Anyone, ANYONE, who says something like "Well, I would never do THAT" has never looked into their own heart and mind and hearts and really looked at what is there. We are all capable of anything. It is only through the grace of God that we are able to constrict evil within us as much as we do.
Anyone, ANYONE, who says something like "Well, I would never do THAT" has never looked into their own heart and mind and hearts and really looked at what is there. We are all capable of anything. It is only through the grace of God that we are able to constrict evil within us as much as we do.
"We have to cross the infinite thickness of time and space – and God has to do it first, because he comes to us first. Of the links between God and man, love is the greatest. It is as great as the distance to be crossed. So that the love may be as great as possible, the distance is as great as possible. That is why evil can extend to the extreme limit beyond which the very possibility of good disappears. Evil is permitted to touch this limit. It sometimes seems as though it overpassed it."
Simone Weil: Gravity and Grace
"Learn the discipline of being surprised not by suffering but by joy. As we grow old . . . there is suffering ahead of us, immense suffering, a suffering that will continue to tempt us to think that we have chosen the wrong road. . . . But don’t be surprised by pain. Be surprised by joy, be surprised by the little flower that shows its beauty in the midst of a barren desert, and be surprised by the immense healing power that keeps bursting forth like springs of fresh water from the depth of our pain."
Okay. But I think he has a good point. Why, after over 5,000 years of recorded history everyone (including me, I am on no pedestal, even in my own mind) is always so surprised - and often affronted - when they have to suffer, is one of the great mysteries of the human mind.
"Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thess. 5:16-17)
She used to walk from her parents' apartment on Riverside Drive to hear Mass at Corpus Christi, which was at the time (still is?) the Columbia Catholic Church. I first entered that church to hear some music, suppose it was 15 years ago. Her spirit was so powerfully present I fully expected her to walk out from behind a pillar. About as close as I've come to a mystical experience.
It was at Corpus Christi as well that the Columbia chaplain said a Mass for the soul of James Joyce, having been browbeaten into it by Mary Colum. He was the only priest in New York willing to do it.
What a wonderful close encounter with such a saintly soul.
And God blessed the chaplain for his charity, I'm sure. After all, Joyce himself said, when asked, "When did you leave the Catholic Church?" He answered, "That's for the Church to say."
When I see angry young men do awful things to people, I think: "I could've been like that. How come I'm not like that?" I'm a young man, and I have been angry—but even at my worst, I have tended toward self-destruction rather than taking it out on others like that. And I have thought: how come? I have always found it mysterious. My best guess is that it's only grace, nothing to my merit.
The starting point for all of us is that we are capable of doing that. As Christians we are are after all part of the mob or at least one of the disciples that disappeared when the going got tough. There but for the grace of God we go.
You are right. Anybody, even a decent person, can do evil things. What would a man do if he was a Pole in 1941 Poland and told by the SS colonel that you were to be a prison guard at a prison camp. A hero would say no, shoot me. But most men would have become prison guards.
Perhaps you are eluding to it but a book was written on that topic discussing German people (it would apply to Poles too).
Here's the brief description........"The shocking account of how a unit of average middle-aged Germans became the cold-blooded murderers of tens of thousands of Jews."
Sadly, true. As Viktor Frankl said in "Man's Search for Meaning", in one of the most bitterly honest things that has probably EVER been said from someone who was there:
“On the average, only those prisoners could keep alive who, after years of trekking from camp to camp, had lost all scruples in their fight for existence; they were prepared to use every means, honest and otherwise, even brutal force, theft, and betrayal of their friends, in order to save themselves. We who have come back, by the aid of many lucky chances or miracles - whatever one may choose to call them - we know: the best of us did not return.”
Anyone, ANYONE, who says something like "Well, I would never do THAT" has never looked into their own heart and mind and hearts and really looked at what is there. We are all capable of anything. It is only through the grace of God that we are able to constrict evil within us as much as we do.
