tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79682639352514796332024-02-21T05:36:27.753-05:00BLOG OF ELOY ROY - EVERYBODY GOES TO HEAVENEloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-57769171805963785772022-05-14T14:54:00.010-04:002022-07-30T11:20:34.422-04:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">This new blog is not a blog but
50 blogs in one. It has many pages… <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
admit that it's a bit crazy, but I can't find anything better to light up or
intensify in those who have the courage to read me a few sparks of the immense
energy that emanates from the gospels of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Energy, as we know, does not
fragment. It passes through tombs, through walls, through data, notions, plans
and specifications. It goes beyond speeches, words, laws, rules. It crosses
what is already built and goes beyond the reasonable, the well-polished, and
the well-ordered. Nothing stops it. This is why what matters in this blog is
the overall movement and not the number of pages. What counts is the ball
flying in the wind, and not primarily the marks and boundaries of the playing
field.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">This blog is titled: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jesus, a man of risks</b>. It could as well
be called: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jesus at loggerheads with the
Dinosaurs</b>. Or: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A Jesus according to
the “new paradigm” of a world that is moving further away from the geography of
religion.<o:p></o:p></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is hard to lock the wind in a few pages only…<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eloy Roy<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">JESUS,
A MAN OF RISKS</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 26pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfIUs4Ql9sUBnOUgiYnlqSETD_0z8STLvuEtGYt9Zq5W3GLrWyGbHrPUSIyJ-qUrhv5Lwdq7UEDueXds08QQjoaiSAEDPeqUrculXjRsJclfC0GMWbBAJ_7w6DbPKpjYPUwBTk0veCmTbCgSp88cQeVM6CfPl_e53ipv0gnsnNxlLO5yRA8Cnk5TCObA/s471/Redbubble.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="403" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfIUs4Ql9sUBnOUgiYnlqSETD_0z8STLvuEtGYt9Zq5W3GLrWyGbHrPUSIyJ-qUrhv5Lwdq7UEDueXds08QQjoaiSAEDPeqUrculXjRsJclfC0GMWbBAJ_7w6DbPKpjYPUwBTk0veCmTbCgSp88cQeVM6CfPl_e53ipv0gnsnNxlLO5yRA8Cnk5TCObA/w275-h320/Redbubble.jpg" width="275" /></a></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: left;">R</span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: left;">edbubble</span></b></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 22pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Part 1<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Repeated
clashes with Dinosaurs<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Dear Jesus, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You confronted three kinds of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dinosaurs</b>: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">1- The <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sadducees</b>,
most of whom were priests, all of whom were ultra-conservative. They held the
reins of power very tightly and saw enemies everywhere. You, on the contrary,
were the man of openness to everyone. You were the man of the people, the man
of the excluded. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">2- The scribes and the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Pharisees</b>, learned men who rigorously controlled public opinion.
They could have been your friends, but many of them were fundamentalists. They
put the law above the good of individuals, while you put it at the service of
people. They were the men of the word-by-word codes of morality; you were the
man of the heart, the man of the Spirit, the man of common sense. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">3- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Police,
the Army, the big landowners, the usurers, the big merchants and many others</b>...who
had no interest in seeing things change. You were the man of change, of a
profound change, of a permanent change, just like life! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The Dinosaurs were the INERTIA, you were the MOVEMENT.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You, Jesus, the more you fascinated the crowds with
your broad and liberating interpretation of what is still considered the
"Word of God", the more the Dinosaurs gnashed their teeth. The more
you were applauded, the more the Dinosaurs laid traps for you and labelled you
with such honourable titles as charlatan, heretic, lunatic, madman, drunkard,
swine, subversive and demon. As soon as you opened your mouth, the Dinosaurs
buried you alive.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Parenthesis:
not all of them bit <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Note that not all Dinosaurs were rabid. Most of them
had few teeth and were halfway between the tough guys in their group and the
new paths you were opening up before their eyes. When it came time to choose,
however, they looked the other way and remained mute. They looked strangely
like most of us, the Christians of almost all time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">A warning of primary
importance<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The language of the gospels and
of all ancient Christian writings has nothing to do with scholarly objectivity
as we understand it today. The authors of these writings were not trying to
give a detailed account of the life of Jesus. They only wanted to convey
something of the enormous impact that Jesus had on their personal lives and on
the lives of many people around them. So much so, that despite the horrific end
he met on the cross, he continued to live on in them more than ever and to work
wonders through them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(To go further on
this subject: see Note 1 at the end of Part 1 of this blog).<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Facing
the crisis<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Your people, dear Jesus, were going through an
unprecedented crisis. The chances of saving their millennial identity and their
possibilities of survival were at their lowest ebb. Two great forces were
holding them in their grip: the very powerful and seductive Greek culture that
was sweeping everything in its path, and the implacable Roman army that for
years had taken over the country and kept it under its boot. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">To counteract the disaster, you undertook to clean up.
For you, it was no longer enough to save the furniture or to patch up the
broken pots, you had to change everything. You had to give up going backwards.
Instead, you had to go forward, towards the different, towards the new, with
all the risks that this entailed. "Follow me" was your motto.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Follow me to the prophets</span></b><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">You wanted us to connect with
these heroes who were demanding radical changes in society. John the Baptist
was one of them, he who cried out in the desert: "Straighten out what is
crooked! Turn this unjust world upside down (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">metanoia</i>) and make it right again!" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Luke 3, 3 and following)</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">You wanted us to follow you with
John and the prophets into the real world where there were lepers, blind, deaf,
dumb and lame people; beggars, crippled and destitute; into that world of bent
backs, of the hungry, of the scattered and of the refugees... You wanted us to
run the risk of meeting thousands of peasants uprooted from their land (there
are still hundreds of millions of them today), uprooted by the money and
weapons of those who give themselves the right to cut down forests, steal
herds, bleed the soil dry, disrupt the climate, create famine, droughts and
floods, sow terror and chaos, and corrupt governments as puppets at the service
of their empire all over the planet. You wanted us to go with you and breathe a
breath of justice, liberation, love and resurrection into all the victims, all
the crushed, all the undead who only wanted to live. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It was in the midst of this world
that you lived (and still live). It was in the midst of this broken world that
you carried out your actions with immense passion, often passing through the
synagogues, but without being attached to any particular religious
organization, to any school, to any authority, to any special dicastery (not
even to a small parish!), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew 7:29;
21:23-27).</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You never used any other
weapon than your own person, your word, your conscience and the love of your
"Abba" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(the kind word you used
to speak about God). <o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Your actions were mini-revolutions
within the great revolution that you ardently wished to see spread like a
conflagration throughout the Earth: "I have come to cast a fire upon the
Earth", you said, "and how I wish it were already all on fire! <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Luke 12, 49)</i> You wished us Peace, the
only true peace, the one that springs from health, justice, goodness and from the
search for truth <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 14, 27).</i> You
rejected our peace that is made of white thread, of half-truths, of lies, of
diplomatic calculations, of cunning, of cowardice, of fear, of hypocrisy and of
de-mission: "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword! <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew 10:34).</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It is true that the word
"revolution" is not very canonical, but who can say that you have
been canonical once in your life? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The word "dinosaurs" is
not canonical either. But if you prefer a term that is closer to the gospel
writings, you can replace it with "ravens", "vultures",
"and “vipers”, “pigs”, “camels” or “goats". The choice is vast. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Meeting
with the sea workers <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh4Ny5CjGvWgyPHp6fEJYd1Hy1RBkn_A2TSh53ebeJuOe6sVctGgHRG9xwic34pvqM8fttv7m4hsHXZayc4zVjlueGqrRA95rF6jESpm-qRLgbcWg6RF1QRz-QY4ayuveUQE83NOuxJ4twaq1WB_800WbCy5V2tukHsGlE5mZw4q-dpvtOZ-rmTvgRrQ/s606/Tempete-en-mer%20Gernard%20Gontier.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="606" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh4Ny5CjGvWgyPHp6fEJYd1Hy1RBkn_A2TSh53ebeJuOe6sVctGgHRG9xwic34pvqM8fttv7m4hsHXZayc4zVjlueGqrRA95rF6jESpm-qRLgbcWg6RF1QRz-QY4ayuveUQE83NOuxJ4twaq1WB_800WbCy5V2tukHsGlE5mZw4q-dpvtOZ-rmTvgRrQ/w400-h297/Tempete-en-mer%20Gernard%20Gontier.jpg" width="400" /></a></b></div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(Mark
1, 16-20)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In Galilee you came across some
rough fishermen. These brave boys, identified with the 99% of their people,
dreamed of LIBERATION<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.- <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I say "LIBERATION", in every sense
of the word, to the great displeasure of the John Paul II of our time, the
Benedict XVI, the Opus Dei, the Marc Ouellet, Burke, Pinochet, Bush, Trump, and
all the Ayatollahs, the Putin, the Xi Jinping, and the woofs of every color and
every era; and notwithstanding the Eucharistic prayers, missals and breviaries;
and whatever the theological functionaries of the seminaries of yesterday and
today, and all the yes-men of the whole world think</i>. - <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exhausted by taxes, these fishermen from
Galilee were fed up with the local authorities, the temple police and the
occupying troops of the country. If they hadn't dreamed of LIBERATION, they
would have been the most beautiful idiots on earth... They ate liberation, they
dreamed of it as their ancestors ate and dreamed of it when, fifteen hundred
years earlier, they were caught in the chains of slavery in Egypt. They ate and
dreamed of it a good two thousand years before the birth of Marx and Lenin.
Imagine what a wonderful dream, and what an abominable sin! .... Not
surprisingly, this perspective of liberation, and the word
"liberation" itself (more outrageous, it seems, than the "n"
word) have been completely removed from the horizon and consciousness of the
vast majority of Christians who claim to walk with you and your Galilean
friends. I don't know if there is a better way to desalinate salt and castrate
the Gospel... (Matthew 5, 13). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">These fishermen from Galilee were
hoping with all their soul to find a leader, a savior, a messiah, a king, a
powerful ruler who would stand in front of them and get them out of their
deadly mess. As soon as they saw you on their way, as soon as they met you, as
soon as they heard you speak, as soon as they saw what you were doing, they
believed that you, the carpenter from Nazareth, were that man. They left
everything and followed you. The news spread like wildfire. The Dinosaurs
immediately put you on their list of left-wing conspirators. You were followed,
spied on. They scrutinized your every word and action. However, far from
stopping you, this tracking only spurred you on. Your declarations became
swords, and your gestures, electric shocks. Sooner or later, you would pay
dearly. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Encounters
with the lepers <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(Luke
5:12-13; 17:12)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The lepers were despised, cursed
even, because it had always been an absolute belief that it was God who
punished them with leprosy because of their repugnant sins, real or supposed.
This belief, according to you, was the height of ignorance and absurdity. It
was above all the face of an ignorant and cruel religion which, powerless to
cure, made the disease a hundred times more painful to bear. Contrary to this
kind of dogma preached for centuries by men of religion, you wanted us to get
it into our heads and hearts that "God", far from being a machine of
punishment, was, on the contrary, only life, grace and healing. So, with this
incredibly new and daring faith, you dared to approach the lepers and touch
them. You took away the immense burden of shame and guilt that stigmatized and
crushed them ("You who labor and are burdened, come to me and I will
relieve you" (Matthew 11:28).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
freed them from the weight that weighed them down, you relieved them and healed
them in their dignity, and their flesh, of its own accord, began to blossom
again. The sick who came to you, you approached them all with the same
liberating strength, the same assurance, the same audacity and the same
kindness. You often resorted to popular medicine, but you never bewitched
anyone with esoteric speeches or feigned magic that would have tricked their
minds into enslaving them to you. To follow you, to walk with you, did not mean
to become your slaves, but quite the opposite!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Was this of any use? Surely.
Nevertheless, after two thousand years of Christianity, there are still good,
practicing Christians who cannot get it out of their heads that it is God who
rains sickness and misfortune on the innocent as well as on the guilty: on the
guilty, to punish them, on the innocent, so that they do not want to imitate
the guilty... Now, it is mainly because of this strange, ambivalent god,
supposedly merciful but often indifferent or even cruel towards humans, that,
nowadays, millions of baptized and confirmed people complain against religion
and that churches are emptying. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Obviously, my dear Jesus, your
different way of seeing God did not go down well. In high places, your healings
were perceived as subversive. For, in addition to contradicting traditional
doctrine on sin and its consequences, they undermined the sacred authority of
the "divinely instituted" priests to deal with these matters... They
were never going to forgive you for that, (especially since it jeopardized
their job security and their wallets).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Parenthesis:
the question of evil<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">On the other hand, the old
question that has always plagued the human mind, namely: "If God is so
good, why does evil exist?", this very serious question remains absolutely
intact. (For an attempt at an answer, please read Note 2 at the end of the
first Part of this blog). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Meetings
with the blind<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(John
9, 1-41)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The blind, including those born
blind, are not the hardest to heal. The hardest to heal are those who think
they can see when in fact they cannot. They are the ultraconservatives and
their kind, the Dinosaurs. They see nothing outside of themselves and nothing
outside of the narrow circle of those who think exactly like them. They are
always on your back and on your heels. Whatever you do or say, you offend them.
They claim to be defending the rights of God, the rights of truth, the rights
of Tradition, the rights of the "true" religion. Absolutely incapable
of recognizing a brother or sister in the poor, in the small, in the oppressed,
in the wounded, in those who do not think, speak and live like them, they see
you as a godless, scatterbrained, exalted person. You took many risks in trying
to open their eyes, but it never worked. They only became more enraged. In the
end, they got you. To this day. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">As if it wasn't enough, they
proliferated and had countless descendants. In the 21st century, their
offspring can still be found in all strata of the Church, from the most obscure
sacristies to the most gilded thrones. Everywhere they grumble, lock, put wood
in the wheels and sand in the gears. With hearts overflowing with heavenly
gratitude, they take in tempting donations from their "fans" who, for
the most part, are flush with cash...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Your disciples, one day, tired of
fighting the Dinosaurs, put in your mouth a series of imprecations that had the
advantage of setting the record straight. It also allowed them to let off steam
and to relieve all those who, nowadays, don't have the audacity to face them.
