Jesus' greatest horror for us - lack of integrity (Hypocrisy), that is, WORDS say one thing, BEHAVIOR another (a chronic dissonance between the two).

This (above) is my big Easter present so far. It arrived as I was immersed in the Gospel of Luke on my morning shift at the White House.

A search at the site Start Loving would show that I've been wrestling over the last year or so to better understand what Hypocrisy, that which most in the world horrified my hero Jesus, means. Recent strides for me have been understanding that Hypocrisy has to do with lying to yourself - first. But that does not capture it fully. And, it is much more insidious than that. And, the pejorative connotation of the word "Hypocrisy" does not ring fully true regarding what Jesus was getting at. Cancer may be evil, but to get mad it, or to cast aspersions at it, to have a pejorative connotation associated with it is a dangerously needless distraction.

Well the leap for me, my Easter gift, was to understand that lack of integrity / inconsistency / impurity / chronic dissonance between word and deed, sentiment and action is more central to what Jesus was horrified by than anything else I have yet understood in association with the concept Hypocrisy. And centrally it is that dreadful, murderous, malignant capacity we have to feel / think / intend / say one thing, but do another. THIS was Jesus greatest horror for us.

I'm sure this breakthru for me was encouraged by some recent quotes I've encountered, and maybe shared with you already:

• "Sentiment without [commensurate] action is the ruin of the soul." Edward Abbey
  
• "We are doing what's right before God. That's what we are called to do, and what happens happens." Louis Vitale
• "You are what you DO, not what you say, think, feel, envision or intend." Start Loving
  

Good news!!!! "Jesus' greatest horror for us - lack of integrity (Hypocrisy), that is, WORDS say one thing, BEHAVIOR another (a chronic dissonance between the two)." The most virulent, malignant, deadly Error (sin).

Happy Easter!

If your life does not require great Courage, at this time, in this world, you are not aLive.

At Easter I often receive a number of gifts.  This year I received the sentence above.  Far and away the greatest psychologist is Alfred Adler. He identified courage as the hallmark of human mental / spiritual health and defined courage as - doing what needs to be done regardless of the likelihood of success.    Hmmmm.  This IS the way of life.  No?  Don't skin cells do this?  Your heart?  Your immune system?  Your eyes...?  Cats?  Dogs?  Birds?  Bees? Amoeba?...  This IS what Life does.

"If your life does not require great Courage, you are not aLive."  Tragically, we humans have the capacity to fall away from Life, to run in fear and cowardice from "what needs to be done," and to merely EXIST, and thereby to become a cancerous malignancy on the body of Humanity.  And the only cost to us personally, and to those we influence is our / their Joy, Life, Peace, and Universal Love.  But hey, the pleasure and safety we receive as compensation more than makes up for this, right?

Happy Easter!

Life is ALWAYS the PURSUING of the Perfection of Humanity; NEVER the ATTAINING of Perfection or Living thereof (which would be Death).

Gandhi's Beloved Brother

Both died to show us how to Live.  Period.  Period.  Period.  Period.  (did I mention - Period?)

Will we finally, these last 3 months of chance we've been given, will we finally follow their lead?  Or are we so willing to have our loved ones suffer and die needlessly?

>>>>>>>>>  The Way of Suffering  <<<<<<<<

Our Beloved Brother

Mary's Tears

Blogging will slow. Our Beloved Hero Brother is Cricified today, for us.

I'll be with Him as best I can these next 3 days, reading his words, and pondering  His imponderable Love for us.  Gandhi's #1 Hero; ML King's, Romero's, Teresa's, Start's....  Oh, He Loved us so.  I want that same Love within me for us all.  Always have.  My dad had it, pretty much.

The purpose of the Ideal is to enable us to Strive TOWARDS it; NOT to Caputre it.

Jesus, King, Gandhi, Romero, Teresa, Eleanor... accepted Start in their Foxhole tonight

My prayer life has been practically nil for months now.  Why?  The final battle for Humanity is so pitched, on so many fronts - Climate Disaster, Democracy, 28 Yr Vigil (dual shifts like Thomas endured all those years), Washington Peace House Integrity, War-De-funding, Connie, Nuclear Arms Reduction, Gaza/Palestine... there has not been time to Pray; just to be a Prayer.  Secondarily, Prayer is NEVER the end, but the means, the means to become the "change we need to be" (Gandhi), to become the "pencil in the hand of God," (Teresa) and my sense is that I've been good enough on these fronts these last months that it was wrong for me to indulge in further Prayer at the expense of using every moment to Wage all out Love at thise most crucial of all years in the History of the world. 

But tonight I couldn't sleep, my body is not yet adjusted to my morning and evening shifts at the 28 Year Vigil, so I had some time for one of my few Prayer techniques - to put myself, to Imagine myself, in the company of Jesus, King, Gandhi, Romero, Teresa, Eleanor, Dellinger, Joan... and to examine their reaction to my being there, for whatever guidance, positive or negative, that this will yield me regarding "how am I doing?"

Well, tonight as I came to them there was no applause, no high-fives, no warm cheers, no warm "Family" embrace... and I want this from them, very much.   But I'm not worthy of this.  Yet.

But they were in the midst of this desperate, to the death, final battle for Humanity.  And they were entirely accepting of me joining them in the fight.   I take this as acceptance enough, for now; affirmation enough, for now.

Remember the final battle of the Lord of the Rings trilogy?  All our (s)heroes are encircled by a totally overwhelming hoard of Evil, remember?  That is the circumstance in which tonight I found Jesus, King, Gandhi, Romero, Teresa, Eleanor....  And their reaction told me that they felt that I belonged along side them in this fight.  I was sufficiently worthy for that. 

This is good.