How Can We Love Our Enemies?

You say to me, Brother D.: “I would like you to insist more on the application of the Sermon on the Mount, such as learning to truly love in the evangelical sense, to truly forgive.” Insist more? My arms fall off, beloved Brother D. How could I? I keep insisting on the love, forgiveness, peace, intelligence, etc. that we owe to humanity. If it were a question of feeling, I would understand if you asked me the right method to awaken this feeling, but it is not a question of feeling. It is a question of wanting or willing: That we may do Thy Will (Rev. of Ares 12/4).
I love all men and yet among them there are many whom I do not like at all naturally or, if you prefer, whom I do not like at all sentimentally and whom I even distrust. But I refrain from condemning them, from flogging them, from wishing them ill, etc., I oblige myself to neutralize all the negative feelings that I cannot help feeling towards these men whom I do not like sentimentally. I do not rush to their necks to embrace them, I limit myself to neutralizing my hostility, to refusing to put my fist in their faces and my foot in their asses, to expressing my enmity to them, to refusing to create an active animosity between them and me.
This is why I have always said that evangelical love is a love-of-duty, but not a love-of-feeling. It is not necessary that the people you meet see or feel you love them; you simply love them out of duty, forgiving them even if you don’t feel like it sentimentally, it is an interior act that has value for you. If it has no value for them, it is not serious and in any case it is not possible for the time being: four generations will not be enough (Rev of Ares 24/2). Do not try to be angelic; it is impossible in the present state. Always remain courteous to all and it will be a considerable effort in the direction of a love that will only be truly remarkable and natural in more than four generations. To withhold in word, deed and behavior – one can also say love-retention instead of love-duty – all that you feel negatively about some humans is all you can do at this time. Sure, some of us can go further in our impulses toward others, but if you can’t, just stay in control of the Good you represent and that will be enough. You know, forbidding yourself to be practically hostile and remaining courteous to all humans is already very good.
Love is not a forge that blazes under the bellows to redden the metal that is then hammered on the anvil; love is not this human volcano that you seem to dream of. It will become one, but we are not there in this generation. The ideas, the feelings, the sensations towards humans reminiscent of those of a young mother crazy about her baby, can only be attitudes that the true Christian of the Sermon on the Mount obliges himself to without necessarily feeling them in himself. There is, in short, a bit of theatricality, formalism, facticity in your courtesy, but it is still better than waging war, doing harm, spitting venom. That’s what the Sermon on the Mount says. To love your enemy is not to give him a bear-hug or to give him gifts, it is to forbid yourself to engage in combat with him, it is to seek dialogue, even if it is difficult.

Réponse : 21déc22 246C58

https://michelpotayblog.net/246.html/246-comments-french.html

Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Edited by djd

Deep Cause of Terrorism

“The deep cause of Muslim terrorism is not religious. It’s hate for western civilisation.

But this problem is replicated by another: We westerners don’t love ourselves either.  Our missionaries are quite conscious of this reason buried deeply beneath other arguments.  The people they meet don’t love themselves/each other, don’t expect much from themselves, in other words there is a painful general apathy.  Should I say a general depression?  …  I am going to tell you why they feel this disgust or general apathy.  It’s because they have completely lost sight that mankind has a much greater need for grandeur, interior beauty (RA 12/3), superior ideals, magnificent, of heroism (RA xxxv/4-12), love for one’s neighbour, forgiveness, true freedom, than for social security.  That is what The Revelation of Arès reintroduces into our minds and that is what we seek to reintroduce to the public mind by assembling a small remnant (24/1) of heroes who go into the streets to remind humanity of this.  Yes, we must fish out our beautiful ideals, particularly those of The Sermon on the Mount, from the gutters and sewage pipes where they have been abandoned.”

Excerpt from the reply to 12sep17 188C158 

http://michelpotayblog.net/188.html/188ChairEtSuperstition-comments-french.html

Translated by djd

The Leaning Tower of Bagels

Today I will be babbling about bagels.  Again.

For several months a new business was awaited which promised bagels but when they opened, in spite of a window full of bagels, they would not sell a plain bagel and they didn’t have any butter (even though this is in Brittany).  It turns out they only have a limited number and prefer to sell them garnished (better profit).  It was probably another case of “if looks could kill” on my part.  I need to get rid of any animosity I may still harbour.

I do know how to make bagels.  It’s just nice sometimes to instantly satisfy a hankering with one single bagel.  Now I will have to be disciplined and put some in the freezer.

Once again, the proof is in the chew and these come out way ahead.  However their belly buttons seem to have disappeared.

 

 

Couple Thoughts

While unpacking things to put away, now that I have some shelves and cupboards to do so, I found this sampler that is finished. All it needs is to be framed and hung, well, maybe washed and ironed. I was struck by how pertinent I find it to be, even years after embroidering it. « Choose thy love, Love thy choice » still sums it up for me as the method for forming and building a couple. Falling in love is one way to start, but that is not how things work day after day, year after year. We must be ever vigilant, ever building, communicating, adjusting, evolving, ever mindful of the main direction we want to take, choosing to love our choice.

The Dark Ages

When I was in school, we learned about wars, assassinations (fancy word for muder), plots, kings getting killed, all with an air of « but we don’t do that any more, now we are civilized, democratic, we vote ». But if you look at the world, we are still in the dark ages. Poisonings, planned accidents, bombings, shootings,…

All the religions call for non-violence, peace, but we don’t live it. A Christian is probably aware of Matthew 5 :21-22, « You’re familiar with the commandment to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.‘ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill. » (The Message translation)

In essence, I killed a girl while I was on my trip. She pulled me aside as I was boarding the plane for an extra search. I didn’t say anything – I knew that would only get me in trouble, but I gave her a look, if it had been a laser, she would have been fried, if it had been one of those new energy weapons, she would have disintegrated. She said, «I am only doing my job, for your security.» She heard everything I didn’t say. I took my good old time with all my movements, thinking the longer I take, the fewer people she can hassle. Rather proud of myself for thinking of that. But I am guilty of murder.

Peace ter

A key element for peace is forgiveness. There are many opportunities to practice forgiveness (forgiving and being forgiven) in the course of a day – sometimes even before getting out of bed. It is all these decisions of the instant that create who you are. By practicing forgiveness, you can have peace within, a very good place to start.

So Far to Go

I was playing legos with my grandson, 3 1/2 years old. He smashed my project, then I smashed his, thinking somewhere that will teach him what it feels like to have your project smashed and maybe he won’t do that.

Husband, observing, said the never-ending- cycle of revenge.

He was right.

I despair.

How can I expect humanity to renounce war when I can’t even practice forgiveness in a play situation?