The Hate We Give–Transformed Into The Love We Give
All Souls and All Saints
Revelation 7:9-17 Common English Bible (CEB)
The great crowd and seventh seal
9 After this I looked, and there was a great crowd that no one could number. They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They wore white robes and held palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out with a loud voice:
“Victory belongs to our God
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”
11 All the angels stood in a circle around the throne, and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell facedown before the throne and worshipped God, 12 saying,
“Amen! Blessing and glory
and wisdom and thanksgiving
and honor and power and might
be to our God forever and always. Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders said to me, “Who are these people wearing white robes, and where did they come from?”
14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.”
Then he said to me, “These people have come out of great hardship. They have washed their robes and made them white in the Lamb’s blood. 15 This is the reason they are before God’s throne. They worship him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them. 16 They won’t hunger or thirst anymore. No sun or scorching heat will beat down on them, 17 because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them. He will lead them to the springs of life-giving water,[a] and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
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On All Saints and All Soul’s-November 1 and 2, we remember the saints, and all who have fought the good fight on earth and now surround us in that Great Cloud of Witnesses. They are a reminder that we too will enter into that number, where there will be no more tears. It is also a reminder that those who have fought the good fight of justice and faith on earth surround us, and envelop us as we continue the fight, cheering us onward.
They also remind us that the hate that we give, that is within us, can be transformed into a love that endures, and transforms our daily lives and that of others.
Last week a young guy full of anger struck me in the side, which remains painful, and I grabbed him, and held him as tight as I could in the middle of Haight Street. He started sobbing, and he expressed his fear, his anger, and his hopelessness of life on the streets, and of the way people treat him. I had never met him, he struck a stranger, and we ended up friends sharing with each other.
In the last couple of weeks I have had lunch with two sets of friends who are well off, and live in upper middle class neighborhoods. Neither fully grasp homeliness , or poverty in the real sense. I have struggled in the past not getting angry because of their lack of understanding, and have gradually realized they are not exposed to the reality of homelessness and violence. It was my bad to even feel anger. One of their sons is going to law school and hung out with me and worked with me in the City the years of when he was 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18, and wrote me when he entered law school that one of the reasons he wants to practice social justice law is because he experienced the pain of the streets with me. His eyes were opened in walking the under belly of San Francisco. I would never have experienced poverty and violence if I had not been on the streets. We are separated by the color of our skin, our economic situation, and our fear of entering into the worlds of other people. From that separation we develop a hate and fear of each other.
What I am learning is that the hatred we see and express in our daily news, in our streets, and in our lives, can only be transformed into love, acceptance, when we go deep into ourselves, and face our own pain, our own fears, and look into the face of the God of love as seen in each person we meet, who calls us to care, and to love each other. We can move out in loving the individuals around us–and change will take place, ever so slowly, like the mustard seed. In each person that is fed, in each person who volunteers with us, in each person I sit with in joy, sickness, and death, I personally experience a transformation from hate to love. I am the biggest screw up in the world, but I try, and that is all we can do is to TRY. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
Fr. River Damien Sims, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
415-305-2124
Donations may be given through pay pal on http://www.temenos.org