Mercy – Love your enemies 2: more C. S. Lewis & some Charles Williams

The most radical and distinctive thing Jesus demanded of his followers was that they love their enemies (Matthew 5:43-48, Luke 6:35-36). There is nothing sentimental about that. Jesus and the people he was talking to had real enemies. Their country had been invaded and was occupied by oppressive foreigners–the Romans. Jesus and his followers also had enemies among their own people who ultimately would collaborate with the Romans to have him tortured and killed, a fate many of his disciples eventually shared. It is a hard teaching.  But, the extent to which we practice it determines the extent to which we are faithful to the radical, demanding mercy of Jesus

Two weeks ago, I shared a couple of quotes from C. S. Lewis in which he explained some of what that looks like in practice. Here is another quote from Lewis from a letter he wrote to his brother, September 10, 1939 at the beginning of World War 2:

In the Litany this morning we had some extra petitions, one of which was, ‘Prosper, oh Lord, our righteous cause’. Assuming that it was the work of the bishop or someone higher up, when I met Bleiben [the vicar] in the porch, I ventured to protest against the audacity of informing God that our cause was righteous – a point on which he has his own views . . . I hope it is quite like ours, of course, but one never knows with him.

– The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume 2

And here is something from Lewis' friend, Charles Williams, also written in the midst of WW 2 (1942):

The conversion, where it is demanded, of the wild justice of revenge to the civil justice of the Divine City is the precise operation of the Holy Spirit towards Christ. All we need to do is attend to the goodwill, to the civility; the justice (in the personal relation) can be left to Christ. ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, sayeth the Lord.’ It is perhaps desirable to notice that the repayment is not limited to our enemy. We shall be unfortunate if we forget the trespasses, the debts, which our enemies desire to repay with their wild justice and are content to leave to his promise. It is important that we should be ready to forgive the Germans; it is not unimportant to recognize that many Germans (including Herr Hitler? Possibly; we do not very well know) may feel that they have much to forgive us. Many reconciliations have unfortunately broken down because both parties have come prepared to forgive but unprepared to be forgiven. Instruction is as badly needed in this as in many other less vital things; that holy light which we call humility has an exact power of illumination all its own. – The Forgiveness of Sins, p. 113

A couple of things strike me in the above quotes. Both Lewis and Williams refuse to get caught up in nationalistic rhetoric that assumes that “God is with us” or that their country is particularly blessed by God. Even in the midst of war, they were compelled by their Christian convictions to accept the possibility that their nation could be wrong and that their enemies might well have grievances of their own. If that is the faithful Christian attitude in the midst of war – and I believe it is – how much more so in times of (relative) peace? It raises questions about the ease with which Americans blend God-talk and patriotism in ways that smack of syncretism. It raises questions about the rhetoric of American exceptionalism.

I am also struck with the fundamental humility expressed by Lewis and Williams. Both demonstrate an admirable reticence to claim to know overmuch about God's mind or to assume their side is necessarily God's. Both recognize that all humans are fundamentally bound to one another in a relational web and all humans are caught in the sin that infects that web. We should thus be wary of presuming our own innocence or consigning only blame to others – both are awe-full things to contemplate if we recognize that we are all live under the awesome gaze of God's love and judgment.

Neither Lewis nor Williams would advocate anything like a posture of moral equivalency or neutrality. Neither was a pacifist. But, what both do seem to advocate is a deep humility and reticence to assume their enemies and opponents are completely wrong and their side simply in the right. And I find that refreshing.

If all this could be said in the midst of WW 2 where the right and wrong seemed so clear, might such things be said in other contexts? In the secular setting, if we adopted Lewis' and Williams' attitude would we engage our political opponents differently? What about in work, school, family, or other personal contexts? Are we willing to acknowledge that those who irritate or frustrate us might have as much or more cause for grievance against us?

For our enemies and those who wish us harm, and for all whom we have injured or offended, we pray to you, O Lord.  Lord, have mercy.

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Delight – Earth’s crammed with heaven

The Bible affirms that creation is good (see Genesis 1:31) and it is full of God’s glory (see Isaiah 6:1-3) and that God rejoices and delights in it (see Proverbs 8:30-31)

Do we delight in creation? Do we see God's delight in it? Or are we too busy, too distracted? How might we better attend to that delight?

“All that is sweet, delightful, and amiable in this world, in the serenity of the air, the fineness of seasons, the joy of light, the beauty of colors, the fragrancy of smells. The splendor of precious stones, is nothing else but heaven breaking through the veil of this world, manifesting itself in such a degree and darting forth in such variety so much of its own nature.”