"You, blind guides, race of vipers, hypocrites, whitewashed sepulchres,
you murder the prophets and then you build mausoleums for them (you canonize
them!)" (Matthew 23, 1-36)... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Encounters
with the publicans<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(Matthew
9, 10-13)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Most of the tax collectors were ordinary
people who were hungry. To earn their crust, they did menial work for the Roman
occupiers. The good people hated them, boycotted them, repudiated them, and
condemned them to the devil. By approaching these people who were condemned by
public opinion, you risked being considered one of their accomplices, a
collaborator or a traitor...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In your
defense, you compared yourself to the doctor: you said that you were not there
to take care of the healthy but of the sick. You went so far as to say that,
like the prostitutes, the wicked publicans were closer to God than most of the
models put forward and praised by religion <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew
21, 31).</i> Unlike the "pure" caste, the publicans did not think
they were angels. They had the honesty to admit that they were scum. They did
not lecture anyone. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Refusing to put more blame on
those publicans who were already ostracized by popular vindictiveness, was
another of your abominable "crimes" that brought you many bumps. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Meeting
with the Syro-Phoenician woman also called "Canaanite woman<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">(</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Matthew
15, 21-28)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Let's talk about this woman. She
was a foreigner, a pagan! She did not dress like the good girls of your people.
She did not even wear a veil... Do you know what I mean? If war broke out
between neighboring countries, this woman would obviously be on the enemy's
side, and she'd hit hard. We had to stay away from that kind of people. Their
religion was scary. Truth be told, they were no better than dogs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But she, for the sake of her little girl who
was very sick, didn't mind looking like a dog. With a faith that would make the
most zealous Jews jealous, she begged you to cure her child. She screamed, she
cried, she dragged herself at your feet; she howled and moaned like a wounded
little dog. She would not let go of you. So much so that your famous disciples
lost patience. And so did you. “I am from Israel. In Israel, we don't throw our
bread to the dogs!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That's what you said
to her, showing your fangs. But she replied: "In our country, the little
dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table".... And wham! The
woman's reply caused you such surprise and pleasure that you exclaimed:
"Woman, your faith is really incredible! At that very moment, it is said,
the little daughter of that pagan woman recovered her health.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">You, Jesus, were a good Jew, and
like all good Jews you believed that the world began and ended with the Jews.
For you, the other peoples were vermin. Well, that day you were
"converted" (that's the word) by none other than a woman, a foreigner,
a Syro-Phoenician, a Canaanite, and therefore a pagan. It was from this unusual
encounter that you and your famous disciples had to come to terms with the fact
that pagan foreigners can sometimes be models, even for orthodox Jews... This
was another of your many "heresies" which the Jews of your time, the
Dinosaurs in particular, never forgave you for. One of your holy heresies that
some believers of the 21st century still swallow like a fishbone... who still
doubt that there can be any salvation outside the Roman Catholic Church.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Meeting
with the Samaritan woman</span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="line-height: 115%;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 16pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEfKQZtZ4kG7mVN-ZsjGrIRLddXBvABOsJxbnoPW3h38U4pyaRfpyRLCI_RBTv_unrjdYalaHs1zf5wklAji8PfOIVR434nmVKOiTIQCrRkYqUTIjSsZ-xwFLY35Sz54jwHclbA4rTf90CkZBmjMsNeKe083VU2BmMI9q70tRzg4ePHNZX30p8LDmudg/s225/images%20Jeunes%20cathos.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEfKQZtZ4kG7mVN-ZsjGrIRLddXBvABOsJxbnoPW3h38U4pyaRfpyRLCI_RBTv_unrjdYalaHs1zf5wklAji8PfOIVR434nmVKOiTIQCrRkYqUTIjSsZ-xwFLY35Sz54jwHclbA4rTf90CkZBmjMsNeKe083VU2BmMI9q70tRzg4ePHNZX30p8LDmudg/w400-h400/images%20Jeunes%20cathos.jpg" width="400" /></a></b></div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> Jeunes cathos</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(John
4, 1-42)</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">She has all the faults. First,
she is a woman. That says it all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
decent man, let alone a man of God, would never show himself in public with a
woman. Women are cut, veiled, hidden, and made to walk behind their husbands.
Women are seen as a necessary evil, as a useful sin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Women are not spoken to in public...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the more so if it is a woman belonging to
a people as bastard and threatening as the Samaritans.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This people, in fact, came from
six enemy ethnic groups (six, the number of the lack!). This was enough for the
native Jews to suspect them of being in league with these dishonorable nations
from which they came, and for this reason, they considered them as potential
spies and traitors who should always be distrusted. Despite this paranoia on
the part of the Jews of Judea and Galilee, the Samaritans, it seems, lived
their lives without too many complexes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They were proud of their temple, which stood on Mount Gerizim and
competed with the temple in Jerusalem. They were also proud of their religion,
which, in fact, was nothing more than a cobbled-together mixture of Jewish
worship and pagan rites, a kind of religious "multiculturalism" (they
worshipped Yahweh in the form of an Egyptian calf. Abomination among all!). The
good Jews, who had never had pigs in the odor of sanctity ("systemic
racism" obliges...), considered most seriously that a pig's grunt was
better than the most beautiful prayer of a Samaritan (that's to say...).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Now, you, Jesus, at the village
well, in the middle of the day, you asked a woman of that race for a drink, a
pure Samaritan woman, a woman with "six" husbands (the six enemy
ethnic groups...) who, in addition to all her faults, had no tongue in her pocket.
She looked at you, scrutinized you, asked you questions and even talked to you
about theology. It was to her that you made one of your most striking
statements about religion. You told her quite simply that the relationship with
God was not in any way a matter of temples, churches, synagogues, pagodas or mosques....
Nor was it about traditions, doctrines, rituals and devotions. Even though you
were sure that the religion of the Jews was the only religion worthy of the
name, in reality, you dared to affirm that what was worthwhile was not really
religion, but what today we would call "spirituality". <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">To the woman you said: "The
hour will come, and now is, when God will be worshipped, not in this or that
temple, but in spirit and in truth" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John
4:23).</i> "In spirit" means that we will no longer be in doctrine,
in worship, in organization or in structure, but in "spirituality",
that is, in the "breath" or the impulse of the heart. "In
truth" means "in conscience", in other words, in honesty,
frankness, sincerity and freedom of being <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew
6:5-8; 7:21).</i> This means that we will no longer be in temples and
sacrifices, in mediations, in hierarchies, in indoctrinations, and in
"office secrets" and, for today's Catholics, we will no longer be in
the celibacy of priests, the priesthood of women, the contraceptive pill,
condoms, the refusal of communion to the divorced; we will no longer be in
pastoral strategies, in the hours of mass, in the stories of parishes
administration, of the fusion or non-merger of parishes; we will no longer be
in holy water, medals or rosaries. We will be elsewhere. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We will be first and foremost in
this creative word that you address to the Samaritan woman, which, in fact, is
a true declaration of love to her thirsty heart: "If you knew 'the Gift'
of God", if you were willing to accept in the depths of your consciousness
the love that God has for you, his free love, his grace, his unconditional
love, his most pure Spirit, his freedom, his power, his light, "a river of
living water would gush forth from the depths of your being". You would
truly be born to yourself, you would be born into God, you would be born into
the world as a free, unique and beloved person. You would be overflowing with
love and eternal life... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Upon hearing these words, the Samaritan
woman discovered that she could be loved for herself for the first time in her
life, a possibility she had never thought of. She left her pitcher and ran to
shout her joy to her fellow villagers. What joy, what happiness for people who,
in the eyes of the Jews, were considered pigs! What a relief, what liberation.
Jesus, you had simply given birth to something as immense as conscience and as
sublime as the human person. And you had broken through the wall that separated
Jews and Samaritans.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For a long time the river of life
created by this hyper-liberating word marked the mentality and the whole life
of the women and men called "Christians". But barely three hundred
years after you, at the time of Constantine, religion reappeared with a bang.
Faith was "organized", structured, regulated, fixed in the Roman
way..., and spirituality was brought to heel. Over time, it was framed in an
infinitely complex discipline called "mysticism", which was reserved
above all for monks, priests, religious men and women and lay people attracted
to contemplation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For ordinary people,
there remained only relics, indulgences, pilgrimages, and the hunt for
miracles, mushy devotions, and submission to a system that was beyond
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Two thousand years ago, you said:
"The time has already come" to get out of these suffocating frames of
religion in order to give breath to all those who are thirsty for freedom,
authenticity, life and meaning... Poor result all the same. Nowadays, while
many Christians have already rejected religion and some are discovering
spirituality, a number of them are turning to Tibet, Nepal, India or
California, others, very few, are beginning to explore the immense spiritual
treasure of the Gospel. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">As soon as one stops confusing
your Good News with religious practice, one discovers with surprise that the
Gospel is a gold mine for self-realization. But the fact remains that most
Christians who go by mule, bicycle or on foot are unaware of this and have no
idea of what spirituality is. And if they have the slightest intuition of it,
they are far from thinking that this thing can really be distinguished from the
hold of priests, parishes, sacraments, masses, morals, sins and commandments,
and also from the domination of gurus, and thousands of other things. ... They
do not know that spirituality is not religion, that it is not dogma, liturgy or
morals; they do not dare to believe that outside, not necessarily against, but
beyond religious practice, there is something that is really like you, that is,
free as the wind...<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> (John 3, 8).</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Parenthesis:
Religion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Religion is not bad, far from it!
Since the cave era until today, religion has been constructed as the matrix and
the backbone of all cultures of all nations and of all civilizations. In the
West, as everywhere else, we have passed from barbarism to civilization in
great part, thanks to religion... But all is not rosy with it... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(To
go further, see Note 3 at the end of Part 1 of this blog)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Meeting
with all the Samaritans of this world<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This is your best one! This is
subversion at its finest. It's the perfect leap out of the stifling enclosures
of religion, and a spectacular landing right in the middle of millions of
ordinary people like you and me who don't have a PhD in the science of virtue
and don't care whether we're recognized as good or bad by the courts of
holiness. It is incredible! We are full of flaws, we have our quirks, our
quibbles, our beliefs, our opinions, our fears, our cowardice, our sins, our
dreams, and, of course, we have some good qualities and we know how to do good
things, but nothing to jump to heaven. If we didn't exist, the world wouldn't
be any worse off. But we do exist! If someone were to tell us that we are no
better than the Samaritans, we would fully agree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But that is precisely what you,
Jesus, are saying to us when you fall among our flock. You tell us: the Temple
is beautiful, but there are better things than the Temple. Religion is
beautiful, but there are better things than religion. The Law is beautiful, but
love is better than the Law. Morality is beautiful, but there is something
better than morality, better than obedience to sacred authorities, better than
sacrifices, better than rites, better than the mass and the sacraments. There
is something better than religiosity, better than the identities of races,
tribes, nations, social classes or status... All this can be beautiful and
good, but only if we do not stop the Wind, which is the most precious thing we
possess, because it is the Wind that makes us breathe and gives breath to
Nature and to the whole universe <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 3,
8)</i>. The Wind walks unceasingly; he goes where he wants and where he
pleases. He knows no barriers or boundaries <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Acts
2:1-4).</i> The Wind is what makes us BE. He is Freedom, Love, Life, Light,
Joy, Peace and everything that comes from it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There are the Jews, which is
beautiful, but there are also the Samaritans, as well as billions of humans
like you and me who are different from you and me. They are part of us as we
are part of them. To welcome them is to welcome ourselves, and also to welcome
God who made them like us in his image and likeness. To love them is to love
ourselves and also to love God. God, us, them, we are inseparable; we are one
with the whole of humanity, with the Earth, with the whole cosmos... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbac8908MyrvjB2rJJ9r6plYZay9f1EM4VK3gEIzTWQlRyeb6QDDhdnjwYLhQAZtVecVoTaBI8EFTsYTc0Pd6c579b2Y6tq5b1UGG-gSY7nRTm2cpWDO2n9FAlUH1PmkMx6p_Df3XiBnrV2nR435xpwOAa_jWnTKgQAa-zXP9WtGpJekTyZBsDWQYU2Q/s1200/Ferdinand-Hodler-Le-Bon-Samaritain.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1078" data-original-width="1200" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbac8908MyrvjB2rJJ9r6plYZay9f1EM4VK3gEIzTWQlRyeb6QDDhdnjwYLhQAZtVecVoTaBI8EFTsYTc0Pd6c579b2Y6tq5b1UGG-gSY7nRTm2cpWDO2n9FAlUH1PmkMx6p_Df3XiBnrV2nR435xpwOAa_jWnTKgQAa-zXP9WtGpJekTyZBsDWQYU2Q/s320/Ferdinand-Hodler-Le-Bon-Samaritain.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Ferdinand Hodle</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(</span></i><i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Luke
10, 25-37)</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">"One day, a man (a Jew) was attacked by
rascals who beat him up, stole everything he had and fled, leaving him
half-dead on the side of the road. While at any moment scavenging birds could
pounce on him and skin him alive, a priest followed by a Levite (a kind of
deacon) pass by on the same path. The two are heading for the Temple in
Jerusalem to carry out the tasks assigned to them for that day. They may be
late because they seem to be in a great hurry. As they pass by the poor devil,
they see him bathing in his blood; they frown, stifle a sigh, move away quickly
and continue on their way at a run. Meanwhile, a bearded stranger appears who
doesn't look very “catholic”. He comes on a donkey. When he sees the wounded
man around whom big flies have started to fly, the stranger jumps off his mount
and hurries to revive him. He cleans his wounds as best he can with some wine
that he carries in his luggage. Then he hoisted him onto his donkey and led him
to the first inn he came across. Once there, he entrusted the unfortunate man
to the owner of the place and gave him some money, asking him to take care of
him until he was back on his feet. He assures him that on his way back from his
trip he will come back and reimburse him for any extra expenses he may incur
for the injured man. End of the story”. Everyone listens to you with their
mouths open.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">When the crowd that was listening
to you realized that the wounded man was a Jew, that was fine, but as soon as
they realized that it was a Samaritan who had saved him, there was a general
outcry.</span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">People spat on the ground, threw
dust in the air, and swore by the beard of all the patriarchs that you deserved
the gallows. With difficulty and misery you managed to calm them down when you
shouted with all your strength that it was only a parable, but that through
this parable it was God himself who was sending them a message.</span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">You then taught them that God had long since
tried to make it clear through his prophets that he was fed up with all our
sacrifices, our hymns, our hollering, our liturgies which are only a rehash of
old things from the past with no real impact on the present. And that the only
religion that pleased him was justice and mercy (</span><i style="font-family: Arial, "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Examples: Amos 5:21-25; Ecclesiastics 34:19-22; Psalms 40:7; 50:7-23;
51:18-19; Matthew 9:13. 12:7; etc. etc.).</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Naturally, the prophets, those
who prevented us from going in circles, were not listened to. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor were they going to listen to a little
country bumpkin like you who told indecent stories. For in your parable you had
dared to give the role of villain to the poor priest and the Levite, and the
role of saint to the cursed Samaritan. You could have been killed for that. You
made no effort, not even a little, to excuse the priest and his deacon. Those two
good Jews had only done their duty. They had scrupulously respected the rules
of the liturgy strictly forbidding contact with blood before entering the
temple. But you, instead of excusing them, you praised a mangy Samaritan. You
let the blame fall on two people who had not deviated from the norms of holy
religious purity, and you put a repulsive pig-like character on a pedestal. You
have trampled on religious purity! You made it clear that the one who was on
the way to eternal life was that unspeakable Samaritan and not them. For the
sake of the neighbor, you sent the devil to heaven and God to hell!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">THEM : "The famous "neighbor"! You
have only that word in your mouth! Listening to you, it seems that the neighbor
comes before God!" <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">YOU: God does not come before or after the neighbor,
because He and the neighbor go together. They are inseparable!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">THEM: Inseparable?!!! The Samaritans are not our
neighbors! They are always too close. They are the ones who should never have
existed! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">YOU: Our neighbors are our relatives, of course, but
they are all the others too. If there are some who are far away from us, we
only have to make them close to us by going to them ourselves. Just like the
Samaritan in my story who came close to the Jew to help him and save his life...
