Lord have Mercy

The ruling that was handed down today by the Supreme Court, troubles my heart. I would be dishonest if I told you it meant nothing to me, when the truth is; it made me very saddened in a way that I have not felt in some time. I knew that this was coming and I underestimated the emotion that it would bring out of my soul, in fact it caught me completely of guard and I had to stop working on everything else and start praying.

My heart weeps when we the people take what God, creator of heaven and earth, has ordained and alter it in any way imaginable. I believe God instituted marriage between a man and a woman, so that they may thrive together in Him. As we have continued to disgrace what God has created, gender, identity, marriage, I fear for those who will be hurt on both sides of the issue. Anger and hostility will undoubtedly flow and the ramifications are only known by God himself, but I weep for what we have done and what we continue to do. Humanity started by defiling creation in Eden and we continue that defilement today.

Matthew 19:4-6 (NRSV) "He answered, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

I understand that there are people that disagree with me and what I believe. I pray for strength to hold true to God’s Word and I fear the day when He has had enough, for the righteous anger of God can come at any moment. I pray for peace in a time when I feel that Satan is trying to drive a wedge between different members of society and cause more fear and hate. I am reminded of a book by St. Maximus the Confessor; he says something about loving your enemies that really caused me to reflect. We all know you need to love your enemies and this is so much easier to say than do. In this book there is an ongoing dialogue between an old monk and a young man. When the old monk is explaining this to the young man he says that just as we are tempted, we need to remember that the ones doing us wrong are also being tempted and that our battle is not against flesh but against the tempter, who is trying to get us to hate the one falling prey to the tempter. The idea that the devil is tempting someone else and trying to get us to hate them rather than love them because in doing so we will then fail in fulfilling the rest of the commandments is wicked. Lord have mercy, forgive your people, Lord have mercy.

"You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."

Leviticus 19:18 NRSV