Of course no one tells you that in faculty you are equal to Zeus. Nevertheless, He has set by each man his genius to guard him, and committed each man to his genius to watch over, aye, and a genius which sleeps not and is not to be beguiled. To what other guardian, better or more attentive, could He have committed each one of us?
Therefore, when you close your doors and make darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone: you are not alone, God is within, and your genius. What need have they of light to see what you are doing?
To this God you ought to swear allegiance from the first as the soldiers swear to Caesar. They are paid servants, yet they swear that they will put the safety of Caesar above all things: and shall you not swear too, who have been counted worthy of so many and so great blessings, or having sworn shall you not keep your oath?
And what shall your oath be? Never to disobey, never to accuse, never to find fault with any of God's gifts, never to let your will rebel, when you have to do or to bear what necessity demands. Can the soldier's oath be compared with ours? The soldiers swear to respect no man above Caesar, but we to respect ourselves first of all.
Will I be so hasty as to now proclaim, because God is absolute, perfect, infinite, and eternal, and I am only contingent, flawed, incomplete, and subject to corruption, that any sort of relationship with the Divine is entirely beyond my reach?
Let me be sure that I am not confusing a difficulty with an impossibility, or retreating back from an obstacle just because I am being lazy.
That my own place as a creature, a tiny sliver of being, does not permit me to know everything about God, the fullness of Being, does not mean that I cannot know something about God, quite sufficient for being at peace in my own place.
That it is beyond the power of the lesser to contain within itself the greater still allows for the fact that the power of the greater can always raise up the state of the lesser. If I am unable to do it all by myself, that may well be because I was not meant to go it alone.
I must only look around me to the works of Nature for continual evidence of the order, the purpose, the design, the intelligence.
Am I frustrated, to the point of total despair, by the pettiness, the nastiness, and the duplicity of some of the folks around me? They do what they do, precisely because they were made to forge their own paths, for good or for ill. They do what they do because they do not yet understand. Instead of condemning them, is there a way I can help them?
Have they gone astray? It is all a part of everything coming together, in its own time, and on the terms of Providence, and on no other terms. Even where there is the most horrific violence and madness, the opportunity for redemption is only made the clearer.
Yes, it is an occasion to make ourselves better, by blood, sweat, and tears, since the presence of creatures with their own minds and wills could not exist with anything less. The right way for it to unfold isn’t necessarily the easiest way for it to come to pass. It will be precisely as it was meant to be. Now what will I do with that for myself?
Where is God through all of this? Right here and right now. Instruction, encouragement, and good advice are present by simply looking around me. The Romans spoke of a genius, the Christians speak of a guardian angel, and many others speak of a guiding spirit, just as Socrates did in the Apology. Call it what you will, but Providence is always offering a very clear message. Am I watching and listening?
It all boils down to where my loyalty truly lies. I have no more time for those who take religion and then twist it into a means for serving themselves. I am tired of the ideologues, the demagogues, and the players. Enough of that nonsense, of saying one thing to put up a smokescreen for doing another. When push comes to shove, a choice needs to be made.
Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.
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