– William Law (1686-1761)

Earth’s crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God;       

But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,       

The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

– Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)

The Bright Field

I have seen the sun break through

to illuminate a small field

for a while, and gone my way

and forgotten it. But that was the

pearl of great price, the one field that had

treasure in it. I realise now

that I must give all that I have

to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after

an imagined past. It is the turning

aside like Moses to the miracle

of the lit bush, to a brightness

that seemed as transitory as your youth

once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

– R. S. Thomas (1913-2000)

The Summer Day

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean--

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down --

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

With your one wild and precious life?

– Mary Oliver (1935 -  )

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Mercy – Caring for the Poor as Redemptive Liturgy

But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. – Jesus (Luke 6:35-36)

Jesus challenges his followers to be as merciful as God. That means mercy toward everyone. But, Jesus, following the Old Testament, showed particular mercy toward the poor. He said that when we care for those in need, we care for him. (Matthew 25:31-46)

 The early Church took seriously this responsibility to take care of the poor. In fact, many understood care for the poor as an extension of its worship, or liturgy.

 Liturgy (leitourgia) originally referred to work on behalf of the public, e.g., the wealthy would pay for public works and public religious festivals. In the New Testament, Christ is referred to as performing a leitourgia: “Christ has obtained a ministry [the Greek word is leitourgia – liturgy] which is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant it mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). Christ’s life of obedience, death on the cross, and resurrection is the Christian liturgy. It is public work done for the benefit of the people. The early church adopted the word to refer to its worship understood as participating in the one liturgy of Jesus.

 But that worship was not understood as only what happened at church on Sunday morning. The public works funded by the wealthy in the pagan Helenistic context was not about caring for the poor. Nor was care for the poor connected to pagan worship. But for Christians, the liturgy of worship, which participated in the liturgy of Jesus Christ, led to "liturgy" on behalf of the poor. In her book, The Hungry are Dying, Bishops and Beggars in Roman Cappadocia, Susan R. Holman shows that in the early church, "Almsgiving is regarded early as a redemptive leitourgia." p. 54. 

Holman refers to Basil the Great who assures his audience that almsgiving is

the one action that would open to you the doors of heaven . . . . Do you realize that in giving your gold, your money, your fields, that is to say rocks and earth, you acquire life eternal? . . . . I know many who fast, pray, mourn and practice admirably the gratuitous forms of piety, but they do not give an obol to the outcasts. What good do the other virtues do them? They will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. p.108

Basil also asserted that, "as Adam brought in sin by eating evilly, so we ourselves if we remember the necessity and hunger of a brother, blot out his treacherous eating." p. 83

Here are two quotes from a sermon ‘On Famine and Drought, in which Basil pressed the point:

When someone steals another's clothes, we call them a thief. Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the one who has no shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.

Whoever has the ability to remedy the suffering of others, but chooses rather to withhold aid for selfish motives, may properly be judged the equivalent of a murderer.

He elaborated on the theme in another sermon that can be found in a collection of sermons, ‘On Social Justice’:

If a physician promised to cure some bodily defect, arising either from birth or as a result of illness, you would not lose heart. But when the Great Physician of souls and bodies, seeing your deficiency in this vital area, wishes to make you whole, you do not accept the joyful news, but rather turn sad and gloomy. . . 

If you had truly loved your neighbor, it would have occurred to you long ago to divest yourself of this wealth. But now your possessions are more a part of you than the members of your own body, and separation from them is as painful as the amputation of one of your limbs. Had you clothed the naked, had you given your bread to the hungry, had your door been open to every stranger, had you been a parent to the orphan, had you made the suffering of every helpless person your own, what money would you have left, the loss of which to grieve? Had you determined long ago to give to those in need, how would it be unbearable now to distribute whatever was left? At festival time, people do not regret parting with what they have at hand in order to gain whatever is necessary for the feast; rather, the cheaper they are able to purchase valuable commodities, the more they rejoice at receiving such a bargain. But you lament at relinquishing gold and silver and property – that is, stones and dust – in order to obtain the blessed life.”

And in a sermon ‘To the Rich’, Basil observed:

I know many who fast, pray, sigh, and demonstrate every manner of piety, so long as it costs them nothing.

For Basil, as with many of the early Christian theologians and saints through the ages, the liturgy of worship cannot be separated from the liturgy of caring for those in need. Both are necessary aspects of the redemptive ministry of Christ.  

