Your Enemies

October 11, 2008. A quotation in the sidebar of This blog:
"...there are men whom one hates until a certain moment when one sees, through a chink in their armour, the writhing of something nailed down and in torment."
-----Gerald Kersh, author of Night And The City

Hateful,
despicable,
not worthy of love,
speaking evil,
doing evil,
radiating evil to the air,
hurting the helpless,
seeming to delight in their pain,
denying truth,
spreading poison lies ...

wrapped in armor like a shell,
impenetrable,
invulnerable, it would seem,
beyond the reach of correction,
beyond possibility of cure,
so it would seem ...

Some are easy to hate,
some seem fit to despise,
some are beyond the reach of love,
or so we think until ...

... until we penetrate,
until we scry beneath that shell,
until we behold as through a crack,
the agony within,
the agony that wracks that soul,
the pain from which infection grows,
and, toxic, oozes from that soul,
attempting vainly that deep pain to ease,
but only feeding fires of hate,
only building higher prison walls,
increasing that dread weight of pain.

We scry,
behold,
and contemplate
the suffering of that poisoned soul.
We see the pain,
before it cringe,
and our own hatred is transformed,
and, almost feeling what he feels,
we weep,
our tears flow free,
our anger suddenly defused,
we pity,
and pity grows to love,
and love leads to prayer,
and prayer changes things,
beginning with us who pray,
and pity grows to love,
and, though perhaps not now
nor in a time we see,
but before all things are done,
love conquers all.

"Love your enemies ...
Pray for them that despitefully use you ...
Return good for evil."
-----Jesus Christ.

---------- ed pacht