God wants nothing else. Eternal life is that! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Dinosaurs who heard this
story would have wanted to cut out your tongue, gouge out your eyes and tear
your head off. You had nothing to lose by waiting.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And we who still have a little or
a lot of difficulty dealing with the poor, the marginalized, the immigrants,
the people of color, the LGBTQ+, the atheists, the natives, the anti-clerics,
the liberated Christians, the Jews, the Muslims, etc. etc. etc., and who are
sometimes ashamed of being Quebecers with French and Catholic roots, this is
perhaps the proof that in our DNA we also have a few atoms of Dinosaurs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Meeting
with the centurion <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(Matthew
8:5-13)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Roman occupier, centurion,
decurion or other, is the impure par excellence, the enemy to be put down. Now,
one of these centurions had a servant whom he loved very much (some Bible
scholars suspect that this "servant" was, in fact, his lover). This
beloved slave was therefore seriously ill. The said centurion, being one of
those Romans who usually treated the Jews with great contempt, took courage to
approach you, a Jew, and asked you a favor. His pain must have been enormous to
stoop so low.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From a prudent distance,
however, to avoid exposing you to impurity, he addressed his request to you.
One knows the continuation. How he did not allow you to disturb yourself to
enter his house: "I am an officer of inferior rank, but when I give an order,
my men obey me without my having to lift a finger. You, who are more important
than I am, must not risk making yourself unclean by entering my house. Say one
word and I am sure that my servant will get well". With these words, this
heathen you had before you had just overturned another barrier and had reached
you in the heart. Filled with admiration and enthusiasm, you declared.
"Never in Israel have I seen such great faith!"<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The centurion loved his slave, he
longed for him to live, and he expected you to heal him. This is what you
called "faith". That's all it was. This heathen, this enemy of your
nation, this unbaptized, unevangelized, uncatechized man, this presumably
active homosexual, obtained from you the healing of his boyfriend. And you
healed his boyfriend without question, without conditions, and without
preaching.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This was another nice surprise for
that category of people that religion stigmatized as impious and perverse.
Also, among the Dinosaurs, your rating took another beating...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another landing that you should not recover
from...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Meeting
with the zealots<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Zealots wanted to make you
king, a real king, that is to say, a leader who takes over the country, a
leader who decides, a leader who commands, a leader who rides horses, who wages
war, who cleanses the country of all that is foreign, a leader who restores the
national institutions, re-establishes in their original purity the beliefs, the
rites, the customs that make up the identity of the nation; a leader who
mobilizes the popular forces to put an end to the Romans and all the traitors
who would have collaborated with them or would have been simply complacent
towards them. The Zealots were guerrillas, violent people. They were called
"bandits" or "robbers" (Barabbas was one of them), or
"thieves" (like the two thieves, the good and the bad, crucified like
you, on either side of your cross). In the caves of the surrounding desert
where they hid, they had to eat. So they did not hesitate to steal chickens,
goats and sheep from the nearby farms. From time to time, they would scour one
village or another for anything they could get their hands on. And if they came
across a publican collecting taxes for the Romans, the poor guy would soon wake
up with a dagger in his back. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">You did not agree with the
methods of these Zealots, but you had sympathy for them. The proof is that,
among your disciples, you chose some fellows who certainly had some common
ground with them and who had perhaps already been involved in one of their
raids. For example, one of your disciples was a certain Simon the “Zealot”.
Another was Judas “Iscariot” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(the man
with the dagger).</i> There were also the two brothers, John and James, called
the “sons of thunder”. These two dreamed of defeating the enemies of the nation
as soon as possible and of occupying the most important positions in the
government of your future kingdom. Of course, there was also the ebullient
Simon Peter (the “Stone”), who had a quick hand for the sword... It was not
easy for you to channel the warlike energy of these brave boys and to give this
energy a much broader, but equally powerful and less bloodthirsty
direction...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The revolutionary ideals of the Zealots
were far from being indifferent to you. You understood their grumbling only too
well. But you unequivocally rejected the means they were using to achieve this
ideal. Your revolution was not to be fuelled by violence, hatred and revenge;
it was not to fight injustice with injustice, evil with evil, or violence with
violence. Your revolution was to be driven by courage, but also by feelings of
humanity and heroic love, even forgiveness and love for enemies. Your war, your
sword, your violence consisted, not in killing, but in bravely and freely
giving your own life to give back to mankind its dignity, its freedom and its
beauty. Power, yes, but to serve the human being and not to enslave him. In my
opinion, the one who best embodied this approach in our contemporary world was
Gandhi, a non-Christian... He was followed by Martin Luther King, a Baptist
minister (and a little womanizer), and Mandela, a fighter (and a divorced man)
who was freed after 27 years in prison. The first two were assassinated, the
other lived to be very old and died peacefully in the arms of his other wife.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Because you did not allow
yourself to be drawn into the violent path of the Zealots, you disappointed
them. They turned against you out of spite. When Pilate proposed the release of
a prisoner on the occasion of the Passover, they exchanged your head for that
of Barabbas, a notorious Zealot (!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
the same reasons, it is thought, you also disappointed your friend Judas. Fifty
years later, however, in Jerusalem, when the Zealots, in the year 70, rise up with
their armament against the Roman troops, history will prove you right: the city
will be razed to the ground; the population, massacred; the State, abolished;
the survivors, expelled; the territory, annexed to Rome. The Hebrew state will
be wiped out for 2000 years! This is what the violence of the Zealots was to
lead to. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Your rejection of armed violence
did not make you an exclusively religious man strictly confined to matters of
the soul. On the contrary! If it is true that you refused to play the role of a
rebel leader or a political and military commander <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 6:12),</i> you continued to assume a form of
"leadership" (in your time we spoke of "kingship"), based
on all that is essential for the life, peace and happiness of the people. But
your leadership was radically different. It was the opposite of what was
usually projected by "those in charge". According to you, true
leaders (or true kings) put themselves at the service of the people and, in no
way, let themselves be served by them <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Mark
10, 42-45).</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">You yourself put yourself at the
service of everything that gives life and brings peace. And what is life-giving
and peace-giving? Is it religion with its many rites, prayers and sacrifices,
or rather justice, a justice exercised with humanity and goodness? Every
rational person knows the answer. So, for having dared to make religion a
matter of justice and justice a true religion, my dear Jesus, your days were
numbered...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">You will be sentenced to death by
the pontiffs of the theocratic state of the Jews and you will be executed by
the Romans. You will be nailed to a cross, a death that Rome reserved for
slaves and those who rebelled against the Empire. You will be crucified as a political
dissident, as a rebel, as a "brigand" with two other brigands (or
thieves) at your side. Pilate will not be mistaken. With typical dinosaurian
cynicism he will put up a sign on top of the cross proclaiming loudly that you
were executed as "THE KING OF THE JEWS" (INRI).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The most distressing thing about
this whole affair, the most disgusting thing, is that they will learn to mourn
you as a "poor innocent victim immolated for the sins of the world"
(as religion has insisted on proclaiming to the four corners of the universe),
when in reality you were killed, or more precisely murdered, for the crime of
having defied a fundamentally violent and unjust society, which was sanctioned
and blessed by a religion blinded by power and subject to interests other than
those of God. .. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Why did the religion lend itself
to such a game? Easy. Religion, which wants to be the guardian of peace,
protects its back. In order not to compromise itself, it usually takes refuge
in the things of heaven, but most often it supports the power in place in order
to better preserve its own power (for the greater glory of God, of course).
With few exceptions, it accommodates all dictatorships, as long as they are
right-wing. It does so, it goes without saying, for the sake of peace. But it
is well known that no dictatorship tolerates rebels. It crucifies them. The
beautiful peace it offers crucifies even those who, like Jesus, oppose
violence, unless they show their true colors and rally to it like slaves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It is not enough for the established
power not to take up arms against it, it is also necessary to kneel at its
feet. Jesus never did this, because he only knelt before the poor and the
powerless <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 13:4-5).</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For three centuries before
Constantine's famous "peace", Christian men and women allowed
themselves to be tortured and crushed by tigers rather than kneel before the
emperor's statue or burn incense... They did not worship authority as one
worships God, they did not kneel before any man; they did not kiss anyone's
ring. But after the peace of Constantine, when the supreme authority of the
Empire became Catholic, the old hierarchies of the pre-Gospel era returned at
full gallop. Without warning, we found ourselves on our hands and knees under
the rule of the almighty God of Religion and under the increasingly gilded
crook of his representatives. The Church ceased to be a community and became an
organization directed from above and guarded on sight by officials of Law and
Order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The gospel of Jesus had received
a fatal blow to its heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Meeting
with Judas <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Judas loved you, but, according
to many scholars, he despaired of you because you refused the offer of the
Zealots to lead their movement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the
risk of being called a "thief", or a robber <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 12:6)</i>, he collected funds for the Zealots' cause. Only the
Zealots, he thought, would save the country, but you didn't agree. So, in order
to pressure you, he had this idea to "sell" to the Dinosaurs of the
temple an important piece of information about you, in exchange, of course, for
a sum of money that the Zealots' friends would greatly appreciate... He was not
trying to kill you, because he sincerely loved you, as you loved him. He only
indicated where the temple police could find you, so that the great religious
leaders would give you a good scare. It seems that they had committed
themselves to keep to this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judas was
counting on this scare so that you would change your attitude toward the
Zealots and join them. He longed for you to become king. But the Dinosaurs
cheated him. As soon as they had the information they wanted, they jumped on
you and started the circus we know about to finish you off. When Judas became
aware of the turn of events, he wanted to die. With a broken heart, he hanged
himself. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Eloy
Roy<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b><b><i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">To read the Second Part of this
blog, please, go to the end of the 3 notes and of the Appendix that follows.</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 12pt;">-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span><b><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Note
1 - The language of the Gospels</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The language of the gospels and
of all the ancient Christian writings has nothing to do with scholarly
objectivity as we understand it today. The authors of these writings were not
trying to give a detailed account of the life of Jesus. They only wanted to
convey something of the enormous impact that Jesus had on their personal lives
and on the lives of many people around them. So much so that, despite the
horrific end Jesus met on the cross, he continued to live on in them more than
ever and to work wonders through them. What the gospel writers wanted to share
above all else was the faith that had taken root in them through Jesus. They
told us of the gratitude, the admiration, the enthusiasm, the convictions and
the joy that Jesus had brought into their own lives. When they made him walk on
water, for example, they didn't mean that Jesus was surfing without a board
under his feet. They meant that knowing Jesus and relying on him had enabled
them to overcome fear, doubt, misfortune and threats of death in their own
lives. In other words, in situations where they thought the abyss was going to
swallow them, their trust in Jesus gave them wings and inspiration to face those
challenges with clarity and courage. For, in biblical language, the
"waters of the sea" refer precisely to failure, misfortune and death.
If Jesus walks on "the waters" and does not sink, this means that
with him, evil and even death have never the last word, neither for him, nor
for those who follow him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">To
go further on the subject: see the article “</span></i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Walking on Water”<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> in the Appendix.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Note
2 - The Problem of Evil<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Unless we get lost in endless
speculations that convince no one, we must admit that you too, dear Jesus, have
not solved this question. Your resurrection could be a very valid answer, but
it is only half an answer, because it comes a little late, only after death,
once the end of the tunnel is reached and everything is over... That's nice,
but what about the pain one suffers before reaching the end of the tunnel?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(The
following is a hypothesis of my own, to be taken with a grain of salt).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For thousands of years, billions
of people have not had a life, stuck in the bottleneck of their existence. If
they have one, it amounts to being crushed by the strongest, to endure this
fate, to rebel unnecessarily, to kill each other and to die... How can a good
God want or allow such a horror? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I try to understand. In the end,
perhaps this matter does not depend on you, Jesus, nor directly on God, but on <u>the
low degree of evolution</u> to which, up to now, we have arrived as humanity.
In the immense overall picture of the development of the universe, the human
species, besides being microscopic, is still extremely young and fragile. It is
impossible to imagine what it will be like in a few hundred thousand years.
Perhaps the suffering comes from the fact that we are still too close to our
birth and barely at the beginning of our growth. Birth and growth, as we know,
are long, violent and heartbreaking processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are powerful traumas that never end in forging, carving, refining
and maturing us... Everything is suffering, it seems, but is this suffering
really evil? This is the real question. Is it absolutely unjust and intolerable
to stumble, hit your head or get hurt while learning to walk? If so, would all
learning be evil? Would the evil be not to be born ready-made? Would it be
wrong not to be able, from birth, to bypass the egg and chicken stage and come
into the world instantly as dashing roosters or perfect hens? The evil would be
not to have everything cooked in the beak? The evil would be not to be able to
abandon oneself to the "beatitude of inertia"? The evil would be to
let oneself be dragged by force into the frantic dance of the universe where
everything is untiring movement, change, upheaval, transformation, evolution,
as well as aging, regression, death and... starting again?... We know that it
is not. So, the evil is in our head. It could come from the simple fact that
the idea that life (and therefore happiness) is something static, fixed and
unchanging is planted very deep in our unconsciousness, whereas it seems that
it is, on the contrary, a kind of "galaxy" in perpetual
transformation that never stops turning and moving while flying towards
infinity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It is good, consoling,
wonderfully inspiring and encouraging to know that one day (in 100 or 500
thousand years?), thanks to our descendants, that is to say, thanks to human
beings of our own flesh, we will overcome our inertia and reach the plenitude
to which our being, in all its cells and in the depths of itself, does not
cease to aspire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this sense, Jesus,
your own life has been and continues to be a constant source of inspiration.