See also:

Make Friends for Yourselves – Thoughts on Luke 16:1-15

Money: Intoxicant or Eucharist

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Delight – The world is a mirror of infinite beauty

God delights in his creation. Delighting in that creation with gratitude is a means of delighting in God and thus an important aspect of worshiping God.

Thomas Traherne (1636-1674), understood that better than most. He was an English poet, priest, theologian, and religious writer. His most famous work is a collection of reflections, Centuries of Meditations (online here). Among many other things Traherne offers advice on how to enjoy the world aright. Below are some of his reflections from the "First Century" (the first 100 reflections). The language is archaic, but the ideas are timeless:

14

When things are ours in their proper places, nothing is needful but prizing to enjoy them. God therefore hath made it infinitely easy to enjoy, by making everything ours, and usable so easily to prize them. Everything is ours that serves us in its place. The Sun serves us as much as is possible, and more than we could imagine. The Clouds and Stars minister unto us, the World surrounds us with beauty, the Air refresheth us, the Sea revives the earth and us. The Earth itself is better than gold because it produceth fruits and flowers. And therefore in the beginning, was it made manifest to be mine, because Adam alone was made to enjoy it. By making one, and not a multitude, God evidently shewed one alone to be the end of the World and every one its enjoyer. For every one may enjoy it as much as he.

27

You never enjoy the world aright, till you see how a sand exhibiteth the wisdom and power of God: And prize in everything the service which they do you, by manifesting His glory and goodness to your Soul, far more than the visible beauty on their surface, or the material services they can do your body. Wine by its moisture quencheth my thirst, whether I consider it or no: but to see it flowing from His love who gave it unto man, quencheth the thirst even of the Holy Angels. To consider it, is to drink it spiritually. To rejoice in its diffusion is to be of a public mind. And to take pleasure in all the benefits it doth to all is Heavenly, for so they do in Heaven. To do so, is to be divine and good, and to imitate our Infinite and Eternal Father.

28

Your enjoyment of the world is never right, till every morning you awake in Heaven; see yourself in your Father’s Palace; and look upon the skies, the earth, and the air as Celestial Joys: having such a reverend esteem of all, as if you were among the Angels. The bride of a monarch, in her husband’s chamber, hath too such causes of delight as you.

29

You never enjoy the world aright, till the Sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars: and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world, and more than so, because men are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as you. Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God, as misers do in gold, and Kings in sceptres, you never enjoy the world.

30

Till your spirit filleth the whole world, and the stars are your jewels; till you are as familiar with the ways of God in all Ages as with your walk and table: till you are intimately acquainted with that shady nothing out of which the world was made: till you love men so as to desire their happiness, with a thirst equal to the zeal of your own: till you delight in God for being good to all: you never enjoy the world. Till you more feel it than your private estate, and are more present in the hemisphere, considering the glories and the beauties there, than in your own house: Till you remember how lately you were made, and how wonderful it was when you came into it: and more rejoice in the palace of your glory, than if it had been made but to-day morning.

31

Yet further, you never enjoy the world aright; till you so love the beauty of enjoying it, that you are covetous and earnest to persuade others to enjoy it. And so perfectly hate the abominable corruption of men in despising it, that you had rather suffer the flames of Hell than willingly be guilty of their error. There is so much blindness and ingratitude and damned folly in it. The world is a mirror of infinite beauty, yet no man sees it. It is a Temple of Majesty, yet no man regards it. It is a region of Light and Peace, did not men disquiet it. It is the Paradise of God. It is more to man since he is fallen than it was before. It is the place of Angels and the Gate of Heaven. When Jacob waked out of his dream, he said “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it! How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

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Mercy – Love your enemies

Jesus said that his followers were to be as unfailingly merciful as God is. But, all that talk of mercy is no mere sentimentality. Fundamental to that mercy is one of the hardest, most distinctive, and most radical demands Jesus makes of his followers: that they love and pray for their enemies.

The Christian must treat his enemy as a brother [or sister], and requite hostility with love. His behavior must be determined not by the way others treat him, but by the treatment he himself receives from Jesus [see Romans 5:10], it has only one source, and that is the will of Jesus 

– Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

What might that look like? These quotes from C. S. Lewis are a good place to start:

Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one’s first feeling, ‘Thank God, even they aren’t quite so bad as that,’ or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies are as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally we shall insist on seeing everything — God and our friends and ourselves included — as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred.” 

– Mere Christianity

That is a challenge when thinking of real enemies, but, closer to home, it seems particularly pertinent in this election season as we engage those with whom we disagree politically..

