Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Don't ask...

Don’t ask…

One of the founding principles of the Sisters of Embracement is just that – embracement. In fact Mother Superior drives me to work in the mornings and we were talking about just that. We (as in the Sisters of Embracement we, not the royal we) are not talking about tolerance. Anyone can tolerate someone else, given a strong enough willpower. We are talking about embracement of other people, and their paths to God. We are talking about Christians who follow God’s greatest (and in many ways most difficult) commandment from the New Testament “love on another as I have loved you.” Now it may seem obvious here but I would note he didn’t add “unless you don’t happen to agree with who they are.” This is not to say there is not such a thing as righteous indignation. As a priest named Father Fratus once pointed out to me “Even Christ drove the money lenders out of the temple and overturned the tables.”

That being said, you would probably be surprised at the amount of hate mail that just the paragraph above generates. It is not enough for the world’s major religions to preach intolerance of any path to God but their own; it often seems that their members feel it necessary to turn others to their way of thinking.

More than once I have been called a heretic, which isn’t that bad when you consider that one of the same people told us that, also told us they considered Mother Teresa of Calcutta a heretic as well. All I can say is “I am not worthy”…that is some marvelous company to be in.

So if you read any of the essays here and feel that it is necessary to try and get me to hate another human being or somehow feel that God doesn’t love them because you cannot accept them or their path to God…

…please don’t ask. Don’t try and twist the words of whatever Holy Book or path to God you follow into some labyrinthine maze of ill-logic to try and convince me to hate another human being or refuse to accept their path to God. As grandmother used to say, “you may as well save your breath to cool your porridge” – the second any comment begins to turn to the above twisted logic it is deleted unread.

There are many paths up the mountain, but they all lead to the summit…find yours. Let others find theirs.

Sister Julie

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I come here for a breath of fresh air now and then. I do appreciate your blog.

I am single-- and am very frustrated in my search to love someone.
When I look at the couples around me-- straight or gay-- I silently thank my Creator that love exists. It is such a blessing. How anyone could hate someone for loving?

Thank you for having the courage to encourage love.

Jo Ann