Dear People Whom God Loves,
We continue with our reflection on us humans. We are neither angel or beast. We are both. If we strive to be an angel, we will end up being a beast. We will then become blind to our beast part and in our smugness and arrogance, we will be without compassion and will hurt people. We will want to look good, but we will not be good humans.
If we strive to be beasts, the beast part of us will run wild. We will lack compassion and will hurt people. We will not be good humans.
In either case, we will just be choosing a different way of sinning. The tragedy is that we will be in denial and as long as that denial lasts, we will not be on our spiritual journey. It often takes some tragic event to crack us open and see what is going on. Indeed it is that crack which is our salvation. It is the crack that allows the healing love we call God to enter into us. We can wait for some tragedy to happen or we can enter into the spiritual journey under less painful (but not without pain) circumstances.
We can start the less painful journey by beginning to acknowledge the beast within us. I believe that if we see the beast within us, the angel part of us will take care of itself. I believe that is true for many of us. The journey will be different for those of us who delight in the beast and its harmful consequences to other people—not to mention the harm to ourselves. This journey needs the realization of how unhappy we really are—even though we deny to ourselves that we are unhappy.
Our journey then is to recognize the angel within us.
A somewhat different journey is for those of us who do not delight in badness but we think that we are no good, worthless, and of no account. Then our task is to recognize the angel within us and indeed that the Love we name God is in us and that that Love cherishes us. Indeed, realizing that Love is in us and accepts us is part of the journey for every one of us.
In any case we must receive the internal transformation that brings love and compassion to others and to ourselves.
God is infinite love, compassion, and mercy. We are made in God’s image. That is why we will never be happy until that image is being transformed within us.
The good news is that whoever we are or whatever we are like, we are loved and cherished by the Love we name God.
More next time.
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