And here is a letter from Lewis to a friend, Dom Bede Griffiths, 16 Apr 1940, on praying for your enemies:

The practical problem about charity (in one’s prayer) is very hard work, isn’t it? When you pray for Hitler and Stalin how do you actually teach yourself to make the prayer real? The two things that help me are (a) A continual grasp of the idea that one is only joining one’s feeble little voice to the perpetual intercession of Christ who died for these very men. (b) A recollection, as firm as I can make it, of all one’s own cruelty; which might have blossomed under different conditions into something terrible. You and I are not at bottom so different from these ghastly creatures.

–  The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 2

Do we pray for our enemies and opponents? And not just that they would change and be more agreeable toward us? Do we pray that they might know some taste of God’s mercy and delight? Do we pray that our own hearts might be softened toward them? Our own minds more willing to understand them? Do we seek to give them the benefit of the doubt? If we are to carry our enemies and opponents in our hearts and on our tongues to the Throne of God’s mercy, does it make any difference after those prayers in the way we think or talk or tweet or post on Facebook about them? The answers to those question are critical to whether we are committed to being faithful to Jesus or are content to live in sin.

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Delight – Nature = God thinking out loud

Charles Grafton (1830-1912), 2nd Bishop of Fond du Lac:

Nature is only God thinking out loud. He speaks in the truthful precision of mathematics, as, according to the inverse square of their distances, the stellar bodies courtesy and bow to one another. He, Who is not only Beautiful but Beauty Itself, can but join in marriage together the useful and the beautiful. The same laws which make for health and life paint the sky in its sunset colors and clothe the bending grain in ripples of light. – The Ritual of the Church

I remember walking in the woods one day and, on a log which stood in the midst of an opening, listening to a little insect as it rubbed its wings together and so made one plaintive note; whether it was an acted prayer or song of praise could not be discerned. The opening in the woods, with the blue sky and clouds above it, was to that little creature its universe. How like that insect was I. How circumscribed my vision and knowledge, how insignificant my being. I was but a little speck upon this little speck of a planet. I was only like a mote glittering in the sunbeam, along with billions of others. But the great Father knew me and I knew Him. Christ had promised that He and the Father would come and make His abode in us, and He had done so in little me. His presence filled my little being with an everlasting song of rejoicing. I, like the little insect, could utter one note of praise: Glory be to Thee, O God! Dearest, I love Thee, let me love Thee more!

– A Journey Godward of a Servant of Jesus Christ

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Mercy – Heroic Sanctity of Forgiveness

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” – Jesus (Matthew 6:14-15)

Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.” – Jesus (Matthew 18:21-22)

In the last post about mercy, we saw that God's mercy is comprehensive and that being a follower of Jesus means extending that mercy to all others. Among other things, that means a call to a radical discipline of forgiveness. (In addition to the above, see Matthew 18:33-35, Mark 11:25, Luke 6:37-38, Colossians 3:12-13)

Charles Williams (1886-1945) was a member of the Inklings, the literary discussion group that included J. R.R. Tolkien and C. S Lewis. He is a favorite of mine. He was an editor and authored several strange, but wonderful “supernatural thrillers”. He was also a lay theologian – mostly self-taught, idiosyncratic, but orthodox. He wrote several theological books and essays. His writing style is not always easy to follow, but what he has to say is almost always wise, evocative, and worth the trouble.

The following is from Williams’ book, The Forgiveness of Sins, which he dedicated to the Inklings. It was originally part of a series of books that included The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis. It was published in 1942, in the thick of World War II. The point he makes is no less challenging or pertinent for Christians today:

Forgiveness is not normally a thrilling or an exciting thing. The metaphor which our Lord used has a particular aptness--it is the taking up, the carrying, the Cross, not the being crucified: it is the intolerable weight of the duty, and not its agony, which defeats us--'the weight of glory'. – p. 192-193

. . . .

Forgiveness of all injuries is demanded of the Christian because of the nature of our Lord, and it is demanded entirely. The phrase ‘things that cannot be forgiven’ is therefore to him intellectually meaningless. But it may in fact mean a good deal all the same. It is true that few of us are, fortunately, in a position to understand that meaning; no injuries of which the forgiveness seem unbelievable have ever been done to us. But probably there are at the present moment more persons alive in Europe than for many generations to whom such injuries have been done. . . . The massacres, the tortures, and the slavery, which have appeared in Europe of late that have impressed themselves upon us. In the ruined homes of Rotterdam–or indeed of England–among the oppressed thousands of Poland, there are those to whom the phrase ‘things that cannot be forgiven’ has fearful meaning. Must they nevertheless be forgiven? They must. Must vengeance, must even resentment, be put off? It must. There is certainly a distinction between the desire for private vengeance and the execution of public justice. But there is no excuse for concealing private vengeance under the disguise of public justice. . . .The injury done to many in this kind of war is greater than the injury done to one in private, but the result, from a Christian point of view, cannot be other. That must be, everywhere and always, the renewal of love. But in such states as we are now considering, that renewal means little less than heroic sanctity. It is upon such heroic sanctities that the Church depends–depends in the sense that they are the rule, its energy, and its great examples. . .

