Part Two - Being Real About Life  

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Being Real about evil
Holy realism … [also] witnesses to [the existence of] evil. And … it can witness convincingly to evil precisely because it understands that enemies are real. That’s anathema in America these days because we all want to be friends. At the extreme, this attitude can be summed up in a sign that I saw at a recent peace rally: “Saddam Loves You.” Well, the evidence is that Saddam loves no one but himself, and even that is a dysfunctional relationship. Contrast that silly thing, “Saddam Loves You,” with a passage from Life Together, which is a little book that Dietrich Bonhoffer wrote about the Christian community in an underground seminary in Nazi Germany. He writes, “Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. And at the end, all his disciples deserted him. On the cross, he was utterly alone surrounded by mockers. So the Christian too belongs within the thick of foes.” He [also] quotes some Luther: “The kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies, and who will not suffer this does not want to be of the kingdom of Christ. He wants to be among friends.” Well, it’s tricky, isn’t it, to think of enemies. And of course, we all have to begin by saying the worst enemy is within. But I think we do also have important witness, both in the Scriptures and in poetry, to evil, to what enemies do. ...

What is a Christian to do when we are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves, commanded to love our enemies? There are situations in which making nice does no good and begins to do harm. As Garrett Keiser insists, anger, righteous anger in the Biblical sense, not selfish, self-aggrandizing anger, can break through denial and lead to the prayer of forgiveness that makes anger no longer necessary, [even] perhaps the concept of an enemy. But the question nags, how can I pray for my enemy? We need to be, first of all, suspicious of our own motives and keep a close watch on ourselves. “But if I truly love my neighbor as myself,” Keiser insists, “I am not looking for victory but a radical change of heart. It is love that impels me to pray for my enemy while fully intending to do everything in my power to oppose him. I intend to prevent his abuse,” he writes, “from destroying us both.”

--Kathleen Norris

Surely evil cannot be any more vile than the face it showed during the holocaust. Auschwitz, Dachau, and Treblinka stand as searing reminders of the depth of human corruption. As Elie Wiesel, another survivor of the holocaust, continually reminds us, such horror should never be forgotten. Any religion that cannot acknowledge such bitter fruits of human sin is not worth believing. For only if we admit the rank horror of evil can we hope for a God and a faith strong enough to redeem it.
-- Lee Ramsey, Focus on Film, "The Pianist"

Process for Meditation and Psalm

Process for Meditation

1. Take a few moments to be silent and center yourself in the presence of God.

2. Read the Psalm completely through once.

3. Read the Psalm again very slowly verse by verse, leaving at least one minute of silence between verses.

4. After going through the entire Psalm, sit in silence for 3- 5 minutes, asking God to feed your soul with the truths of the Psalm.

5. End the time with a short prayer of thanksgiving.

Psalm 63:1-8

1 O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.

3 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

4 So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

5 My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips

6 when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night;

7 for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.

8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. NRSV


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