The earth was beautiful until the spirit of man blew over her and destroyed everything. And mankind said: let there be darkness…. and there was darkness. And mankind loved the darkness and so it named the darkness “security”. And it divided itself into races, religions, genders, and social classes.
And there was no evening and no morning on the seventh day before the end. And mankind said: Let there be a powerful government here that would control us in our darkness. Let there be armies to control our bodies so that, in our darkness, we can learn to kill each other orderly and effectively.
And there was no evening and no morning on the sixth day before the end. And mankind said: Let there be rockets and bombs here, so that it is easier and faster to kill.
Let there be a more thorough militarization and security.
And there was no evening and no morning on the fifth day before the end. And mankind said: Let there be right and left members of the holy Order here, a pleasant way of life for the members of the Holy Order and other means of escape, because there is a constant nuisance – the REALITY of the poor and the oppressed who disturb our comfort.
And there was no morning and no evening on the fourth day before the end. And mankind said: Let there be conflict between the nations, so that we will know who our potential common enemy is.
And there was no morning and no evening on the third day before the end. And mankind finally said: Let God create us according to our likeness. Let a few other Gods match themselves with us. Let us say that God thinks as we do, hates as we do, and kills as we do.
And there was no morning and no evening on the second day before the end.
On the day of judgement there was a loud noise on the face of the earth. Fire ravaged the magnificent globe and there was…stillness. The soot-covered earth stood still in order to pray to the true God.
And God saw everything that mankind has done. And in the stillness of the smoldering ruins, God cried. Destructive and lethal means are just too many. And yet everything is not lost. There are life-giving means – struggles for liberation and mental attitudes that keep our people alive.
Text from the Philippines
From The Correspondence Course on Franciscan Missionary Charisma
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franciscan, charism, peace
This is very moving. As is your entire blog which I like very much. I’ll certainly come back. (I have used two of your quotations – one from Tich Nhat Hanh and one from Abba Anthony – for my own blogs. I plan on blogrolling you for my meditation blog.)