Getting honest with ourselves does not make us unacceptable to God. It does not distance us from God, but draws us to Him—as nothing else can—and opens us anew to the flow of grace. While Jesus calls each of us to a more perfect life, we cannot achieve it on our own. To be alive is to be broken; to be broken is to stand in need of grace. It is only through grace that any of us could dare to hope that we could become more like Christ. The saved sinner with the tilted halo has been converted from mistrust to trust, has arrived at an inner poverty of spirit, and lives as best he or she can in rigorous honesty with self, others, and God. The question the gospel of grace puts to us is simply this: Who shall separate you from the love of Christ? What are you afraid of? Are you afraid that your weakness could separate you from the love of Christ? It can’t. Are you afraid that your inadequacies could separate you from the love of Christ? They can’t. Are you afraid that your inner poverty could separate you from the love of Christ? It can’t. Difficult marriage, loneliness, anxiety over the children’s future? They can’t. Negative self-image? It can’t. Economic hardship, racial hatred, street crime? They can’t. Rejection by loved ones or the suffering of loved ones? They can’t. Persecution by authorities, going to jail? They can’t. Nuclear war? It can’t. Mistakes, fears, uncertainties? They can’t. The gospel of grace calls out, Nothing can ever separate you from the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord. You must be convinced of this, trust it, and never forget to remember. Everything else will pass away, but the love of Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Faith will become vision, hope will become possession, but the love of Jesus Christ that is stronger than death endures forever. In the end, it is the one thing you can hang onto.
~ Brennan Manning
I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
~ Jesus, King of The Universe, in John 17
Oh beloved, it is true.
And it does not take too many words to describe. The current political landscape is working to separate each of us. And as each new story is spun up by a press that is driven by the frenetic need for revenue, and a postmodern sense of justice, we can actually feel the wedges being driven in.
Differing opinions breed fear, instead of dialog
Various cultures invoke rejection, instead of interest
Views from the Left are mocked by the Right
Views from the Right are vilified by the Left
Ideas the we cannot comprehend are simply seen as wrong, instead of us asking “what if?”
Oh, this all exists. But it is not because others are wrong. It is much deeper. The catalyst of fear is the unknown, or uncomprehended. And once fear takes hold, we are in a very bad space. G_d was not kidding when he said to not be afraid of anything, except Him. Fear drains us. Fear stimulates us to lash out, instead of listen. Fear pushes us away from so much that can help us.
The Devil is the original divider, and this is actually the meaning of the word of the former angel of light. But, he has fallen. And as he spins in his rage over actually losing his position, instead of gaining one higher, we are all feeling his tantrum play out across the world. He wants to drive us apart from each other.
This strategy is actually nothing new. The old adversary, The Satan, really only has one strategy: to separate us from each other and destroy us one by one. He knows , that together, we are indeed strong. For, where even two or three are gathered, G_d is with us in a way that is impenetrable to evil. However, if he can get us alone and thinking that no one else is watching (either to care for us, or to help correct us) we are tempted to despair, to sin, to give up, to give in, or to check out altogether.
He knows the power of unity. And so, he does everything within his power to keep us from having it.
Can we see it?
There is an answer. And it is the opposite of fear and division.
Forgiveness brings unity. Forgiveness is letting go of the need to make ourselves right, and instead just lets the other person be wrong. Forgiveness is unifying, not because it makes everything morally equivalent. No forgiveness is unifying because it makes it clear that, while other people may be wrong, we realize that we are right there with them sometimes, and we do not have the authority to judge.
It really is this simple. The problems we are going through in the world right now, is because we are spinning ourselves up into fear, and in our fear we are trying to hold other people accountable for our discomfort. We think if we could just get them to think and act another way, we could be happy. If they would just act as we would act, then there would be utopia.
However, if we are ever honest (as we, by His Grace, can sometimes be) we could come to realize that we are no different than the fallen, lying, devil. We are trying to escalate ourselves to a higher position when we give into fear; when we refuse to forgive, and when we allow ourselves to be divided over our differences. We spin ourselves away from each other in all off this.
Oh, it is not that the truth does not exist. He does. And He is a wonderful example of how to convince people of the same. He laid down His life for each of us. He gave into our seething demands, as we banged about in our blindness and self-serving rage. He obeyed His Own Father to the very point of the most terrible of deaths on the cross.
So, are you feeling yourself spun apart from others in the current political climate? There is no need. And, if you continue to feel it, it may be because you (and this fool of a writer) are missing the point entirely and being deceived by the liar himself.
Tonight is your night, beloved. Time to forgive, that you might be united with each other against the real enemy of your souls.
The purpose of God’s Providence is to unite, by means of right faith and spiritual love, people who have been separated by evil. To this end the Savior also suffered for us, “in order to gather together the children of God who were scattered.” (John 11:52)
~St. Maximus Confessor, Chapters of Love, 4.17
