"Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ And the lawyer answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’
"As you know, this passage above is the introduction to one of the greatest and most memorable of the parables from our Lord's own lips, the story of
The Good Samaritan.
Our Lord did not offer us an exemption from sin if we call on His name, but forgiveness, if that request is offered in true repentance, a recognition of our faults, and faith, and an active response to His command to 'go and sin no more.'
It might be better to have been born without any knowledge of His word and His commandments, than to hear His words and then hypocritically parade in them and His sacraments, with intricate invocations of His holy name on your lips, as a call to hatefulness, pride, division, self-justification, and oppression.
I am speaking now, more directly, to those who embrace hatred and spread thoughts of violence and repression, often in the name of God, giving scandal to His faithful on earth.
I am speaking to those who stoke the fires of hatefulness, and violent words, gossip and name calling, insults and hardness towards their brothers and sisters in this world, while cynically asking, Who is my neighbor? Surely not them.
We are a generation made drunk with power, and a perverse individualism that has been foretold for increasingly dark times. Examine your own actions and thoughts and behaviors first. For you will not be called upon to answer for what others do, but what you have done.
May God have mercy on any who provide provocation and false teachings to others, and scandalous examples to their brothers and sisters, children and grandchildren, especially because of their willful selfishness, stubborn greed, and foolish pride.
And you know who you are, if you are not already completely dead to the life of the Spirit."
Jesse, 19 January 2015
The markets decided it was time to rally this morning, and used a lightly worse than expected PMI number as a rationale to expect a Fed pause after the next rate increase.
Gold and silver rallied hard and never looked back.
Let's see how long this lasts. Perhaps it will.
Or perhaps it will just be another cycle in the ongoing wealth transfer, the markets' wash and rinse.
There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday that may move the markets one way or another.
Have a pleasant evening.