You, Jesus, have said that he or she who manages to love to the point of giving
his or her life so that others may live, is like a seed thrown into the ground.
If the seed does not break up, if it does not die in the earth, it remains
sterile, but if it breaks up, "if it dies, it bears much fruit" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 12:24)...</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In this image of disconcerting
simplicity, you reveal to us the fundamental law of life. You show us how our
way of seeing "evil" deceives us. This is your secret, the secret of
your life, of your freedom and of your fruitfulness. Your truth is there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By looking at you, by discovering what
animates you from within and through what you do outside, we learn, in fact,
that life consists in deconstructing ourselves, that is to say, in constantly
opening up so that the energy that is concentrated inside us can unfold and be
transmitted. By following you with our heart and eyes, we perceive that what we
often consider as evil would be, in reality, a force of nature that crushes our
inertia, breaks our shells, opens our cages, tears off our blinkers, breaks our
chains, and expels us from our tombs. What we call evil would therefore be,
most often, a simple law of nature that hurts: being born, growing, maturing
and dying always hurts, but it is necessary and not bad at all. It is even
good. "And God saw that it was all good" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Genesis 1:25).</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I repeat. This was just a modest
hypothesis to try to explain the unexplainable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Note
3 - Religion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Religion is not bad, far from it!
Since the cave era until today, it has been constructed as the matrix and the
backbone of all cultures, of all nations and of all civilizations. In the West,
as everywhere else, we have passed from barbarism to civilization in great part
thanks to religion<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It is because of religion, among
other things, that at some point in their history, men and women dreamed of a
new world, left their homeland and braved the fury of the sea in walnut shells
to transplant themselves to unknown lands in order to found New France, the
cradle of Canada, or the United States, the so-called "paradise" of
which more than half of the planet dreams... But if, among the English, the
French, the Dutch, the Portuguese, the Spanish, and many other nations,
religion has often been the spark plug that made them leave their country to
build in new territories a world close to the Kingdom of Heaven, it will have
served them most often as a pretext and justification to conquer a great number
of peoples, to plunder them, to indoctrinate them, to subject them to a more or
less disguised slavery, and to massacre without pity those who dared to resist
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Over the centuries, legions of
monks, nuns, priests, nuns, lay people and missionaries have flooded into the
world and filled it with dedication, self-transcendence, and heroic sacrifices
in favor of the poor, the foreigners, the captives, the slaves; in favor of the
little ones, the oppressed, the sick, the plague-stricken, the abandoned and
the rejected of the Earth. No one will take this glory away from them. In
truth, it is immeasurable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Having reaffirmed, admired and
celebrated this, we must also recognize that this religion, which has produced
such beautiful fruits, has also been deeply tainted over the centuries by
abuses of authority, wars of power, fanaticism, excessive intolerance and cruel
inhumanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Crusades, with the Pope at
the head, are a good example of this, which, beyond the good intentions (which
were not lacking), turned into real butcheries and dug a chasm between the
Catholic West, the Muslims and the Orthodox Christians that is still
impassable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Of all the abuses of power, the
most pernicious, the most terrifying and the most effective was the infamous
Inquisition, which, from 1230 onwards, stretched over a period of almost 600
years in different regions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was the
most sophisticated instrument developed by the Catholic hierarchy to eliminate
all criticism and dissent. It ensured the control of minds, imposed itself as
an absolute authority in all areas of political and social life, and
established a true religious totalitarianism everywhere. Its methods, its
techniques, its tortures, its pyres, had nothing to envy to what we will learn
later on about the jails of Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, or about the dungeons
of the dictatorships of Latin America and elsewhere, and about the American
prisons spread all over the world, like Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and many others...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I can already hear the Dinosaurs
screaming, "We must not judge the past with today's eyes!"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This ritornello, which is surely right in
many ways, is a two-edged sword that has already been used too sadly to cover
up manipulations of history. It has been used (and is still being used) ad
nauseam to show us as world champions of virtue, while in the catacombs of our
memories the still living shadows of a whole past of horrors swarm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Whatever we think, it is certain
that the Dinosaurs that are supposed to have become extinct 66 million years
ago, seem to have survived the said extinction, because, barely 2 thousand
years ago, we find them in full health at the foot of the cross, taunting the
crucified of Nazareth. It also seems that they are still among us, more
powerful than ever. Their look has changed and their techniques have become
more sophisticated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We now see them
without cassocks, with electronic microscopes and space telescopes instead of
glasses... Their heads are bigger and their tails shorter, they now kill with
drones. In their spare time, with horns on their heads, they take over the
Capitol in Washington, or, driving trucks bigger than mammoths; they shake the
columns of the soporific Ottawa. Behind these hordes, we find, of course, a
plethora of religious fundamentalists, most of them under the American banner.
The Dinosaurs triumph. The future is theirs!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Given the prominent role played
by Dinosaurs in the development of Christianity in the West, the least that can
be said is that Christianity, the so-called Christian religion, and the Church
itself are not exactly the same thing as the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth. That
is obvious. The Gospel is one thing; religion and the Church are another. They
should be only a support and a framework for the Gospel, and that framework
should be as simple and flexible as possible. It should be open, transparent
and spacious enough so that, at every moment and without ambiguity, one can
breathe in the spirit of Jesus, his energy, his way of living, his way of seeing
things, his way of being, his breath, his dynamism, his originality, his
boldness, his freedom, his daring, his mentality, in a word, his active and
liberating presence which is never confused with the status quo and the
established order. The law, or laws, regulations and directives, pre-prepared
speeches from above, ready-made thinking should be reduced to a minimum. Just
as the Sabbath is for the human being and not the human being for the Sabbath <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Mark 2:27),</i> so religion, and even the
Church, should exist only for the sake of the gospel of Jesus and thus for the
service of the human being, and never the other way around. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Do we need to remind you of this?
Jesus, who was a religious man, did not get entangled in the nets of religion.
His gospel went beyond the religious discourse of his time, especially since,
on very important points, he opposed it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is why religion killed him. So, the fact that Jesus was killed by
religious people of his own religion, and precisely for clearly religious reasons,
should convince us that the Gospel and Religion are not Siamese twins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are as different as the Law is from
love, as dissimilar as the letter is from the spirit. Love and spirit give life;
Law and letter kill <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(2 Corinthians 3:6).</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the Gospel that gives life, not
religion. For us, they are entangled as in a skein of wool; we would do well to
separate them as one does with the nut. When the nut is ripe, you don't swallow
it whole, otherwise you choke and die. Only the almond is eaten. But to eat the
almond, you must first separate it from the shell. And to separate the almond
from the shell, what do we do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We crush
the shell... Religion is the shell, the almond is the Gospel, and the harvest
is long overdue... <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Luke 10, 2).</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For my part, the more I distance
myself from Religion and its “God”, the more I discover Jesus of Nazareth as a
being of flesh similar to me. I feel that he is really close to me and to every
human being. I am getting a taste for his Abba, and his gospel seems to me more
actual and tasty than ever. I no longer feel the need to be someone else to
feel close to him. I no longer need to be schizophrenic. I walk beside him as I
am, and I learn....<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">APPENDIX<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Walking
on water<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The language of the Gospel is not
our language.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When we read the gospel with the
idea that the people of two thousand years ago thought, expressed themselves or
wrote like us, we poke ourselves in the eye. Their way was not at all like
ours. It was probably that of the popular storytellers or the singers of the suburbs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In those days, few people could
read. What is reported in the gospels was first told, acted and perhaps mimed
in small groups and in front of various crowds, arousing fervor and admiration,
and surely also controversy and debate. It was a bit like the television of the
time, the speech or the improvised show at the end of the alley, in the shade
of a tree or on the gallery of an inn.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Jesus was for many the unbeatable
hero of the hour. His many admirers never tired of telling his story. Each one
of them put a little bit of color in it, and surely added a little bit more to
the audience's delight.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The important thing was to make
known this man who had changed their lives. A man who had simply put an end to
superstitions, to fears, to the bottomless pit that kept ordinary people far
from anything called God, far from his mercy, far from his heart.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A man who had taken pleasure in
abolishing a lot of taboos, prejudices rooted in the sacred, in throwing down
the thick walls that separated genders, races, classes, nations, peoples,
religions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A man who took pleasure in
exposing the idolatry of oppressors of all kinds, and the hypocrisy of those
who passed for saints when their religious demands were only pretexts for
abusing the weak; a man who knew that it would cost him his life, and who did
not shy away from death; a man out of measure, an amazing being, a wonderful
being; a man who inspired courage, audacity, dignity. He gave us confidence in
humanity, hope and the desire to live. A man who let us see that destiny was
not to be suffered any longer and could be changed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That nothing was immutable, nothing was
definitive, nothing was fixed in advance and forever.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">To describe this man, there was
never any expression or image too strong. Nothing was too beautiful or too
surprising.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So we don't have to worry about
how Jesus could have been born of a virgin or raised from the dead, or whether
he really walked on water, multiplied the loaves, turned water into wine, gave
sight to a blind man, or whether he was really alive in the bread and wine of
the Eucharist, or whether he was exalted to the right hand of God. Basically,
these expressions mean the same thing: "All that Jesus was goes beyond the
cross, the tomb and death. Death could not overcome Jesus. He is alive, present
and powerful."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">"The proof that he is not
gone and that he is still acting is that we are here. With him we have said “no”
to death. Death is no longer the master of our lives. Our only Master is him,
the Living One. Because we have taken up his project in order to continue it,
we may be killed as he was killed. But we will not return to our graves, to our
fears, to our injustices, to our slavery. If we die with him, with him we shall
live!" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(2 Timothy 2:11-12).</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Following in the footsteps of these
first witnesses of Jesus, Christians of all ages, whose faith has deep roots in
the same waters, have been able to proclaim, and can still proclaim today, that
it is in their support of one another, in their solidarity, in their brotherly
love and in their commitment to the group, that they draw a freedom, a strength
and a happiness that they would not otherwise have known.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">They in turn can tell: "It
is here, in what we live among ourselves, that we feel that Jesus has
overthrown the wall of death, that he is alive, that we hear him speak to us,
and that we feel his own breath, his breath."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">"It is he who still, through
us, continues to enlighten, to forgive, to reassure, to heal, to liberate, to
resurrect what is dead".<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">"Through him we have truly
seen God, for no one can be more like God than this man. Through him, we have
also known all the greatness and depth of the human being, for no one has been
more human than he. And then we finally understood that with God nothing is
impossible."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">"That is why we believe and
affirm that another world is possible. Yes, we believe that out of our own
powerlessness, out of our nothingness, we can do wonders. We believe that our
hearts of stone are capable of melting into hearts of flesh and that we can
recreate this world without spreading death."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">"We believe in the power of
love. We know that love has unlimited capacities for daring, creativity,
intelligence, science, freedom, overcoming and humanity."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">"From our inner depths,
indeed, spring unknown forces and from our rocks rivers of life. Our lands
burned, poisoned, torn, made dead by our weapons, our hatreds, our insatiable
greed, our unconsciousness, our carelessness, we will change them into green
orchards and pastures. We will purify the air of our sky and wash the water of
the seas and restore life to the whole surface of our globe". <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">"No, nothing is
irreversible! Everything can change. Everything can be transformed. Everything
can be illuminated and recreated. We will have to row against the current for a
long time to come, but life will have the last word and all of humanity will eventually
'walk on the waters!'"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Eloy Roy<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This is the end of Part 1,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">now starts Part 2</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">JESUS,
A MAN OF RISKS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Part
2<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Repeated
clashes with Dinosaurs<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Jesus, you are not reasonable!
You dared to set foot in the home of that scoundrel Zaccheus. The religion of
the Dinosaurs (which was also the religion of many good people), formally
forbade to approach an individual of this species.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with Zacchaeus<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQVzdisNc_gaN-KGj8v1TXctbP8SQrp37hk_Z8Hb_y2lxpCdgYNY6FC8m6aRWdqLF8PGmHef0RQwJBAgjGfS2BofMWqCpvV75gIF5gc0acV3ZwLZw8k_QwBVjIjovN49e7czcGEYEm39Aam_-dJiVi5w4eyrNAp13au3lPywheVjkK4yV-9o6JzxLEvw/s400/zach%C3%A9e.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="321" data-original-width="400" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQVzdisNc_gaN-KGj8v1TXctbP8SQrp37hk_Z8Hb_y2lxpCdgYNY6FC8m6aRWdqLF8PGmHef0RQwJBAgjGfS2BofMWqCpvV75gIF5gc0acV3ZwLZw8k_QwBVjIjovN49e7czcGEYEm39Aam_-dJiVi5w4eyrNAp13au3lPywheVjkK4yV-9o6JzxLEvw/s320/zach%C3%A9e.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A
short man who became great</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Luke
19:1-10<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Zaccheus was a creature corrupted
to the bones. He was an income tax collector. He sucked his fellow citizens in
favor of the Roman enemy who had been colonizing the country. He took advantage
of his function to fill up his pockets to the full while drawing an interesting
commission coming from the Romans and enjoying their protection. Zacchaeus did
not find anything better so as to become somebody.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It was from his childhood that
Zacchaeus had a deep complex because of his short size. This infuriated him.
