Steven McDonald

What a week. What a world. Do you realize what happens when hate meets love? No contest! In the very same week that Trump-hate reaches peak crescendo, forcing opera star Andrea Bocelli to back out of the Inauguration because of death threats, the families of Dylann Roof’s victim’s forgave their loved ones’ killer, and the NYPD officer who healed countless lives by spreading the powerful message of forgiveness after forgiving the teen who shot and paralyzed him in 1986 has died. Steven McDonald was 59-years-old. Think about what is behind the forgiveness of the hater. Imagine yourself forgiving the killer of the person you loved most in the world, or the gunman who in one hateful act, confined you to a wheelchair for the rest of your life; versus what it takes to hate. In the battle of love versus hate, there is NO CONTEST! Which, of course, the global sponsors of hate know only too well…they killed Him once; remember?

We are standing on epic ground, about to go over an edge that most of us will not make it back from. But as long as we are standing in possession of our own free will, we have all we need to choose otherwise. The problem is that we have, over time, developed spiritual cataracts fogging the crystal-clear Truth right before our eyes.

Fr. James Schall writes, “We are in a time now in which many acts formerly considered sinful have been gussied up as rights. You don’t need absolution for exercising your rights.” And, in my opinion, he hits the proverbial hate nail on the head here; “In Nietzsche is the wellspring of modernist discontent: ‘Christianity has failed to make us good, so let’s move beyond good and evil.’ What Nietzsche – and his followers – failed to grasp is the redemption Christ brings. The result of this failure is people behaving on earth as though they are in hell.” His book? A Line Through the Human Heart: On Sinning & Being Forgiven

You realize how blinding these cataracts must be to cause us to miss the “Perfect Beauty of Christ” right in front of our eyes. Mel Gibson portrayed it brilliantly in his movie “Hacksaw Ridge”. As did the British novelist Evelyn Waugh in his book The Real Sword of Honor, written in the 1950’s. “Without Christ, the world simply cannot understand a choice of quiet humility, suffering, and self-gift, with little worldly gain.”

We begin to see, how it really takes a stubborn mind to refuse the light of day…just when the light is needed most! But I forgive you…because I love you.