JMJ
Tower of Babel, Shinar 
Tower of Siloam, Jerusalem 
Twin Towers, New York City
Some people seem to delight in the suffering of others. They will be the first to tell you they do not, but they seem to think that misfortune visited upon another (and it is always “another” for when it comes to themselves, they are victims”) is divine justice visited upon those they judge guilty. How monstrous is this thinking! How evil within itself as to incur a divine wrath that of which is unknown on this Earth. We must, with all our being, resist this manner of thinking and see in tragedy the opportunity to express a greater love, a greater compassion. To see in tragedy the potential for good, to do good. God does not punish us. What greater punishment is there than to be without God’s Grace? Since God overflows with an abundance of Grace, since God rains His Grace upon each and every moment, since God gives freely without rationing, when we find ourselves without His Grace it is because we rejected it. Rejected Him. We choose hell on Earth and it is we who will choose Hell in the afterlife.
Yet, like Job’s companions, we want to see a sort of divine justice in all things as though somehow we are responsible for being born into wealth or poverty, that “good” living alone entitles us to health. This line of thinking claims a woman baited her own rape, and a fetus precipitated his own abortion. If one cannot see the falsity in such thinking, one must be very careful for in the divine realm, where we are called to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect, the suffering, the agony, the utter desolation, complete destitution we deserve in recompense for our trespasses against He who is Love and whose every action mercy is beyond measure, comprehension, understanding. If we think in such as way to say a difficult life is deserved by the person living it, know that as we judge so shall we be judged, as we mete out so shall it be meted to us, then I say, “Beware! for there will be a reckoning and the debt you demand of others, in justice without mercy, we be visited upon you by the One to whom you owe everything. Should that One fail in mercy as you fail in mercy, the justice will be beyond bear and yet, you will bear it for eternity.”
And there were present, at that very time, some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answering, said to them: Think you that these Galileans were sinners above all the men of Galilee, because they suffered such things? No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower fell in Siloe, and slew them: think you, that they also were debtors above all the men that dwelt in Jerusalem? No, I say to you; but except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish.
Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given to you: good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over shall they give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you shall mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.
What about this passage do we not understand? Do not judge. Do not condemn. Forgive. There is no other way to escape judgement and Hellfire. Love. And not only love, but become love as you Father in Heaven is Love. This is perfection: to become an expression, a reflection of God’s Love. God is Love and thus this is what it means to be created in His image. When you desecrate yourself with greed, with hatred with any vice, you deface the image of God as you are, as we all are, created in His own image. To disrespect yourself or anyone else is sacrilege, blasphemy.
Love,
Love,
Love,
As the Father Loves You,
As the Son Loves You,
As the Holy Spirit Loves You.
And God Bless You!
(C) Copyright 13 September 2020
For Lourdes Sake 