Everybody made fun of him. His only dream was to grow taller. More than a
dream, it had become an obsession. But what could be done? Nobody cared about
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And so crossed his mind the idea
of selling himself, of prostituting himself, of sticking himself like glue to
those who dictated what went on in the country. It did not matter for him that
they were enemies as long as they paid well. And so this is how Zacchaeus, the
short man, had become a traitor to his people and a very rich individual who,
for want of being loved, was feared and hated by everyone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Zaccheus was a bastard, a living
dead like there are everywhere, even at the head of nations. His house was an
impenetrable fortress. No one could enter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Suddenly, some noise was heard in
the street. Jesus was passing by. A joyful group accompanied him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The miracle worker?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>asked Zacchaeus. “Here is my chance to add a
cubit to my height. We never know. I have money…”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Zacchaeus could not stay in
place. Spurred on by his long-time dream of being taller, he rushed out of his
fortress and climbed up a tree, just like when he was a child….From there, at
last, he could see things other than the feet of the people; he saw Jesus. And
Jesus saw that short man, that big wicked person, who was clinging to a branch
and waving his hand to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Zacchaeus, come down from that
tree!” shouted Jesus to him. “I want to go to your place!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The short man almost fell over
backwards as if the end of the world had come. With one jump, he was back at
the foot of the tree and hastened to open the door to Jesus and to his joyous
group. Some did not enter. The Law of the priests did not allow it. But Jesus
and his friends had no qualms. They entered with their joy, their humanity,
their simplicity and their liberty in that house that was only a tomb. They
filled it with fresh air, and the sickened heart of the short man was flooded
with light.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Zacchaeus had just escaped the
merciless tribunal of the righteous, the pure and the envious. For the first
time in his life, he felt neither a dwarf nor a bastard, but normal. He was so
happy about it that he lost his mind.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“I give one half of my
possessions to the poor”, he shouted while holding Jesus and his companions in
his arms. “And all that I have stolen I will repay it four times!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">That day, Zacchaeus' bank account
went below zero, but Zacchaeus himself had become a very great man, a true son
of Abraham. He became known throughout the world, almost as much as Alexander
the Great, Ali Baba, Robin Hood and many other famous rascals. For two thousand
years, thousands of things have been written about him. The present lines are
part of the lot... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What saved Zacchaeus was his
childlike heart. That pure heart was slumbering under a mountain of suffering,
of shame and of stupidities. That was his hidden treasure, his precious pearl,
his deep being, his «true self»…It was the image of God, the kingdom, the new
man, the risen one who was slumbering within his being. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This heart was able to emerge
from the wicked Zacchaeus because one day someone looked at him with the eyes
of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">God is not a Dinosaur, but a
power of intelligence and tenderness that pierces the hardest stone from
within. He never judges on the basis of appearances (1Samuel 16, 7). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Bravo, Jesus! After having
flouted once again the most elementary rules of religious decency, you changed
the heart of a rapacious and traitorous man into the heart of a just and good
man. This was undoubtedly your greatest miracle. Even greater than those
stories of water turned into wine, of walking on water, of miraculous fishing
or of the resurrection of Lazarus! Yet, by entering Zacchaeus' house, according
to the law of religion, you had committed a great sin. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Proof that there are, despite
everything, good, holy and reasonable sins... What do you say, ladies and
gentlemen of the Dinosaurs?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Meeting with Nicodemus <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Jesus, do you remember Nicodemus?
He was a distinguished Pharisee who already believed in you. He would have
liked to join your disciples, but he didn't dare to take the step for fear of
losing his reputation, his social status, his job. However, one evening, at
dusk, between dog and wolf, he came to meet you. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">To see such a member of the enemy
Dinosaur clique approach you was quite a surprise. From him, it was really a
daring gesture, because he risked a lot. For you and your group of
"fishers of men", it was a godsend. You should have embraced him and
integrated him into your band with great joy. But you didn't. You knocked him
out cold. You simply said to him: "Just a moment, Nicodemus, you must first
be reborn"... To be reborn? This meant that all that Nicodemus
represented, his wisdom, his knowledge, his many connections, his sympathy for
you, were no longer of any use. To be with you, you had to start from scratch
after having gone through an inner turmoil equivalent to a new birth. You did
not negotiate anything. You did not make any "reasonable
accommodation" to him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Nicodemus did not seem surprised.
He knew you well enough to understand that, even though you set the bar
unreasonably high for those who wanted to follow you, you were also a man of
great patience and deep compassion; he knew that you firmly believed that the
wick that still smokes can always ignite again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Moreover, the fact that he himself came into contact with you showed
that the rebirth had already begun in his being. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">He didn't want to become a
militant, a radical, a hero, a martyr, let alone a perfect man like you. It was
enough for him to be with you as a simple "shadow disciple". Not a
"fan" who would blow the trumpet on the street corners to proclaim:
"I am a Christian! Jesus is the Truth! Convert, repent! Look at my sign of
the cross, my Bible, my medals, my rosary, my breviary, my Roman collar, my
miter, my masses, my doctorates! Come and join the greatest religion in the
world!"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's that, despite your
radicalism (because with you, it's all or nothing), you didn't close the door
to anyone. You respected everyone's path. You knew deep down that a dinosaur
doesn't change by spinning like a top on a dime... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In short, since that night, in
the hiding place of his heart, Nicodemus became one of you, but in his own
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His thing was to philosophize while
stroking his beard, asking questions and sub-questions, putting the spoon here
and there so that his colleagues would be less unfair and more open towards
you. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 7:50-52).<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">When the Dinosaurs laid hands on
you and killed you, pious women embalmed your body and laid it in the
tomb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea,
his colleague, were in for a lot of trouble, but they were there, too, lending
a hand (John 19:39-40). And then the mourners on the way to Calvary, whose
cries of pain "buried" the howl of the hyenas unleashed against you;
and the gentle veronicas who wiped your face and consoled you; then the very
humble, the poor, the courageous, the magnificent Simon of Cyrene, probably a
black man, an immigrant, an undocumented person, who shared the weight of your
cross.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And even this "good
thief" all muddy, all bloody, crucified at your side who had a good word
for you in front of his soul-scarred colleague who could find nothing better
than to howl with the wolves.... The wolves... The centurion at the foot of the
cross was a wolf. Nevertheless, when he saw you die forgivingly, his conscience
overcame his obedience as a soldier and it pushed him to proclaim loud and
clear, he, the Roman, he, the oppressor, he, the accomplice of your
executioners: "This man (this Jew, condemned by Rome) is really the son of
God! <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Mark: 15, 39).</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">If you think about it, my dear
Jesus, even today you have more disciples than you think. They are not easily
identified, because most of them are also mere "shadow disciples".
When it comes to lending a hand, however, they are always there, discreet, barely
visible... Just like Nicodemus...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or
like that rich young man you loved the moment you saw him. To give up
everything to go and be killed was too much for him<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. (Mark 10, 21; Matthew 19, 16-24).</i> Did this make him evil? I bet
not. He continued to be a good boy, a disciple from afar, a disciple from the
shadows, like Nicodemus. A disciple like Martha, although that good girl spent
more time scrubbing her pots and pans than meditating on the good word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Luke 10:38-42).<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For Mary meditating to
concentrate on the essential is beautiful, but fortunately there are disciples
like Martha, otherwise our world would be really dull, and the Source of Life,
who is in the smallest things as much as in the big ones, would find us pretty
boring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And then, do "shadow disciples"
really exist? ... Not sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All your
disciples are light, but with different intensities. There are the
"ultras" who are "stars", but there are also the
"cool" ones, not lukewarm but simply cool: fireflies or simple fire
bugs...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In your circle, there are even
Dinosaurs... It's spicy. Without them, everything would be really
"flat", as we say in Quebec.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Risking
equality<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">To fight for freedom, that goes
without saying; for fraternity too, because it is a magnificent ideal, but for
equality? ... It seems impossible. In a family, there are big and small. In
life, there are strong and weak, whites, pinks, yellows, browns, blacks and
dark blues, men and women, of course, green and blackberries too with a lot of
nuances between them. No one is the same. No one is equal to the other...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you, Jesus, come to us with an
abracadabra story, a parable, that of the "workers of the last hour".
Workers who have done nothing all day and who will "punch" just five
minutes before the bell rings. These slackers are going to get the same pay as
the comrades who have worked all day. And you tell us that the great Boss (God)
wants this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew 21, 1-16).</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Honestly, it can't work like that! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Of course it doesn't. But, when
the parents leave this world, they will make a will and in this will, will they
favor one child more than another? In order to avoid disputes, they will divide
their assets equally among each of the children. The youngest child, who has
been pampered and spoiled, spoiled by everyone, who is as temperamental as
anything else and doesn't yet know what to do with her ten fingers, will
receive as much from her parents as the older sister or brother who has worked
hard for years to contribute to her support and that of the entire family. Is
it not unfair? Not at all! The "little one" who only plays and dreams
and sulks is as important as those who only work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The little ones, the unemployed, the
dreamers, the poor, the last ones, are as important as the first ones (Mark 10,
31). Even some Dinosaurs understand this, all the more reason why it should be
so among your disciples.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with the women <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">They are full members of the
community that accompanies you. There are no barriers between them and the men
in the group! In the world of the Dinosaurs, the Dinosaur women stay in their
corner, otherwise it's the stick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even
in today's ultra-Orthodox Judaism, women are still locked up at home, and
religious men never show up with women in public. Religion and life in general,
is a man's business (as is the case with Islam, which appeared six centuries
after Jesus).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This rule prevailed in
your time, my dear Jesus, and you did not hesitate to break it. So, those women
who moved freely around you, in public and in private, were a big scandal. But
you couldn't help it. Women, for you, were real people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Luke talks about a group of women
who followed you everywhere. One of them was from Herod's disreputable court,
while from another you had cast out no less than seven demons! <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Luke 8, 1-3).</i> You provoked. You were doing
it on purpose to attract the wrath of decent people. In reality, what would you
not have done so that women, who, after so many centuries of opprobrium,
support their fat half of the sky at the side of man, regain their royal place
under the sun? What would the world be without women? However, the religion of
the Dinosaurs has succeeded until now in keeping them away as if they were
sinful beasts just good for procreating (males as much as possible...) or to
serve as secretaries, sacristans, cooks or laundresses... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with a woman suffering from bleeding <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(Mark
5, 25-34)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Let's talk about this woman who
for years had been bled dry by her illness, by the doctors, and by religious
norms. According to the health guidelines of the time (which were also very
strict religious guidelines), blood loss was considered the ultimate impurity.
The person who suffered from it could transmit the impurity to others. Like a
plague victim, this woman had to stay away from other people at all times and
refrain from touching them at all times. She was a public danger. But one day
the woman saw you, Jesus, in the middle of a large crowd. Her heart leapt. She
said to herself, "This is the chance of my life! I will sneak up on him. I
will not touch anyone. I won't touch him. I only want to touch the edge of his
clothes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, trembling like a leaf,
and without being able to avoid pushing everyone in her path, she painfully
made her way towards you and managed to reach the end of your tunic. Bitch!
Crime against humanity! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Yes, a hell of a crime that
earned this brave and wonderful woman the much desired cure. Magic? No. This
woman dared to cross the line that made her an outcast. To get out of her
prison and find her place under the sky, she simply imitated you. She dared to
go further. That's what healed her. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And this is what you are for,
magnificent Jesus, you man who crosses the red lines of the irrational sacred,
leaps over the walls of fear, taboos and even the holiest laws, you who pushes
back the boundaries of all the tombs, and who calls everyone to follow you.
"You didn't catch a single minnow during the whole night? Too bad! Push
the boat further out and cast the nets. If there is nothing on the right, try
the left!" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Luke 5:4-7; John 21:5-6)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The present scene of this
daughter of Abraham suffering from blood loss is a small vignette that sums up
the fierce struggle of the bold women of our time to climb the billions of
steps that separate them from the sun. To the delight of all mankind, they
succeed quite well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with Jairus' little girl <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(Mark
5, 21-24.35-42)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A matter of blood again, and
therefore of religious impurity! The little girl, like her father, was
traumatized by her first period. She was really blocked. She was
"paralyzed".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By whom? By none
other than Jairus himself. This good father, like many men, did not understand
anything about this thing and, on top of that, he was scared to death of blood.
For him, for sure, his daughter was going to die! While looking for help, he
came across you, Jesus, who happened to be on his way. You quietly unravelled
the fears that were suffocating this father and his little daughter. You showed
yourself, once again, as the one who soothes, unblocks, dares and makes people
grow. "Talitha koum!"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You are the opposite of all those
who, blinded by their fears, prevent new life from germinating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The unknown may suddenly burst into your
life, but you do not clench your fists. You accept the challenges and upheavals
with courage, as any father should when he sees the body of his twelve-year-old
child suddenly transformed from a doll into a woman capable of welcoming and
giving life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Encounters
with the mother<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">She may have been your mother,
but she was stuck. The family, the relatives, the cousins, pressured her to bring
you into line. They only wanted to make you understand that your activities,
which were causing so much hives to the religious power, were not only going to
turn against you, but were likely to attract the wrath of the whole family
clan. Now, in the fabulous staging of the wedding at Cana, your mother suddenly
appeared as a giant symbol. She herself took the initiative to make you appear
publicly as the one who had always been expected. She herself pushed you to
attack the purifying water of the 613 prescriptions commanded by the Bible, and
to replace it with tons of top quality wine. For her, as well as for you, the
Gospel had to be something other than a heap of laws and a patching up of old
wineskins <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Mark 2:22).</i> In no way was
the Gospel to be a simple updating of the Law (however holy or sacred it was).
On the contrary, the path you were about to open was to have an air of newness
and a wedding fragrance. Your Gospel was to be life in abundance, justice and
love without limits, and freedom without end. It was to be joy in abundance,
the great breath, the mighty wind. It was to be, no more and no less, the very
fire of the Spirit of THE ONE WHO IS. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John
4, 46-54 and Acts 1, 13-14 and 2, 1-14. 22-24).<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with the Magdalene<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This prostitute, more probably a
high-class courtesan (like a geisha in Japan), had been a professional for a
long time, but was now retired. She showed you more love than anyone else <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Luke 7:36-50).</i> Last in the eyes of the
"pure" Dinosaurs, she was first in your heart. With your mother at
the foot of the cross, she knew an abyss of suffering. But she was the first to
"see" your resurrection (because this experience can only be made by
those who know how to love intensely). And she was the first to tell the world <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 20:11-18).</i> Rather than Peter, the
Head, rather than John, your favorite disciple, rather than your most holy
mother, you made Magdalene the spokesperson for the Resurrection, the very
heart and essence of your Good News. This says a lot about the place of women
in the community of your fellow travelers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Dinosaurs, however, who soon
showed up in the said community, hastened to put things in their place,
starting, as we know, by muzzling women, making them wear the veil, the hat or
the mantilla, and sending them back into the shadows under the feathers of
their husbands. And this, until today (with some softening anyway)...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with the adulterous woman<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This woman had sinned, yes. But
she alone bore the brunt of the sin, even though it was committed by two people.
Her partner, oh surprise, had been lost in the wilderness. She was to be
punished to death with a tsunami of stones. Thus ordered the sacred law of the
great Moses, (the "sharia" of the Jews)... The Dinosaurs, the oldest
and most vicious, were the most enraged. They were already grabbing the biggest
rocks to throw them at her, when one of them stopped them. He had just seen you
around. He accosted you and, with drool in his mouth, he put glue on you to get
you into trouble. "According to your preaching, we should forgive this
slut, but the Law of Moses commands us to kill her. So who do we obey: you or
Moses?"... You stayed quiet and had fun drawing pictures in the sand. You
did not even raise your eyes. When you opened your mouth, it was to say:
"Let him who has not sinned throw the first stone!"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There followed a dead silence. Then little by
little the Dinosaurs withdrew with their tails between their butts, starting
with the oldest... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Fortunately, dear Jesus, you
appeared in the picture, otherwise, by virtue of the Law of Moses, because of
religion, piety, morality and the tendency of judges, of priests and males to
blame women and protect the "stronger sex", this woman would have
been blown to pieces under an avalanche of rocks <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 8, 1-11).</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Your murderous sentence:
"Let him who has not sinned cast the first stone at her" should be
inscribed in gold letters on the pediment of all the confessionals and courts
of the world. And so much the worse for the Dinosaurs!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><b style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><b style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><b style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Meeting
with the bent woman</span></b></b></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyBvyGeUve4Z30IdwDndM2AH406mcezp3HmYVy52j67VQEU7iWyluFftil1GQkL01DA-LWVv2x0EvXcmPQuYZzHVCkqmU-0tPNRRdikytpV9UGHh_zl2Jk7I5jF183BcdH9gHxkEdCApMyVMmkJnkcb5dxYcpPsajPPJgUF8kxJ-9PWkErHHNEisPBCQ/s400/femme%20courb%C3%A9e.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="345" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyBvyGeUve4Z30IdwDndM2AH406mcezp3HmYVy52j67VQEU7iWyluFftil1GQkL01DA-LWVv2x0EvXcmPQuYZzHVCkqmU-0tPNRRdikytpV9UGHh_zl2Jk7I5jF183BcdH9gHxkEdCApMyVMmkJnkcb5dxYcpPsajPPJgUF8kxJ-9PWkErHHNEisPBCQ/s320/femme%20courb%C3%A9e.png" width="276" /></a></b></div><i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(Luke
13:10-17).</span></i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The woman could not stand up
straight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For eighteen years, for
eighteen centuries, for millennia, she had been living bent over, imprisoned,
tied up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It was the work of the devil,
they said. Because women were said to be in league with the devil. It was a
known fact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They used the devil to do
strange things: healings, for example, getting pregnant, seeing things...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">First they dressed women from
head to toe, locked them up, cloistered them and stoned many of them because
they thought they were all more or less whores. They were held responsible for
the vices and sins of men. If a man raped, strangled, slaughtered, killed, they
said: "look for the woman".<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Then they were burned alive. If a
misfortune fell on the village, it was the fault of the witch. A witch hunt was
then launched. In the end, one was always found. Was there a woman who was too
fond of cats, picked strange mushrooms in the woods, went to church a lot or
not at all? Did she have red eyes? (By concocting her remedies over the hearth
flame, it was difficult to tell otherwise, but one didn't think that far
ahead)... Did she have a wart or some strange spot on her body? Nothing was
clearer, she was a witch!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was burned
alive in the market place. No more hail, no more flu, no more fires, no more
toothaches in the village. At least, for a while, everyone was happy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For eighteen centuries, for
thousands of years, women had been subjected to disgusting tasks and hard
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And even to mutilation, as it
still happens in some cultures; or to rape, sexual slavery and honor killings,
as it happens every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hundreds of
millions of women have been prevented from being born, or have been killed at
birth, for the sole "mistake" of not being male. For many people,
being a woman is still a defect, an accident of nature, or at best a necessary
evil.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">They had the right to be
servants, toys, dolls or trophies of the man. They had the duty to make the
male enjoy and to give him descendants, but they themselves did not have to
enjoy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The males loved them, no doubt,
but under these conditions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">They could embroider and play the
piano, but they were not allowed to study; they could not write checks, sign
contracts, or vote. To enter a church they had to be wrapped in thousands of
petticoats.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It is not surprising that the
good Orthodox Jew still prays this prayer every morning when he gets out of
bed: "I thank you, Lord, for not making me a woman”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In our less traditional
societies, things have changed. Through epic battles, fought on their own,
without weapons and without shedding a drop of blood, women have succeeded in
gaining recognition of their dignity and their essential rights. But they have
not finished. There is still a long way to go before all women everywhere on
the planet are happy to be women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In Latin America, where there is
the largest concentration of Catholics in the world, the churches are full of
women. Without them, the Church would be dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But there, as in other countries, the high Catholic hierarchy has
decreed that God, in creating women, has rendered them irreparably incapable of
celebrating a poor little Mass. This would be inscribed for eternity in the
female genome... and in the mind of God...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This high hierarchy is currently
busy mobilising all the forces of the Church in order to launch a "New
Evangelisation" on a worldwide scale. With all due respect to these
venerable beards, I am pleased to present here on the subject a Good News of
Jesus that should be inscribed for eternity in the very genome of the Church:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A woman was there. She asked for
nothing. For eighteen years she had been living folded in half, locked in on
herself, tied up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was "so bent
over that she could not stand up at all".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jesus saw her and was touched to the core. He stretched out his
brotherly hand to her and said, "Woman, you are set free!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At these words, the woman stood up straight
as a tree <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Luke 13:10-17).<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The high hierarchy immediately
attacked Jesus for daring to do such a thing on the sacred Sabbath. This was
forbidden by immemorial law.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Dinosaurs are all the same: to
them a woman is worth less than a donkey or a cow (see text, verse 16), and
anything beyond their control is of the devil.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Ironically, it is because of its
clinging to 'unchangeable' laws, beliefs and practices that our poor Church (which,
by the way, has done great things in its history, let us not forget) has turned
itself into a bent old woman... Let us hope that by updating the Good News of a
Jesus who straightens the bent woman, she will find the desire to rise again,
straight as a tree. And that in the name of Jesus, she will make sure that in
all churches and everywhere on earth, women walk with their heads held high.
And may they even celebrate Mass (in the centre of the church and not behind
the curtains in a dark corner of the sacristy) without fear of offending the
Divinity and turning the whole planet upside down. ...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">How can they offend this
brilliant God who had the good idea of creating "in his image and
likeness" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Genesis, 1, 26-27)</i>
both women and men, they who gave birth to a man like Jesus? ... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meetings
at the table of the notables<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In the meantime you were often
seen at the table of notables who invited you to their banquets. Every time you
accepted this invitation, you ran the risk of being considered a glutton and a
drunkard, a friend of the rich. In fact, this label has been applied to you
more than once <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew 11:19). <o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">These notables were surely trying
to win your sympathy, or to set traps for you. You, however, took advantage of
the opportunity to hit the same nail on the head: to speak of the society that
God wants humans to live and grow as humans. You called this society the
"Kingdom", which should be like a huge banquet offered to all humans
without any distinction, where, every day, everyone could eat their fill and be
happy to share the same table with the whole world. This great feast of
equality, justice and friendship was the very image of the new world for which
you were ready to give your life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Sharing in justice and friendship
is the great miracle; in fact, it is the only true miracle that puts the world
back on its feet, the only one that takes it out of its wild state, the only
one that takes it out of death. It is the only true miracle that liberates it,
reconciles it, civilises it, humanises it, heals it, makes it grow and saves
it. Let's not look for other recipes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">When they say that you turned
water into wine, or you walked on the waters, or you fed a crowd of 5,000 men
("not counting women (!!!) and children" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew 14, 21)</i> with five small loaves of bread and two fish, and
that from this profusion there were still baskets full, this was the miracle
that they meant.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Only the miracle of sharing in
justice and brotherhood makes possible the impossible. This alone overturns the
mountains of iniquity that separate and crush us. That alone prevents us from
being swallowed by the waters of death. That alone makes us cross them. That
alone sets us free from bondage and brings us joy and freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But this is systematically
blocked by the Dinosaurs, by those who have taken the land, the resources, the
wealth of the entire world to make it their own private property, leaving the
others naked, one hand in front and the other behind. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">No, you are not against private
property. What you want is for every human being to have his or her own private
property, his or her own share of the common property, his or her own share of
the earth's wealth, so that everyone can live in dignity, freedom, justice and
peace. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Acts 2:44-47. 4:32-35)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The first Christians tried this
adventure of sharing goods according to each person's needs, but it did not
last, because persecutions came, the community dispersed and the beautiful
dream more or less fell apart. A few centuries later, however, this very
laudable attempt bounced back. It was the inspiration for the communities of
monks that grew like forests, especially in Europe, and were largely
responsible for the development of the West. It inspired thousands of religious
orders of men and women who, in the course of history, devoted themselves body
and soul to the service of others, to education, to health, to the liberation
of captives, to the development of the arts, science, and the advancement of
culture, and above all, (with methods that were not always the most
sophisticated), to the integration of peoples, tribes and ethnic groups who
were constantly at war with each other. Utopia will never come true, but it is
there to inspire, to guide, to show the way...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Sharing the same table creates
bonds and allows us to deepen this orientation, this ideal, this call ... Hence
the meal shared in community<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>became the
emblem, the rallying sign, the sign of Christian identity. So with the mass,
which is not a sacrifice for the dead, but a simple sharing for the journey, a
fraternal meal to rally and move forward all those who follow you. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The problem is that over time,
the mass meal has become so ritualised that it no longer resembles a meal. The
bread no longer looks like bread and the wine is so rationed that we end up
forgetting it. And everything is prepared in advance according to such strict
rules that you have to be a seer to detect any real sharing. There is no
festive atmosphere either, despite the lights, the ornaments, the songs and the
flowers. People are not drawn to each other, they don't talk to each other,
they express themselves very little, they don't laugh, they are on guard.
Spontaneous joy, emotions, contacts, are left at the entrance and taken back at
the exit, as in the cemetery... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Yet you, Jesus, have come to
change the water of precepts into the wine of freedom. And the sharing of a
fraternal meal on the first day of the week (Sunday) was the celebration of the
passage from death to life with you, the Risen One. It was a celebration in
love and joy of the salvation that has already arrived and is about to spread
throughout the world<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> (Luke 24,
1.13.30-32; 1John 3, 14).</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with the merchants of the temple<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-YOEPi_6XfsIKl-2Ta186bTg1tZTlZEMKkZiVvH9TVvgZf0AemTiLFkXJWOCCkE13iMiBBuq5Dvju0t4GZzpY-cuvm5n1CyNM_FHTuaof_g-pphnp6UBLB14UXPkZ58vZ3FvDPQ4z5WRqWaleY2lOZBneawlN5wb35ShPNjklkyuUjcysA3JUnKqu2Q/s403/VENDEURS%20BUSH%20ET%20CIE.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="403" data-original-width="403" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-YOEPi_6XfsIKl-2Ta186bTg1tZTlZEMKkZiVvH9TVvgZf0AemTiLFkXJWOCCkE13iMiBBuq5Dvju0t4GZzpY-cuvm5n1CyNM_FHTuaof_g-pphnp6UBLB14UXPkZ58vZ3FvDPQ4z5WRqWaleY2lOZBneawlN5wb35ShPNjklkyuUjcysA3JUnKqu2Q/w400-h400/VENDEURS%20BUSH%20ET%20CIE.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> interbible</span> <br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(John
2, 13-22)</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Against the hoarders, especially
those who grease their palms and get fat from religion, you whip them and kick
them out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the middle of the Temple,
you attack the religion of sacrifice and business with all your might.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is that clear enough?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You don't want a religion that claims to
honour God by slitting animals' throats, or worse, by exploiting humans like
animals, or by trading God's favours for money. God is not for sale or
purchase. Neither is any human! You strike "the System" in the heart;
you thrust your spear mercilessly into the "Eye of the Dragon".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, of course, in doing so, you sign your
death warrant. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Instead of blessing weapons, as
she has been in the habit of doing for a long time, why hasn't the Church made
this whip a sacrament? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I understand that bread,
especially if it doesn't look like real bread, and wine (hardly half a drop of
wine) have the advantage of never disturbing anyone. But a whip, a good little
whip on a corner of the Table of the Meeting of those who follow you, would not
be too much to remind them that are not welcome in your community the
scoundrels<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>who, with one hand, water
religion with their pennies, while, with the other, they starve three-quarters
of humanity...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The wedding banquet is open to
everyone, but it should not be used as a refuge for thieves and murderers. The
great sign of universal brotherhood is not that of stupidity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">"It is immolating the son in
the presence of his father to offer to God a sacrifice with the goods of the
poor. To deprive the poor of their meagre pittance is to commit murder. To
deprive the wage earner of his due is to kill him." <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Ben Sira 34:20-26; James 5:1-6).</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">May we have as soon as possible
blessed whips to make the starving of three quarters of humanity go away! ...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(to
read more on this topic, see </span></i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“When Jesus blows his top”<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, at the bottom of this blog.)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with the possessed man of Gerasa<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(Luke
8, 26-39)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This is not Christian! To free a
poor wretch who was full of devils, you allowed 2000 pigs to be sacrificed! You
put the economy at the service of the human being, and not the other way
around, which was great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But let's put
ourselves in the shoes of those pig owners. They may have been Dinosaurs, but
it's understandable that they didn't find it funny. We almost want to take
their side. But who, today, really takes to heart the defense of these humans
who, by legions, wake up every morning poorer than the day before, while for
the richest, it is the opposite? Is it normal to keep on fattening up the
fattest ones while the leanest ones are already skin and bones?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It is obvious that the pig
farmers of Gerasa were not going to take a picture with you... So you had to
leave the place without any fanfare, otherwise you were done for. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(See
Annex: "Jesus, the economy and the pigs"). <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with the paralytic delivered by forgiveness<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(Mark
2, 1-12)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This is another wonderful scene,
infinitely liberating. In a society where forgiveness was administered in dribs
and drabs, practically only once a year, by the High Priest himself (as the
Pope would say) and only by him, and at the cost of thousands of sacrifices of
sheep and bulls, you, an ordinary guy, not even a priest, not even a little
priest, not even a sacristan, you, an unconsecrated, unanointed man, you, a
simple layman, dared to declare to a paralyzed man that his sins were forgiven.
Everyone was dumbfounded. The Dinosaurs were on the verge of a heart attack. It
just couldn't be!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This individual's
paralysis came from somewhere! It must have been God who sent it to him as a
punishment for the enormous sins he must have committed. You claimed to forgive
this man's sins? Who do you think you are? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But when the poor man heard from
you that his sins were forgiven, when he heard that the weight of the sins he
was suspected of having committed was no longer on his shoulders, his head
turned. He saw birds. He felt like living. We know what happened next. He began
to walk. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You wanted to show how
forgiveness unties, forgiveness unlocks, forgiveness liberates, and forgiveness
heals. You wanted to tell us that the Son of Man, that is to say, the human
being, all of us, humans, have within ourselves this same power (and duty) to
set in motion that which is paralyzed. For this we don't need high priests or
low priests, we don't need penances or sacrifices of sheep or bulls.
Forgiveness is within everyone's reach and, if it is sincere, if it is true, if
it comes from the heart, it does amazing things. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Dinosaurs saw with their eyes
the paralytic get up, pick up his mat and walk straight to his house. They
turned green. They said to each other, "This Jesus is really possessed by
the devil. If not, where did he get this power? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew 10:25).</i> Surely not from God, for one thing is certain: God
does not accomplish his works through laymen and ordinary people!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with the man with the withered hand<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(Mark
3, 1-6)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You can do healings any day of
the week, except Saturday. On Saturday, the sacred Sabbath, it is strictly
forbidden. Breaking this law, the most sacred in the Jewish religion, can be
punished by death. You, you make on purpose to heal this day this man who
cannot work, cannot feed his family, because his hand had dried up, we do not
know how. Why this provocation? Simple. You wanted to show clearly to those who
still doubted what true religion consists of, not so much by refraining from
working, but rather by giving the chance to work to those who, being in need,
are prevented from doing so... For there is a religion that kills, the one
which tolerates that a man or a woman is treated worse than a donkey or a cow,
and a religion that liberates from all forms of slavery, all the more so on the
Sabbath day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with the little children<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(Mark
9, 33-37. 42; 10, 13-16)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You like them. They have fun,
they don't care about anything, they ask questions without stopping. They want
to know everything. They have no prejudices. They are open to everyone
regardless of skin color or social status. They love stories, inventing worlds
with nothing...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have to educate them,
yes undoubtedly, because they are not always angels, but to educate them
without killing their soul, transmitting to them our prejudices, our fears, our
obsessions, our neuroses. For you, they are the greatest. They are our masters.
They are the new, the novelty, they are the budding future. Be like them, you
tell us. Woe to who corrupts them by making of them toys, mummies, old men
before time... Those, it would be better to hang a huge stone on their neck and
to pull them to the sharks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with the flowers of the field <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(Matthew
6, 28-29)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This is not an innocent detail.
Flowers are one of the great forces of nature. They are at the root of the
earth's fertility. They are, so to speak, the sex of vegetation. Without them,
without their infinite variety, without their billions of seductions, animals
and humans would not exist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">They are not beautiful little
useless things. They are like atoms, like every drop of blood, every drop of
water, every tear or every smile. They are like grains of sand, chromosomes,
ova, stars, bacteria, quanta. They are the basis of the Big Bang of life... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Even the mites have greatness and
the Dinosaurs too. As well as love and peace, silence, sleep, rest. As well as
the beauty of all things, all people and all races... They are the joyful side
of Reason that explores new worlds and keeps us from falling into madness. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
in the secret of your heart with your Abba <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(Luke
15, 11-32)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Your Abba, you feel him close,
you see him in you. You live him as your beloved Father. You cherish him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who can claim such familiarity with God
without having been consecrated to him as the priests and prophets recognized
by the Temple?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Father in the parable of the
prodigal son teaches us a lot about this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This parable strikes a blow at another absolute of the society of your
time, the patriarchal family. Fathers, in your time, practically had the right
of life and death over their children. Obedience to the father was an
absolutely sacred duty. It was a matter of honor, a matter of face, of rank, of
reputation, of race, of clan, of tradition; it was a matter that bore the
solemn seal of religion upon it. To obey the father was to obey God. The whole
society was built around this principle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So you, to show that God was not a tyrannical father, as was the case in
your society and in all societies of the time (and as is still the case today),
invented this story of a hard-hearted son who had the nerve to ask his father
to give him his share of the inheritance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The father gave it to him. The son pocketed the money, slammed the door
and ran away from home to waste it all on a life of debauchery. Disgraced, the
father had lost face and was left alone with his other son, who, fortunately,
was a model son. But the poor father was still a laughing stock. This wound
would never heal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Years passed. And one day, this
rascal of a son, who had gotten lost in a faraway land, fell into a rut. He was
left with nothing but skin and bones. Now, driven only by hunger - and not by
remorse - he had the audacity to bring himself home again. He was
unrecognizable, emaciated, dirty, dishevelled.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">His father should have thrown his
dogs at him, and even killed him. But instead, seeing him coming from afar, he
ran to meet him, wept with joy, showered him with kisses, and welcomed him as
if he had been the best son. He gave him a big party.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMB_htiEsTsiCc9hVHH_YT9xI-dV4EYyUIjN0sM2U__kedu6sLx5_515sz7aAN_Wd5RIb24wRoEcSaZrpkVctVVrdwcQxOs1ec7UtVx6-0h1I7mj8rtDEnYI4O3ZhVucg5zvb5YWvXrho9hEJy8ZTTe9yQaabUcITPQBnR0PmqxxTYbtXXWLDrA_Q60Q/s600/cristoidedumonde.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMB_htiEsTsiCc9hVHH_YT9xI-dV4EYyUIjN0sM2U__kedu6sLx5_515sz7aAN_Wd5RIb24wRoEcSaZrpkVctVVrdwcQxOs1ec7UtVx6-0h1I7mj8rtDEnYI4O3ZhVucg5zvb5YWvXrho9hEJy8ZTTe9yQaabUcITPQBnR0PmqxxTYbtXXWLDrA_Q60Q/s320/cristoidedumonde.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The other son didn't take it, who
could blame him? If his father had gone crazy, he was going to keep a cool
head. No way was he going to join the party. For him, this scoundrel, this
human wreck, was no longer a brother. It was impossible to do otherwise. The
father's heart was heavy, but he understood the reaction of this son whom he
also loved well. Without turning away from him - Dinosaurs are also God's
creatures - he went back to feast with the ragged man who had returned home. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In this story, or rather this
parable, my dear Jesus, you have really blown the lid off. You went beyond
anything reasonable we could think, believe or say about God; you revealed to
us the very nature of his heart. For you, there was not and never would be any
other God than this God who, with all his heart, loves unconditionally even the
most hardened and the most ungrateful as well as all those who abuse his
goodness. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But he also loves the
cold-headed, who are, after all, Dinosaurs... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This God was your Abba. You loved
him above all else. He dazzled you. He was the love of your life. You liked to
withdraw from the agitated world to meet him in the most intimate part of your
being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was the source of your
freedom, the great secret of everything you said and did. This God had no
beard... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Such a theology, which
definitively discarded the God of justice of the good old tradition,
destabilized to an unimaginable degree the "guardians of the truth",
who never stopped tearing their clothes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The patience of the Dinosaurs was
no longer far from the end of its tether. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with the people of your village where you shone your light on the Mission <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(Luke
4, 16-30)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You were in the village
synagogue. You were invited to read a text from the prophet Isaiah (a genius!)
The text said this (here I interpret it in our own words): "The breath of
God is upon me. He breathes in me. It moves me to announce the good news to the
poor: all those whom our oppressors have thrown into prison will be freed! All
those who are locked up in the darkness of the dungeons will finally see the
light of day and freedom! All those who, because of their poverty, have fallen
into the clutches of usurers and who, unable to repay their debts, have had all
their possessions seized and, very often, have even had to sell their strength
of arms and their freedom so that their creditors could keep them alive, well,
all that is over! Their pardon, their freedom, their liberation, in other
words, their "grace" has arrived! They will be able to recover their
freedom, their rights and all the goods that were confiscated from them!
Because it is the YEAR OF GRACE of the Lord our God!" You closed the book.
Not a fly was heard to fly. Everyone looked at you with eyes as big as
dollars... Then you opened your mouth and said: "TODAY IS FULFILLED WHAT
YOUR EARS HAVE HEARD"... At these words, the poor people jumped to the
ceiling and began to dance for joy. But immediately, the others, the usurers,
the big landlords, those who confiscate land and houses from the insolvent,
they laughed at you, insulted you, and heckled you. They shouted at you:
"Who do you think you are? You are only a miserable carpenter of this
village, a loser!"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They asked you
to perform a miracle in their village to prove to everyone that your words did
not come from the devil. You told them that it was not in his village, but in
Zarephath, in a foreign land, that Elijah had performed a great miracle for a
Gentile widow who was dying of hunger; and on another occasion it was not a
local Jew whom he had healed of leprosy, but Naaman, an official of Syrian
origin. These words only added fuel to the fire. They jumped on you, dragged
you out, intending to throw you down a high cliff... How did you manage to
escape? Nobody knows. What we do know is that you managed to sneak like a snake
between the legs of the Dinosaurs. None of them realized it. Not so strong,
after all, the Dinosaurs... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">My dear Jesus, it was in this
sulphurous atmosphere that your "missionary sending for the evangelization
of the peoples" took place. But things have changed since then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Today, in a cloud of incense, the
holy religion has come to round off the corners, to put down some flats, to
nuance things, to erase outright what was not profitable for it and for those
who, with it, give themselves the "mission" of maintaining order in
the world and balance in the universe. In our missionary sending, we do not
speak of liberation, of forgiveness of debts, God forbid! Not so long ago, we
still kissed the feet of missionaries, just as we kissed the feet of rich
people who from time to time made small donations to the missions (we even
honoured them as godparents, spiritual parents). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We went to the missions because
we wanted everyone to convert to our holy religion (a religion, moreover,
carefully expurgated of any reference to the "Year of Grace", which
we ignored or which we had totally deformed by dressing it up as a golden
opportunity to collect indulgences and lots of money. ...); a religion that had
also been exorcised of any desire for liberation, that thing considered dangerous
that was readily identified with the disobedience of fallen angels. (v.g. a
certain Syllabus and a certain anti-modernism oath). Perfect dinosaurism! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This has changed, of course, but
these changes are still very recent. The substance and the mentality remain the
same: "liberation" is like the ‘n’ word... or thereabouts. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with the sex <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">No fanfare, no farting, no
sickness about that. It was probably because you saw sex simply as a normal
thing. It's true that the subject was highly taboo in your world (as it was for
us for a long time), but you who never let taboos embarrass you, why would you
be embarrassed about sexual practices in the society of your time? There must
have been something for everyone, at least in the circles influenced by other
cultures and other "cults"... There were all kinds of extremely salty
material there, against which you could have shot some of your sharpest
arrows... But, no. We will never know why. The least we can say is that you
weren't obsessed with it. Sex was not the center of your concerns. However,
that was all it took for you to be considered a pagan, an impure person, and
even a friend of the debauched. In fact, you were accused of that too... You
were even called Beelzebub, as we know <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew
10:25).<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with the Galileans<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">They dreamed of a king who would
lead the troops to hunt down their enemies, restore order and increase the
power of their nation. But you dreamed of a state in which authority, politics,
economics, justice, freedom, and religion itself would be at the service of
human beings, and not the other way around; a state where everything would be
centered on the good of the human person. You called this project the
"Kingdom of God". You established it on the sacred principle that
"the Sabbath is for the human being and not the human being for the
Sabbath" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Mark 2:27). </i>The leader
(or king), the supreme law, the administration, the religion of this Kingdom,
the gospel itself and the whole community of disciples (the Church) would be at
the service of the human being and never the other way around. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This is why the Church was
invented. It is this vision, this breath, this way of doing things that it had
to embody in the world. It is in this way that she was to be the light of the
world, a witness to Jesus, a witness to the gospel. In this she was to be and
must be the leaven in the dough. She was to be the living proof that everything
in the world must be built from the human and according to the human, and also,
we would add today, in very close connection with Nature. For Nature is also an
immense living being. The human being is only a part of it. It is not a thing,
it is not a simple object, but a set of beings which, like plants and animals,
breathe and are alive as much as humans themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, all this is to give glory to God,
who loves the world so much that Jesus, his witness, cannot do otherwise than
give his life for it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 3, 16-17).</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Your revolution, Jesus, was that!
If today's Christians are not with you on the side of the oppressed, all true
revolutionaries who care about the triumph of humanity over stupidity will
rightly judge Christianity as "the opium of the people". They will
call Christians hypocrites, fascists and gorillas, and they will wage war
against them. But if, on the other hand, a good number of Christians were to
stand firmly on the side of the oppressed, it would, alas, be surprising if
their great religious leaders supported and defended them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It would really be the surprise
of the millennium! For fear of losing something of their power, they would be
the first to suspect them of being naive, crank, useful idiots more or less in
collusion with the godless and the big bad communists. They would surely
ostracize them or denounce them without qualms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unless they simply have them eliminated by a subordinate looking to move
up the hierarchy with a red belt... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">When we take your gospel
seriously, dear Jesus, we run the same risks you did. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Meeting
with Joy<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In spite of the horror of the
cross, we must affirm loud and clear that the Gospel is pure joy from head to
toe. There are cloudy passages, there are moments of great darkness, but above
all there is joy that flows like the best wine at the wedding of Cana. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This joy is all about you, dear
Jesus. You have nothing of a dark spirit, nothing of a sorrowful spirit. You do
not brood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are not grumpy. You have
your mood swings, sure, your less than happy moments, your moments of sorrow
and sadness, but you are not just that. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In Matthew, your good news begins
with a huge cry of joy that throws all the sadness of the world to the ground.
"HAPPY! HAPPY! HAPPY!" is repeated nine times in a row! <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew 5, 1-12).</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This word still rings in our ears. You want
the happiness of all the poor people on Earth; you want joy in the whole world.
