Much Ado

There has been a plethora of events and happenings in the week since I last wrote, and not just small things, but changing of the Center things. I am not going to go into detail right now, because it is not what I am feeling, but just want to mention it. The first is that Tyrone will no longer be with us. That is all I am going to say at this time. The second is that Steve is participating in a two week service trip to Ecuador. He is helping a group of people build an orphanage. So in a matter of about I week I have found myself with much greater responsibility at the Center. Not something that is necessarily scary, because there are so many other people who do things here, but definitely an exciting challenge. I look forward to working more closely with all the people in the St. Vincent de Paul organization and also the guys here at the Center who are taking on more responsibility and facing their challenges.

What I want to do today is reflect on some of my thoughts from the Wednesday spiritual gathering. NOTE: after being interrupted by the events of the day I am back to write my thoughts...six hours later. We reflected on psalm 139. There first theme that struck me was that for God "light and darkness are the same." I suppose I have heard things similar to this before but what does this really mean? It seems to be an attack on the institution of relativity, an idea created by Einstein and empirically supported by innumerable experiments thereafter. Does God experience the world differently than us? I guess that has an obvious answer. But does this idea of light and darkness also mean that up is the same as down? Hot the same as cold? Does left become right? Right become wrong? Love become hatred? Good become evil?

My problem is this. At the end of the psalm the author talks about having a perfect hatred for those who have a hatred of God (as if God is somehow hurt by this hatred?). Anyway, it really bothered me because of the contradiction with the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus. They are the exact opposite. But then I thought to myself that God sees light as darkness and darkness as light and so must see love as hatred and hatred as love. So maybe in the end everything is OK. I don't know. For us, as humans, this is a dangerous doctrine, because we may be led to believe that everything comes out in the wash, everything is basically OK. But we must remember that we are not God (hey, for some of us this can be hard) so the same rules do not apply. Our world, apparently unlike that of God, is ruled by relativity, on the grandest scales right down to the smallest most basic particles. Even so, we must follow the sociopolitial, ethical and moral rules that make sure everyone lives fairly and equally. We must look to some sort of absolute, even if it does not apply to God, to guide our decisions. Hopefully for the sake of humanity the absolute we use as a guide is love. I would not want it to be hatred.