Thank you, Liz. It seems Ingrid is writing for me and is very helpful. Giving love is the fulfillment of the one I see as me. However it is painful at times.

Francis

Thanks, Brian for your long and caring response. That goes for all respondants.

Francis

Billy, thank you again for such an incredible piece of human insight. Where do you get these gems from?

It's such a shame that they don't get the discussion they deserve: I suppose we are so often caught up in politics of religion rather than spirituality, as Francis lamented.

But as I said to Francis, I just can't 'discuss' such things these days, even though I can take them in to some extent and privately and perhaps even sub-consciously be nourished by them.

Love where you're coming from - should be more of it.

Stephen

rather than from the present - can't seem to do otherwise - but Francesco,

I just wanted you to know that I still care but to be honesty I have lost almost all ability to think and discuss spiritually: so little of it makes sense at the moment for me. It's there, but I just can't and don't even want to talk about it.

And don't be concerned about what others think of you and your inner life, what the hell would any of us know about it. I know you want and need to express it but for us to evaluate it, that's another thing. We can't do that. I suppose we can but share what we each experience and believe and hopefully the likes of yourself and 'others' who try to express such insights will get some feedback as companions on a journey rather than evaluators.

St Francis' brothers all thought he was a little off the planet towards the later years of his life and he may well have been - one foot in the beatific vision and the other still on the earth.

Be at peace, good man of God, be at peace.

Stephen

Francis,

I wonder if the following might be of some assistance to you. Within it, Ingrid Shafer (whom was the interviewer of Bishop Geoffrey Robinson in today's commentary), offers a piece she wrote back in 1997, in which she explores the subject of just what is spirituality. The following excerpt, is I believe, the very core of just what spirituality might be attempting to achieve, and within this, may speak to you about the experiences you often describe for us here.

Keep well, Francis,
Liz.

Elaborating on Pascal's well known remark that the heart has reasons which reason does not know, Bernard Lonergan differentiates among the first three levels of cognition, of experiencing, of understanding, and of judging. "Finally," he adds, "by heart I understand the subject on the fourth, existential level of intentional consciousness and in the dynamic state of being in love."24 The meaning, then, of Pascal's remark would be that, besides the factual knowledge reached by experiencing, understanding and verifying, there is another kind of knowledge reached through the discernment of value of a person in love." Lonergan connects this fourth level with the new beginning of falling in love, noting that "in religious matters love precedes knowledge and, as the love is God's gift, the very beginning of faith is due to God's grace."25

For Teilhard the concept of evolution was not only a theological category but also a principle of interpretation which allowed him to develop a Christian paradigm of the universe as process of becoming, and specifically as the coming not "of the decline of God in our minds and our hearts" but as "an undreamed-of renaissance of God in the universe, in the form of love-energy, produced as the fruit of, and within, a matter that has become for us the home and the expression of an evolutionary convergence"26 --up through countless organisms, up through humanity, up through the Christ Logos toward the Omega Point of ultimate unification. According to William Johnston, S.J., prolific writer in the field of spirituality, and traveller between the worlds of East and West, mysticism (or spirituality) is the universal core of religious experience, potentially open to all humans in every state of life, and the "wisdom or knowledge that is found through love." He calls it "loving knowledge."27 Spirituality is the desert silence which allows the Infinite to speak to us in our hearts (Hosea 2:16). 

At this point it becomes clear that spirituality leads to an attitude of loving concern, the key to what Ralph Burhoe calls transkin altruism: it allows us to consider all of humanity our family or at least partners and potential friends. This sense of universal connection and friendship is not new. Eighteen hundred years ago, the Stoic philosopher/king Marcus Aurelius wrote that "All things are connected with one another, and the bond is holy; and there is hardly anything unconnected with any other thing."28 In a similar vein, and of interest to ecumenically and historically minded economists, Steindl-Rast speaks of the medieval Pax Benedictina holding "the world together as an Earth Household."29 And for the Islamic world, the Hadith, the Tradition, insists: "The whole mankind is God's Family, and among you the most loved by God is he who is the most helpful for His Family."30 Friendship and Love see complementarity where indifference or hatred see antagonism. Love is inclusive rather than exclusive and not only experiences/ weaves/ projects reality in terms of both-and, it even understands why others insist on either|or. 

Love is a superb candidate for the position of "universal translator" because it is a universal emotion or attitude, experienced, at least in some rudimentary form, by all but the most profoundly emotionally disturbed or mentally disabled. I do not mean to say that every sloppy attachment to anything from favorite foods to special people and Country or God deserves to be called love in the full sense of the term, but I do argue that even in its lowest (per)version, love retains elements of attraction, fascination, a wanting-to-move-toward, and good-will-toward-another. "In the wild," Love is never a simple wavelength but always invokes the entire spectrum, with one or the other of the component colors more prominent and thus conferring a certain mode or unique quality. 

Love is possible. Scholars and non-academics who argue that we are too selfish to give love a chance ought to look at the peculiar dynamics of disaster. It brings out the best and the worst in people. And the best generally involves some praxis of loving. The nocturnal horror reports from the war torn Balkans or Somalia or Azerbaijan or Chicago's Cabrini Greens do not stand alone. There are other stories of hope, stories that don't get as many headlines, but stories nevertheless. Natural disasters in the early 90s in several regions in the United States as well as the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building led to an outpouring of compassion and help that cannot be simply reduced to kinship altruism. It represents Ralph Burhoe's transkin altruism, and it offers hope for a future in which people will befriend nature and come to care deeply for strangers in other parts of the world.
 
If we practice love, then we will not intentionally misuse knowledge to cause pain, technology to destroy, dogma to condemn, ideology to justify wars. We will wish for others the good things we want for ourselves, we will stop the vicious cycles of revenge, and we will break the hold of the most destructive child of lack: ressentiment that wants to drag others down to whatever low point it finds itself, yelling, "If I can't have this cookie, neither will you!" Loving--like indifference, hatred, and envy--is at least partially learned behavior, and that most of the teaching involves the preconscious appropriation of the stories and rituals of the individual's group of origin. 

She sums up the whole article with this:

"The key term at the edge of the 21st century is the prefix "inter-" -- a prefix that posits a "both-and" ontology of mutuality, a balancing of the "one and the many," humanity and the biosphere, individual and Gemeinschaft, analysis and synthesis, reason and insight, self and other, and alludes to the processes of life-giving, growth-enhancing, holistic exchange -- in other words: the primacy of dialogue, spirituality, and love. "

http://globalethic.org/Center/shafer_spirituality.htm

Francis, don't despair, I too feel almost stretched to breaking point at times — immensely frustrated that I can't do all the things I wish I could do every day including simply keeping up with all the correspondence that comes in and all the threads on the forum. Slowly, slowly we seem to be "winning" albeit that I no longer have any clear idea what "winning" might actually mean. I honestly think all of us here today are going to be long dead before the shape of the Phoenix that emerges from all this is clearly discernable. There's going to be no great "victory march" for what any of us are engaged in. The best contribution I sense we can make today is by stirring the conversation that will in some way shape the Phoenix that eventually arises from the ashes.

Despite all the negative stuff we read in the papers of an outbreak of lawlessness around Sydney — I think that is due to the fact that a lot of the parents of these kids were themselves dysfunctional – despite that breakdown in one realm of society, I have enormous faith in most young people that I observe — the rising educated and "opinion leader" sectors. The future is not bleak. The "Ascent of Humankind" continues if you look at the big picture. The new generations will eventually address the challenges posed by climate change, substainability, food and water security, and the uncertainties in the structure of our economic systems just as our parents and grandparents faced and overcame the enormous challenges they faced early in the 20th Century.

It is a tragedy that institutional Catholicism seems hell-bent (literally) on writing itself out of the script but I don't sense the Spirit has left humankind. She might have given up on the hierarchs but she's still very much active in wider society.

Impecuniosity is a huge problem for many. Oh that it could be as simple as saying a few rosaries and the heavenly floodgates would open to deliver a Lotto win into the households of many. As I've been writing recently I think the inherent unfairness that seems built into life is itself one of the great mysteries and imponderables. One of the triumphs of Western civilisation is that it did lift the vast masses in society out of abject poverty. Poverty though does seem to be a relative thing. Weren't we warned we'd always have the poor with us? Is that what this great insight is telling us — that poverty is a relative, rather than an absolute thing? It is measured against those immediately around us rather than as something we experience compared to, say, the most impoverished people in the third world?

I am aware from many messages I get, and sometime from reading between the lines of stuff written on this forum, that there are many in our community "doing it tough" — and I mean "really tough". Catholica, in a sense has become a "frustrating place of solace" for many. It is "free" to access for the price of an internet connection and even the poorest homes have one of them these days and is available 24 hours a day unlike many physical place "drop in" centres. I am aware of the "frustration" aspect of it. I wish I had the wherewithall to solve it.

