Common Grounds
I Trust in You Lord … You Are My God
Living Words from John Paul II
Edited by Abraham A. van Kempen
Published Sunday, December 6, 2020
Read more: Year 5779 … Can Oil and Vinegar Become One?
14 But I trust in you, Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in your hands;
deliver me from the hands of my enemies,
from those who pursue me.
Psalm 31:13-15 New International Version
In this place of memories, the mind, heart, and soul feel an extreme need for silence. Silence in which to remember. Silence in which to try to make some sense of the memories which come flooding back. Silence because there are no words strong enough to deplore the Shoah.
We wish to remember. But we want to remember for a purpose, namely to ensure that never again will evil prevail …
How could humankind have such utter contempt for humanity?
Because humankind had reached the point of contempt for God!
Only a Godless ideology could plan and carry out the extermination of [the other].
The Church rejects racism in any form as a denial of the Creator's image inherent in every human being (Genesis 1:26).
Jews and Christians [and Muslims] share an immense spiritual patrimony, flowing from God's self-revelation. Our religious teachings and our spiritual experience demand that we overcome evil with good. We remember, but not with any desire for vengeance or as an incentive to hatred. For us, to remember is to pray for peace and justice and to commit ourselves to their cause. Only a world at peace, with justice for all, can avoid repeating the mistakes and terrible crimes of the past.
Let us build a new future in which there will be no more anti-Jewish feeling among Christians or anti-Christian feeling among Jews [or anti-Muslim sentiments among Jews and Christians and vice-versa]. Let us move toward the mutual respect required of those who adore the one Creator and Lord and look to Abraham as our common father in faith.
"I hear the whispering of many – terror on every side! – But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, 'You are my God.'" (Psalm 31:13-15).
JUBILEE PILGRIMAGE
OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II
TO THE HOLY LAND (MARCH 20-26, 2000)
VISIT TO THE YAD VASHEM MUSEUM
Jerusalem – Yad Vashem
Thursday, 23 March 2000
Year 5779 … Can Oil and Vinegar Become One?
September 10, 2018
By Abraham A. van Kempen
Source: The Times of Israel
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/year-5779-can-oil-and-vinegar-become-one/
Published SEP 10, 2018
Yes! Just shake the bottle! The particles will freely move and become one. Freedom of movement – freedom from bondage, freedom from borders – is the essence that sparks fusion. Freedom is catalytic. Bondage is cataclysmic.
Read more: Year 5779 … Can Oil and Vinegar Become One?
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