. Then perhaps we will find out how sane that really is as well as healing. Human justice is never will really ‘just’, but based on finding some sort of balance mixed with the desire for revenge.
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery
