CowPi Journal

Against the heart of the gospel…

[F]or a Christian the issue is clear: the death penalty is always wrong, not because it isn’t a deterrent and doesn’t bring closure, but because it goes against the very heart of the gospel. The one thing that Jesus asks us to do that sets us apart as Christians, more than anything else, is to love those who hate us, to do good to those who curse us, to not give back in kind, murder for murder, but to forgive our enemies, including murderers.

Jesus witnessed to this in his own death (“Forgive them for they know not what they do!”) and he challenged us to the same by telling us that our virtue needs to go deeper than that of the scribes and the pharisees, that is, the virtue of strict justice which, precisely, prescribed the death penalty in the name of fairness and in the name of God.

— Ronald Rolheiser, “Don’t Worship Your Emotions”

« πλ | 31 Jul 2006 »

In the course of justice…

Though justice be thy plea, consider this:
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy…

— William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

« πλ | 14 Jul 2005 »

In the geography of your own heart…

The healing of the world does not begin in some far-off land that we must hasten to help, but in the geography of your own heart. There the sinner is washed in mercy and becomes thereby an instrument of mercy, not merely by his prayers, but in everything he does. For he is a vessel of grace. We cannot heal all the world’s problems, but we begin with our own heart if our help is to amount to anything.

— Fr. Matthew Kelty, from his homily “Begin in Your Own Heart”

« πλ | 25 Jul 2005 »

The sinful heart that has…

The sinful heart that has accepted Christ’s mercy approaches another in quite a different mode than does the one foreign to it.

— Fr. Matthew Kelty, from his homily “Begin in Your Own Heart”

« πλ | 24 Jul 2005 »

The unthankful heart…

The unthankful heart…discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!

— Henry Ward Beecher

« πλ | 24 Nov 2005 »