Heroic sanctity is required perhaps to forgive, but not to forgive is ordinary sin. There is no alternative; the greatness of the injury cannot supply that. It becomes–an excuse? No, a temptation: the greater the injury, the greater the temptation; the more excusable the sin, the no less sin. – p. 165-167

. . . .

Many reconciliations have unfortunately broken down because both parties have come prepared to forgive and unprepared to be forgiven. Instruction is as badly needed in this as in many other less vital things; that holy light which we call humility has an exact power of illumination all its own. – p. 193

How often do I make excuses for my hardness of heart and weakness of will? How often to I give in to the temptation not to forgive? How often do I refuse to acknowledge that I am the one in need of forgiveness? How often does my mercy fall far short of the mercy of God?

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Delight – People walking about shining like the sun

We have seen that the Christian understanding is that there is a Triune dance of delight at the heart of things. We have seen how the experience of that delight change us (here and here). Last week we saw that sinking our hearts into the heart of God can enable us to see the whole outside world also seemed to be full of beauty and delight.

On the 18th of March in 1958, Thomas Merton had this epiphany:

In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness . . . This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. And I suppose my happiness could have taken form in the words: ‘Thank God, thank God that I am like other men, that I am only a man among others.’ It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, though it is a race dedicated to many absurdities and one which makes many terrible mistakes: yet, with all that, God Himself gloried to become a member of the human race. A member of the human race! To think that such a commonplace realization should suddenly seem like news that one holds the winning ticket in a cosmic sweepstake. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. They are not ‘they’ but my own self. There are no strangers! Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed…I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other.”

― Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, p. 157

Merton himself admits that this is not something we can expect to normally see. It can only be “believed and ‘understood’ by a peculiar gift.” Whether or not we receive that peculiar gift, living in the way of Jesus means engaging others as though we believed they were “shining like the sun” as beings created in the image of God and members of a race of which God Himself gloried to become a member. Might we remember that in Christ, there are no strangers? Might we practice looking for the secret beauty in one another’s heart?

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Mercy – The Challenge of a Merciful Heart

If following Jesus isn't making you more merciful, it might not be Jesus you are following.

Jesus said, "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." – Matthew 9:13 (He was quoting the Old Testament prophet, Hosea - Hosea 6:6).

“But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” – Luke 6:35-36

The mercy God extends to us is comprehensive. The mercy Jesus calls us to practice in response is radical. What might that look like?

Here is something from Isaac of Ninevah (died c. 700 AD), also known as Isaac the Syrian:

What is a merciful heart? It is a heart on fire for the whole of creation, for humanity, for the birds, for the animals, for demons, and for all that exists. By the recollection of them the eyes of a merciful person pour forth tears in abundance. By the strong and vehement mercy that grips such a person’s heart, and by such great compassion, the heart is humbled and one cannot bear to hear or to see any injury or slight sorrow in any in creation. For this reason, such a person offers up tearful prayer continually even for irrational beasts, for the enemies of the truth, and for those who harm her or him, that they be protected and receive mercy. And in like manner such a person prays for the family of reptiles because of the great compassion that burns without measure in a heart that is in the likeness of God.

The person who is genuinely charitable not only gives charity out of his own possessions, but gladly tolerates injustice from others and forgives them. Whoever lays down his soul for his brother acts generously, rather than the person who demonstrates his generosity by his gifts.

God is not One who requites evil, but who sets evil right.

Paradise is the love of God, wherein is the enjoyment of all blessedness.

The person who lives in love reaps the fruit of life from God, and while yet in this world, even now breathes the air of the resurrection.

In love did God bring the world into existence; in love is God going to bring it to that wondrous transformed state, and in love will the world be swallowed up in the great mystery of the One who has performed all these things; in love will the whole course of the governance of creation be finally comprised.

(from Glory to God in all Things)

Isaac does not suggest the way of mercy is an easy way. Neither did Jesus.

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