What I am also aware of from the feedback that I get is that all of you in some intangible way provide comfort to others through your presence and your posts sharing both the joys and pains of life. Life might be exciting in many ways observing all these fascinating changes going on all around us but it is also weird and so often confusing and paradoxical.

Funnily enough what often gives me comfort is this picture that made a big impression on me when the history of the Dominican Sisters was published in WA in 1999 [see cover of the book at right]. They didn't even teach me but they taught my father up in the harsh Murchison of Western Australia for a short time and I have a hazy picture of going up to their corrugated iron convent [see picture below] as a very small lad. By the time I first went to school in 1954 their convent was closed and I spent the first six months of my formal schooling at the local State School. The story of these women is fascinating. They came from New Zealand of all places and I think were effectively conned by the Geraldton Bishop of the time to come serve in his diocese. What a godforsaken part of the planet to come to work in? The town where I was brought up had had a brief boom period in the 1890s two decades nearly before my father was even born. I think I'm correct in observing that when the present Dominican Sisters pass on that will probably be the end of this religious order in Western Australia. They're almost totally absent from the Murchison today. Most of their corrugated iron convents have long been put to other uses or disappeared completely. Their legacy isn't to be found in buildings but I do have a sense that they were an integral part of this movement of perhaps something approaching ten thousand religious who gave their lives totally and, in the process, helped forge the character of this nation — they were the ones, not Bob Santamaria, that enabled Catholics to "migrate" across from the working classes into the establishment classes and civic and business leadership of this nation. At times I know from some of the letters and stories that I've read that literally some of these small religious communities of women didn't know where their next meal was coming from and survived on a single egg or boiled potato each a day for periods. In their heavy serge habits in the blistering heat of the Murchison they must of been driven to depression and despair at times about why they were there and what possible good could come out of their work.

Brian, I think it is a good idea to spread the load and let some of us take on part of the week's lead commentaries without you having to do so much work every day. I'd be happy with your proposal - feel honoured of course - and only hope it won't be a disappointment.

Sometime this winter I'm due for an op and will be in hospital for a week or so, and may be obliged to total rest for a few days afterwards. Sue (wife - lives with me- not in Sydney) will likely keep a tight rein on me for a while, so there could be occasions for others to write some comments on the Sunday Readings. CathyT and Sue of Sydney have the experience already. Others would be welcome to join what ought to be a team rather than a one-man show.

In the practical order it will mean getting the post to you on the Friday, I assume. Should be no problem there.

Francis, a word from me to you too. Don't get discouraged, mate. This place often feels like a one-way street where the more serious contributions are absorbed and seem to sink without a trace, but I am reassured when I see an average of 60 or 70 readers every week, even though there are few replies, and occasionally none. It's a toughening experience and I guess Brian and Milly have had it for years full on. I read every word you write, but mostly don't know what to say in response. I never twigged that you might be wanting help in following your way - stupid me! Sorry.

Anyway, cheers to all - and now to bed.

tony

I was thinking of elevating the Reflections on the Sunday Readings and making them the featured commentary on Saturdays

Brian, I'm glad you are thinking of keeping Tony's scripture reflection at the top of the page for a bit longer - I really look forward to it each week and am sorry to see it disappear on to page 2 so quickly, often before there has been any response.

Thanks again for all your work for the Catholica community.

Sue.

Francis...in the time I took to compose my response to you and posted it, I discovered that gemstones, judith and Sue had also replied quickly and succinctly with similar thoughts to mine but expressing them much more clearly..so you are truly valued on the forum!!!

Francis, please don't feel discouraged by what you feel is little reaction to your posts or feel intimidated by what others have written on different topics.. I feel you add a balance of the language of mysticism and poetry to the discussions on Catholica.
Sometimes people may want to think more about what you have to say before replying and sometimes pressures of family commitments swirl their responses away before they have time to reply.
I think I too am grieving for the loss of feeling of having a place in the Church after 60 years of feeling it was my spiritual home....still wondering where I fit in now.
But much of what you write resonates with me. I have often felt that I could understand/translate many "languages" of spirituality. But the one I have most difficulty with these days is official language of the Roman Church.e.g. I found the letter explaining (???) the choices of "pro multis" - many/all - pure gobbledygook!!! I felt so frustrated that "they" can spend so much time having academic discussions like this trying to justify decisions when there are so many much more important issues to examine.
Many of the discussions on Catholica can leave me feeling very depressed/frustrated, almost in despair but your posts, as I said, add balance...so thank you!

Francis,

I went back through your recent posts, and saw where you had addressed me specifically, and I had not responded or acknowledged you. Please forgive me. It was not intentional, and I too know the discomfort of putting myself on the line, only to be ignored.

I agree with your comment that being one with the Universe is more important than getting a gold star from "their" God!

Francis, you are part of the beating heart of Catholica. Your occasional posts always bring me back to the reality of what life is about, discovering the life of the spirit and basing one's life on that. So much more important than all the interesting gossip and news with which we distract ourselves. Catholica would not be the same without you, so please stay around.

Sue.

Francis, don't give up. Sometimes your posts need a bit of thought before replying and, like you, some of us have more on our plates just now that we can manage well.
Keep up the posts. An inward journey needs guides, just as much as an external one.

"Light has many wavelengths: when they all come together it is complete 'white' light."

Thanks, Tony. When in Catholica we attempt to cover every phase of human life we come into, at least sufficient to see one's way a bit longer.

Francis

Roy, I like it too and value Tony's contributions greatly.

Francis

Brian, thanks for Catholica and the amazing efforts you put into it. I am sad that I have not been active in my role of checking out the database. My excuse ... there seems always to be an excuse ... I have had combinations of sickness, computer problems, impecuniousness, abundant child care thrust upon Mary and me and my local ministries that have had me so frustrated in mind and effort that I have done none most of this year. Every time I get ready to resume some family problem arises.

This too has stopped me from posting as I frequently do after reading the forum. In any case I feel discouraged as I fail to get much if any response and this hurts when no one seems to catch on that I need help in what is behind my posts. I cannot engage much in political, legal and economis posts though those posts are relevant to Church and spirituality. I cannot simply as I was out of Australia while most posters were getting experiencial knowledge in those areas. My area, if I have one, is in the area of what goes on in my/any soul looking for meaning in what has gone on and what goes on in one's inner being.

I am glad of the increased number of well informed posters and enjoy reading them and feel of me that there is no longer much value, if any at all, in my contributions. My telling of what goes on in my inner self and my need of assistance in my efforts to clarify for me much of what I write. I feel like a bird whistling in the breeze and my song just gets swallowed up in the multitude of winds.

Brian, I am not crying to you as I would have earlier to a confessor or spiritual director, though it might seem so. I just want you to know of my pain in losing the Church and my place in it and that Catholica too gives me some pain.

Francis

Tony,

There's some changes coming up on Catholica — some of them designed to free up my time a little more to devote to some new initiatives. TonySee has volunteered to do the Sunday layout of John Chuchman's reflection and I hope to get the materials to him today to start working out how to do that. I'm thinking of moving Tom's mini-commentaries to Mondays and I was thinking of elevating the Reflections on the Sunday Readings and making them the featured commentary on Saturdays. It would not require any changes in how they are laid out — I'm proposing we keep the same format and I'd merely write an intro for the Saturday emails. If at any time you couldn't manage it someone else might volunteer or I might have a go. How does that sound to everybody?

This week I hope to start editing the short doco that I've been working on with Fr Eugene Stockton and that's going to take a little more time than I usually devote to a single lead commentary even though when it is eventually published it is only one day's worth of content as far as readers are concerned. There are other things happening here locally including some plans that are looking brighter with each passing day to organise some get togethers in a physical location. The first might be a concert up here in the mountains we might help sponsor. Next year, 2013, is the Bicentenary of the First Crossing of the Blue Mountains by Europeans and there are events being planned up here in the mountains around that anniversary — both to reflect the impact this had on the indigenous people of this nation and the impact it had on the economic and agricultural development of modern Australia. We are hoping Catholica might play a small part in those events and to help promote them. I remain hopeful of also organising events around Australia centred on a visit from John Chuchman that might be an opportunity for Catholica readers to get together in various locations around this country. Hopefully I might have more to say about that in the next couple of weeks.

I'm also about to make some significant changes to the marketplace converting John Garratt and Willow to affiliate programs so that people ordering products are dealing directly with the distributors.

It's a pretty big workload in front of me but our readership numbers are continuing to grow, we do have a steady flow of donations, merchandise sales, and advertising and all that causes me to be very optimistic about the future. I sense there is a need out there for a conversation like the one we are encouraging that isn't able to be met any longer within the institutional structure because of the way in which essentially everybody in the structure has been reduced to silence less they offend the temple police elements and get themselves into trouble for thinking, or discussing, heretical ideas.

Thanks for the remarks, Brian. I give myself a bit of a fright every week writing these reflections. Just focussing on the gospel passage, going back and forth through it until something comes clearer and you feel there's an insight at a new level. The message Jesus tried to get across is a 'slippery little sucker'. He put it in so many different forms and tried every trick in the book to teach his disciples, and still they didn't get it. Paul must have thought he could straighten it all out with his explanations, but you can know all the theology and still not get the simple truth of it. And as Holloway says, the institution inevitably fudges everything when 'they shift from poetry to packaging.'

Sure it's about conscience, but I tend to agree with Chris that it's not so much about getting it right individually (because we probably never can be totally sure) but standing up and speaking up in the community/society for the sake of 'the conscience of humanity'. That's where love comes in. We are impelled to action by love, and let the truth speak for itself.

Light has many wavelengths: when they all come together it is complete 'white' light.

Keep up the good work, as they say.
tony

It might be argued the very mission of Jesus is not to lead us to the temple or altar on a hill to offer sacrifice to God; it is not towards liturgy and ritual; or external diplays of obedience or docility in the manner of the pharisees. Liturgy and ritual are tools that are meant to be of assistance in helping each of us make that "inner journey" to discern what our conscience is saying to us and, through that, to externally eventually display personal integrity.<<

But was Jesus urging us to become so introspective? Surely he was urging us to look beyond our own conscience to the conscience of humanity, showing us the ‘Way’. Jesus distilled the essence of the Judaic humanism into what Jews later referred to as “tikkun olam” which defined our spiritual growth and life purpose in terms of trying to make this tormented world more worthy of its creator.

He urged us to follow his example, taking up our own crosses which thankfully would be much easier to carry than his. Staying too immersed in ‘inner journeys’ risks lapsing into the Pharisee’ disconnect with human suffering and acquiescing to the institutionalized oppression that flowed from it. It is also plays into the hands of a corrupted clerical establishment that finds it much easier to divide and rule us as individuals pursuing our personal agendas rather than a Christian humanist one.

Just needed my prosac is all.

Keep it handy, Roy. Actually I had composed a 'Back off' to you but couldn't post it. Why? Turns out Brian had already done the job. Never mind.

As for the horses: never been that lucky. Used to ride them to school before we got bikes, and of course the farm was all horse-power. But no, I'm learning more from the garden and from the little maltese x shitsu appropriately called Pepper.

Cheers, and have one for me.
tony

Don't be thinking that front page pic on brokenrites hasn't come without an argument.

they are saints those guys ...hats off to bernard and chris ....they did it for years by themselves .....lucky the big guns have swung in behind.
don't discount the argument between fairfax and that other ....is part of this game.

later .....going to sink a few :cheers:

There are some people in the world, Roy, who are without personal integrity and who would not hesitate to take Catholica down without blinking an eye or without it making the slightest mark on their conscience. The lesson we all have to remember is that while provocation is necessary do not provoke them unnecessarily.

I know that Brian ..just needed my provac is all

best we be those little pawns we all despise so much ...safest

I do hope that Tony took my 'horse handler' comment well ...is how I meant it

seems most people can see most things ....but when shit happens only some can see through the haze I've noticed.

am off to take my dear wife to the local pub for lunch. tiny jester but have ya seen the prices lately ...but best I look after those that look after me

Roy, I removed that other string from the forum because that is the sort of thing that would possibly bring a defamation action that could bring us down. There are many people today who detest Catholica more than they detest Satan. Don't tempt them!

That was a superb reflection this week. Thank you.

yes thankyou. I'm betting you were a horse handler in a previous life Tony
is certainly a gift

Tony, that is a magnificent exploration of the importance of personal integrity that you have written. Thanks for the time you put into it. This boy enjoyed your reflection this Sunday morning. Personal integrity is the greatest of the human aspirations. It's scarey territory though as we are constantly afraid of what our ego and insecurities are telling us. We're like the "hired hand" who wants to run away from truth when to follow it our emotional, physical or job security might be placed at risk. Ultimately it is all about that difficult process of discerning what our conscience is telling us — not what the church's conscience, or some Cardinal's conscience, or what the conscience of our peer group, is telling us. That process is difficult because the fundamentalists are at least correct in one small detail: it is often difficult to distinguish between what our conscience is saying to us and what our egos and insecurities — our feelings, our natural intuitions and the reptile part of our brains — are saying to us.

The task of the spiritual leader or guide is not to propose in the face of this difficulty that we throw out a doctrine like the Primacy of Conscience, but to show the sheep how to distinguish between conscience and emotions, ego and the insecurities that prevent us finding our conscience.

It might be argued the very mission of Jesus is not to lead us to the temple or altar on a hill to offer sacrifice to God; it is not towards liturgy and ritual; or external diplays of obedience or docility in the manner of the pharisees. Liturgy and ritual are tools that are meant to be of assistance in helping each of us make that "inner journey" to discern what our conscience is saying to us and, through that, to externally eventually display personal integrity.

That was a superb reflection this week. Thank you.



A shepherd worthy of the name
lays down his life for his sheep
while the hired man 
who is in it for what he can get
out of it
runs away.

Something doesn’t gel in this:
a shepherd has to risk his life to save the sheep, for sure,
but he must avoid getting killed
or the sheep will have no defence –
so Jesus can’t be talking about getting himself killed
for his sheep.

Tony, you really got me thinking about this while I was cleaning up in the garden this afternoon.

I agree with you that something does not gel, and that it means that Jesus can't be talking about getting himself killed.  That 'not gelling' always seems to be the little clue that means we have to go for another interpretation.

You have lain out before us one very profound way of looking at this, as illustrating Jesus' complete dedication to truth, that he will prevail against threats, and bullies with false power.

I would like to add another perspective. Maybe laying down one's life, whether for sheep, or children, or the neighbour next door, could also have a more prosaic meaning.  It could be about putting your own life on hold while you attend to the needs of others.

Many years ago we had a some house guests and lots of visitors with small children.  I spent a lot of time preparing a food in the kitchen, grumbling to myself that no one had thought to offer me a hand.  I could hear everyone talking and laughing and I was happy about that, but I wanted to join in too.  It was only as I was putting food on the table that I suddenly realized that this was a eucharistic moment. This was what Jesus had done as he broke the bread and poured the wine for his disciples.  The food I was putting on the table was my body and blood, my time and energy, given to others.  With that, my heart melted and the irritation vanished completely.

For me, the reference to the shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep is in the same vein.  It's like a dedicated teacher who is totally committed to a class of children - not there just for the money - but a life committed to the service of others.  Applies really to any work for others that is done for the good of all, rather than pure self-interest or 'lifestyle'.  Being a 'man for others', as a local Jesuit college tries to instill in their students.

Sue

Gospel (in part)

Jesus said:

A shepherd worthy of the name
lays down his life for his sheep
while the hired man
who is in it for what he can get
out of it
runs away.

Something doesn’t gel in this:
a shepherd has to risk his life to save the sheep, for sure,
but he must avoid getting killed
or the sheep will have no defence –
so Jesus can’t be talking about getting himself killed
for his sheep.

Strange we would have thought that’s what he meant –
to appease an angry father and pay what we owed in penalty for disobeying –
when at the very start of the story Abraham
is forbidden to offer his son in sacrifice.
We got that one badly wrong.

Then what does it mean to lay down one’s life?

Read the whole chapter, and the one before it. In fact
skim the whole gospel of John and see
that Jesus is warring with the pharisees
about truth and lying deception.

All through he makes it clear that it is his choice
to lay down his life. Here he says:
“No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.
I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.
This command I have received from my Father.”
It is not about getting himself killed. The only ‘compulsion’
is the Father’s command: a matter of conscience.

John struggles page by page to put into words
what lies at the heart of the matter.
The other writers told the human story and one might suspect
that already by John’s time it was becoming ritualised,
theologised, formulised, religionated,
weaving in the very darkness it should be overcoming.
So he shared his meditations and wove the tale again
in full myth and symbol.

We need to go to the end of the affair, when the warfare
against the darkness the deception and the lies
went beyond words
and they used their weapon of choice terminal force.

"Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.
And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth." (Jn 17:17-19)

I think the way Jesus laid down his life was in this:
that after spelling out the truth to friend and enemy alike
finally he laid himself open to judicial scrutiny
before the highest tribunals in the land.

The trial from start to end
is a battle of truth against false assumptions–
false pretensions – false accusations –
lying claims to power and lying threats by which
bullies get their way.

It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.(Jn 6:63)

May I ask, kind reader, that you go through John’s account
to see how he shows it as the truth versus the lies,
with Jesus stripped of defence and dignity
made transparent
for the blinding truth to in the end prevail.

This, I think, is the battle we should all be engaged in
always
all ways
being
the candle burning to light the dark
not sacrificed – made holy by destruction
but consecrated – made thoroughly holy by dedication
to being true come what may.