consequently it is expressive of mercy or pity, for mercy is love grieving. The
Divine love is therefore called mercy, because the human race is of itself in hell;
and when man perceives this in himself, he implores mercy.” (Arcana Coelestia
5480)
The Lord has revealed His Word out of Divine love and sorrow and
compassion toward us in our suffering. That truth is the heart of all the truths
of faith; the truth within the truth. It is expressed again, in the New Testament,
in the words: “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35) That simple statement contains the
seed of love out of which the whole tree of life grows, whose leaves heal the
soul, and whose fruit is every kind of good.
Our ability to understand is limited. We argue over what this or that truth
means. The truth suffers, the world suffers, we all suffer. And the Lord grieves.
As far as written revelation of the Word goes, we have it all – from the
Old Testament commands for obedience, to the spiritual vision that appeals
so strongly to the moral imagination in the New Testament, to the plain
statements addressed to the highest level of the natural mind, the rational, in
the Heavenly Doctrine. It is up to us now to hear the love speaking through
every word the Lord, in His mercy, has spoken – and respond.
(WEO)
a computer – or a little child – shall lead us?
Would you extend your life indefinitely if science made it possible? Yes, we
might all wish for a few more years to watch grandchildren grow. Wouldn’t you
be curious to see where the Church will be in another 50 or 100 years? And for
some it might be as mundane as: whatever it takes to see the Eagles win a Super
Bowl in my lifetime! But with a solid trust in providence, an unshakable belief
in life after death, and the sure knowledge that life in heaven will be infinitely
better than life on earth, most of us in the New Church are content to leave it
all in God’s hands.
Woody Allen once said he wasn’t afraid of death – he just didn’t want to be
around when it happened.
But most people do live with a fear of death. Many claim to believe in
heaven, perhaps more with hope than sure faith, but still worry about the
unknown.
Since the beginning of time people have fantasized about cheating death
and living forever in this world. Herodotus was writing about it in the fifth
century BC. Ponce de Leon famously searched for the Fountain of Youth in
Florida in the early 1500s. And the mission of many a scientist is not only to
keep extending life – which medicine is doing better and better – but eventually
avoiding death altogether.
The Rev. Todd Beiswenger, pastor of the Hurstville Society outside of
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