The final round

Mr. Cecil also said:: “Your witness is horrendous”

“You are mean, and not in the way Christ was mean with exclusive, hypocritical, legalistic, self-righteous, judgmental, close-minded, stubborn pharisees. “

Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty and guilty. It is in my sinful nature to be all of those things.

mea culpa,

mea culpa,

mea maxima culpa.

On this pilgrimage through this life though, I have struggled with many of those faults and more, vanquished some of them, and learned through all of them. It is in the experience gained and the graces given that Jesus asks us to go forward and bear witness, not because we are sinless, but despite the fact that we are not. Jesus doesn’t tell us to never teach, never witness, never speak about the faith, or challenge others in theirs. Rather he says in Mathew 7:4 first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Jesus also warns us that this isn’t easy. Living the gospel this way is difficult but He encourages us to persevere:

10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

I guess I hit my mark. I take solace in that.

Mr. Cecil doesn’t like my husband’s quote at the bottom of the page. There’s a story to that and maybe I’ll share it later. But I’ve pondered that over the past few days. In offering the other cheek (and believe me, putting these thoughts out there on my blog and welcomg comments is indeed offering the other cheek!) I haven’t whipped around with visciousness, or even anger, but hopefully with thoughtful, logical and well-reasoned replies. I’m still a work in progress. Bear with me!