"We have to cross the infinite thickness of time and space – and God has to do it first, because he comes to us first. Of the links between God and man, love is the greatest. It is as great as the distance to be crossed. So that the love may be as great as possible, the distance is as great as possible. That is why evil can extend to the extreme limit beyond which the very possibility of good disappears. Evil is permitted to touch this limit. It sometimes seems as though it overpassed it."
Simone Weil: Gravity and Grace
"Learn the discipline of being surprised not by suffering but by joy. As we grow old . . . there is suffering ahead of us, immense suffering, a suffering that will continue to tempt us to think that we have chosen the wrong road. . . . But don’t be surprised by pain. Be surprised by joy, be surprised by the little flower that shows its beauty in the midst of a barren desert, and be surprised by the immense healing power that keeps bursting forth like springs of fresh water from the depth of our pain."
Henri Nouwen
I'm not finding Father Nouwen in the same league as Simone. That's just me.
Okay. But I think he has a good point. Why, after over 5,000 years of recorded history everyone (including me, I am on no pedestal, even in my own mind) is always so surprised - and often affronted - when they have to suffer, is one of the great mysteries of the human mind.
"Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thess. 5:16-17)
She used to walk from her parents' apartment on Riverside Drive to hear Mass at Corpus Christi, which was at the time (still is?) the Columbia Catholic Church. I first entered that church to hear some music, suppose it was 15 years ago. Her spirit was so powerfully present I fully expected her to walk out from behind a pillar. About as close as I've come to a mystical experience.
It was at Corpus Christi as well that the Columbia chaplain said a Mass for the soul of James Joyce, having been browbeaten into it by Mary Colum. He was the only priest in New York willing to do it.
What a wonderful close encounter with such a saintly soul.
And God blessed the chaplain for his charity, I'm sure. After all, Joyce himself said, when asked, "When did you leave the Catholic Church?" He answered, "That's for the Church to say."
He wrote a lot of nonsense, and I disdain him for it, but this was a good quote.
When I see angry young men do awful things to people, I think: "I could've been like that. How come I'm not like that?" I'm a young man, and I have been angry—but even at my worst, I have tended toward self-destruction rather than taking it out on others like that. And I have thought: how come? I have always found it mysterious. My best guess is that it's only grace, nothing to my merit.
It's all grace, always. Thank God.
The starting point for all of us is that we are capable of doing that. As Christians we are are after all part of the mob or at least one of the disciples that disappeared when the going got tough. There but for the grace of God we go.
You are right. Anybody, even a decent person, can do evil things. What would a man do if he was a Pole in 1941 Poland and told by the SS colonel that you were to be a prison guard at a prison camp. A hero would say no, shoot me. But most men would have become prison guards.
Perhaps you are eluding to it but a book was written on that topic discussing German people (it would apply to Poles too).
Here's the brief description........"The shocking account of how a unit of average middle-aged Germans became the cold-blooded murderers of tens of thousands of Jews."
https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution/dp/0060995068
I read it two summers ago. As a college freshmen nearly 45 years ago I also read "Into the Gas Chambers, Ladies and Gentlemen."
Most of those men remained in the German police after the war.
Sadly, true. As Viktor Frankl said in "Man's Search for Meaning", in one of the most bitterly honest things that has probably EVER been said from someone who was there:
“On the average, only those prisoners could keep alive who, after years of trekking from camp to camp, had lost all scruples in their fight for existence; they were prepared to use every means, honest and otherwise, even brutal force, theft, and betrayal of their friends, in order to save themselves. We who have come back, by the aid of many lucky chances or miracles - whatever one may choose to call them - we know: the best of us did not return.”
That is an excellent book, well worth reading!
Frankl has many fantastic quotes in that book. Here's one that applies to Rod's essay.....
"“No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.”"
Here's a website that lists some of Frankl's quotes.
https://www.orionphilosophy.com/stoic-blog/viktor-frankl-greatest-quotes
A pdf version of Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" is available in public domain. https://ia801809.us.archive.org/19/items/mans-search-for-meaning_202104/Man%27s%20Search%20For%20Meaning.pdf
I've owned a copy for quite some time. A great book, which I recommend to everyone.