You are joy. With you everything leads to this incredible certainty that the
reign of death, the reign of the Dinosaurs, is over and that the reign of a new
consciousness begins, the reign of a completely different reality.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Yes, with you, we walk towards
the joy of the Kingdom. Towards that joy which we feel when the godsend of the
century falls from the sky, when we discover, by chance, an enormous treasure
hidden in a field, or a splendid pearl mixed with the junk of a souk of the
Arabian Nights <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew 13, 44-45).</i>
Or to the joy of a poor woman who, having lost one of her few remaining coins,
finds it after turning the house upside down and sweeping it from top to
bottom. Or to the joy of the shepherd who finds a lost sheep, as if this skinny,
slightly scatterbrained sheep were as valuable as the 99 fat sheep left
unattended during the search. Or towards the extreme joy of the father who
finds his lost child, even and especially if this hard-hearted child no longer
deserves to bear his father's name <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Luke
15, 8-9. 4-6. 11-32).</i> Or to the joy of the workers who have worked only one
hour and receive the same wages as those who have toiled all day <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew 20, 1-16)...</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">"Let my joy be in you and
let your joy be complete!" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 15:11).<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Wrenching<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I hear voices of protest.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I could be reproached for making
the way of Jesus an open bar where anyone can enter without wiping their feet
and where everyone is served without paying. I am reminded that the Jesus of
the Gospel said: "Unless you renounce yourself and take up your cross to
follow me, you cannot walk with me" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Luke
14, 26-27).</i> People are also surprised that I do not speak of the
"wedding garment" required to take part in the banquet to which
"many are called, but few qualify" to be accepted <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew 22, 11-14).</i> People tell me that
my language is not that of Jesus...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">To which I reply: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Okay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Matthew, who is a Jew, access to the
banquet of the Kingdom is apparently more restrictive than in Luke (for Matthew
is a Jew and still retains the legalistic reflexes of his traditional
community. In Luke, who is Greek and therefore does not have the same scruples
as Matthew, his vision of the Kingdom is unreserved: "Go by the ways and
by the fences and force people in, so that my house may be filled" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Luke 14:21-23).</i> I, who am more Greek
and more Gentile than Jew, gratefully adopt Luke's vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">As for the renunciation required
to follow Jesus, I don't think I have lowered the bar. I've talked a lot about
"tearing ourselves away." I have insisted that we tear ourselves away
from our old practices, our routines, our taboos, our prejudices, our fears;
that we tear ourselves away from our inertia, our comfort zones, our
preordained ways, our certainties, our dogmas; that we renounce the honeyed or
lordly images we have created of Jesus; that we renounce our crutches, our
disguises, the beliefs embedded in our genes, all those things that we have
often made sacred through religion; that we tear ourselves away from our sacred
enclosures and that, from there, we make the leap into the void, into the new.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For me, "renouncing
everything and taking up one's cross to follow Jesus" is just that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To strip oneself of everything in order to
'put on Christ', as the apostle Paul would say <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Ephesians 4:22-24),</i> to 'take the narrow way' of which Jesus
himself speaks <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew 7:13),</i> is
just that. However, it is not always a narrow path, because it hardly lasts
long enough to break the moorings and take the plunge. As soon as the wall is
crossed, it opens onto a roadway that is extremely wide. There, in
"close" connection with him, one learns to walk joyfully in "the
glorious freedom of the children of God" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Romans 8:21).<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What
about the Dinosaurs? <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Dinosaurs, you endured them
as long as you could. In the end, when they crucified you, you begged your Abba
to forgive them. You pleaded on their behalf, <u>but you did not prove them
right</u> (VERY IMPORTANT DETAIL). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You argued that they should not
be found guilty. Why? "Because they did not know what they were
doing" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Luke, 23, 33-34).</i> In
other words, because they were unaware (which is not exactly a compliment...).
For this reason, you asked your Abba not to condemn them. You asked him to show
them mercy... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">With you it is like this: first
of all justice and truth, but the last word belongs to mercy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What will happen to the Dinosaurs
after their death is a secret that Jesus shares only with very close friends. I
discovered this secret somewhere, in 1959, in an old yellowed book with the
title: "Revelations of Our Lord Jesus Christ to St. Gertrude on the
Passion" (imagine that!). He would have whispered in her ear: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">"My daughter, neither of
Solomon nor of Judas will I tell you what I have done, so that my mercy may not
be abused"...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You have guessed it well. This
saying has a great chance of being authentic and of being very well applicable
to our Dinosaurs...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So much the
better!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, our Dinosaurs deserve
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because, even if we have no reason
to love them, I wonder what we would have known about Jesus if they had not
always been in his legs... Remove the Dinosaurs from the Gospels, and the
Gospels fall apart. Take the predators off the planet and the world will end.
We have no choice...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This is probably why Francis of
Assisi made a pact with the wolf of Gubio, a wicked wolf...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZO542QS4Jman6GuKtql4NeFzy9nXQk0wHaHzf7D5im3KsCHrf_UPXb4o7NpE9dpiS04zVPnQbKCCxoPcZ-mY5w0z8R3LVJcYYm5R8DEb209XHO5lL3SkehGhE0SqUbIIvGzw-kmFk51tMIrebHvXau-52VCLOYhsW1gsICrlZqOCR0uJk-Z2DmzjKdA/s400/Fr%20et%20le%20loup.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="400" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZO542QS4Jman6GuKtql4NeFzy9nXQk0wHaHzf7D5im3KsCHrf_UPXb4o7NpE9dpiS04zVPnQbKCCxoPcZ-mY5w0z8R3LVJcYYm5R8DEb209XHO5lL3SkehGhE0SqUbIIvGzw-kmFk51tMIrebHvXau-52VCLOYhsW1gsICrlZqOCR0uJk-Z2DmzjKdA/w400-h268/Fr%20et%20le%20loup.png" width="400" /></a></b></div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Death
and Resurrection<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The great Veil of the temple
which marked the absolute separation between God and human beings, between the
sacred and the profane, between the pure and the impure, between spirit and
matter, between religion and daily life, between the Law of God and the Law of
Nature, between the Human and the Divine, between Death and Life, this Veil was
torn from top to bottom <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew 27, 51).</i>
This veil that divided and separated... was torn by the whips, the thorns, the
nails and the spear thrust into the heart of the Crucified One. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It seemed, Jesus, that your face,
your body, your personal history or even your real word were being removed to
"unveil" the ultimate reality that could explain the world, change it
and save it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, having loved your
own, you loved them "to the end" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John
13:1).</i> You made yourself similar to humans in every way. You washed their
feet <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 13:2-16)</i> and made yourself
their slave to the death of the cross <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Philippians
2:6-8).</i> You became a slave to them until you died on the cross <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Philippians 2:6-8).</i> You became a slave
to all that we are, including the most inhuman and despicable parts of us. You
became a curse, you became sin (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Galatians
3:13; 2 Corinthians 5:21). <o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You have annihilated yourself in
all our horrors up to the absurdity of the present war between Russia and
Ukraine. Today you are in Mariupol, trembling with hunger and cold among the
old men, women and children buried alive in the damp cellars of the Azovstal
steel plants. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Your cross of yesterday, today
and forever are the torture chambers, the gas chambers and the gaols of all
tyrannies of all times. Your cross is the hunger from which a large part of
humanity suffers, while the other part of humanity is full of abundance and
murders the Earth that gives it life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When the sun goes down at high noon under the thick cloud of our bombs,
our crimes and all our madness, you are there, nailed to us, still crying out
the same death cry that pierces the heart of God: "Eloi, Eloi, lama
sabachtani", "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Mark 15, 34).</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This was also the cry of your
disciples, themselves dead with fear and buried alive in their refuge in
Jerusalem. They had lost everything. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">They had nothing left but the
love with which you had loved them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
love, kept deep in their hearts, suddenly rose up with force in their being and
gently brought them back to the light and to reason. It brought them out of the
shadows. It "resurrected" them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Then their eyes were opened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They saw that the love with which you had
loved them, not only gave them back their life, but brought you back to them.
They saw and understood that all death was gone and that you were still alive.
Alive, no longer outside, but within and beyond themselves to go with you on
all the roads of the world. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">They understood that the greatest
power in the universe is love. They understood that love brings everything
together, love brings all things back to their original unity, love resurrects
everything, love recreates everything. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">They understood that everything
dies and only love remains. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And they understood that
everything that is love lives in God forever, for God is love <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(1 John 4:16).</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Could this be the
"truth" that Pilate was looking for? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 18, 38)</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">EPILOGUE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Dear reader, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This Jesus that I have just
"updated" in my own way is perhaps not quite the Jesus that the
witnesses of 2000 years ago are supposed to have seen with their own eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe, however, that I have
"in-spired" him, even though we have no portrait or definite history
about him. For my part, all I know about him is that he is alive. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">If this Jesus reaches out to you
at all, don't let it slip. He doesn't ask you to imitate him, because he
doesn't command anyone. He only wants to take root in you enough to
"in-spire" you in turn, that is to say to "spiral" inside
you, to give you breath, tone, vision, wings. All he wants is for his spirit
(his "spire") to continue in you and through you the work begun by
him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Too often, in our imaginary
iconography, the Spirit comes from above, it comes from outside and seems, in a
way, to come after Jesus and to be independent of him. Yet, even though Jesus
has a very broad idea of the Spirit, the one he gives us is properly the Spirit
that "dwells" in him. It is the spirit that intimately inhabits him;
it is his mentality, his way of being, his way of thinking, his way of acting,
and his way of loving. What he transmits to us is his own breath <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 20:19-22).</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">To use a term closer to us, the
spirit of Jesus is his own "energy". It is his soul, it is his
breath, and it is his life. Attached to Jesus and "breathed" into us,
the spirit makes Jesus alive within us; from what he was (or what through the
centuries) we have believed him to have really been.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">By allowing ourselves to be impregnated
by the same spirit, Jesus will be in us something other than a subject of
theses and a theme of sermons. His presence will be real, affective and
effective. His emotions, his creativity, his freedom, his wisdom, his audacity,
his strength, his love will communicate themselves to us. In our inner soil his
roots will grow deep. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So, if ever these lines that I
have just shared with you make you vibrate a little, if they "fetch"
you as we say in our common language, read them and reread them at your own
pace, either in one go or drop by drop. Let them turn in your head, chew on
them, debate with them, let them "spiral". Let yourself be
"contaminated" by them. So much so that in the long run, the
"dinosaur" that sleeps in you, just like in me, will eventually melt;
it will slowly fade away like an iceberg in the waters of the warming Arctic...
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And that's it! In less than three
years, Jesus, you have shaken up our lives and reversed our death so that we
could find our center and establish harmony within us, around us, with the
universe and with the One who is the Source and the Heart of everything. You
have broken all the moulds and shaken all the corpses. All your encounters have
been challenges to take up, risks to run, prohibitions and often impossibilities
to face. You never ceased to surprise. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">All things that did not fit into
the views and frameworks of a religion that was sure of itself and more or less
convinced that it was the very incarnation of God and his will on Earth,
believing hard as an iron that its Scriptures, its dogmas, its moral codes, its
rituals, its structures were immutable forever, you dared to question them, you
attacked them and turned them upside down... We are still amazed, but you, with
patience, gentleness and goodness, warn us that we have not yet seen anything
and that we must continue to walk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>"Truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will do the works that
I do, and greater works than these he will do" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John, 14, 12).<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And we are the most unfortunate
of humans because we are overwhelmed and unable to follow you. Our boat is
taking on water on all sides and you are sleeping. If you wake up, it is only
to hear you say to us:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMykFTPqhVniUavIyMfRb65fxCuvJ0DKRGjRxb4rKSQVGJbZgNbUg4cUIomBbvCYdH6AwtGnCLShe9N3jwl6-1ITKDDdKqVjA4-Z_gp-7UQbxrjr9dx24ZT22z8aTmjzsvbHHXpEn-g6AHN68S6QCxcxX2Y1pC15AwUvTe4MhoSBkLPmhMTXGqX4Zf_g/s1080/pinterest.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1073" data-original-width="1080" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMykFTPqhVniUavIyMfRb65fxCuvJ0DKRGjRxb4rKSQVGJbZgNbUg4cUIomBbvCYdH6AwtGnCLShe9N3jwl6-1ITKDDdKqVjA4-Z_gp-7UQbxrjr9dx24ZT22z8aTmjzsvbHHXpEn-g6AHN68S6QCxcxX2Y1pC15AwUvTe4MhoSBkLPmhMTXGqX4Zf_g/s320/pinterest.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> "Why are you afraid, you men and women of little
faith? (I have overcome the world <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John
16, 33).</i> I have survived death and "I make all things new" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Revelation 21, 3-5).</i> "Go and make
disciples of all nations... I am with you always, until the end of the
world" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Matthew 28, 19-20).</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A
last question<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">To you who still have doubts, to
you who find, perhaps, my Jesus really too rebellious, too delinquent, too
militant, too third world from the 70's, not cool enough, not liturgical
enough, too secular, not at all canonical and too kamikaze... to you who think
that what I say about him is really exaggerated, I ask you this question: if
the real Jesus was more composed, moderate and nuanced than the one to whom I
give life in these pages, why then, in less than three years of public action,
was he, who loved so much and was so loved, delivered up as an extremely dangerous
enemy, and why was he crushed on a cross with such rage, cynicism and cruelty,
not by devils out of hell, but by religious men who, however, only sought to do
their duty? ...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Eloy Roy<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">ANNEX<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">3
articles and a clip from old posts<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">LET
HIM BE RID OF HIS STRIPS!<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbr8p6Ejtrbg_rGmcfSTWZkXDcG1axAdgXakeCUpkp3X1_w_JJ26oJxjTJLzR6VN20izLuE4IzjkA5GYN0KdIFhmQB_Bpzqkj82FfRKmKZdVJD14zeHBde1373BVqF323Ps-x8o6tiYlL05Dj1Y6E6ypL_r1PpSuAcjrqS0dkM0gxazwQa0KtitsrT-w/s399/jeun%20lazare%20dehors.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="399" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbr8p6Ejtrbg_rGmcfSTWZkXDcG1axAdgXakeCUpkp3X1_w_JJ26oJxjTJLzR6VN20izLuE4IzjkA5GYN0KdIFhmQB_Bpzqkj82FfRKmKZdVJD14zeHBde1373BVqF323Ps-x8o6tiYlL05Dj1Y6E6ypL_r1PpSuAcjrqS0dkM0gxazwQa0KtitsrT-w/s320/jeun%20lazare%20dehors.png" width="320" /></a></b></div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></b><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">As I meditated on the
resurrection of Lazarus in the gospel of John 11:1-44, it came to my mind that
even RELIGION can be a killing machine. As a system, indeed, Religion is a bit
like an iron box that too often strangles God and shrinks him rather than
revealing him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gospel is quite the
opposite: it open boxes, it awakens, resurrects, "reveals" (i.e.
"removes the veil"); it frees from frames, it opens paths, brings to
light what is hidden; it takes you out of the grave.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Lazarus was a very good boy and a
great friend of Jesus, but he lived sunken since ever in things of religion. He
did not have a personal life. He was «dead to the world». For him, the world
smelled bad. For the world, however, he was the one who did not smell good... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Upon learning that Lazarus'
situation had reached a critical point, Jesus was perturbed by that. He
approached the place where his friend had locked himself up like in a tomb, and
shouted to him, "Lazarus, get out of there! ». He went near the tomb of
his friend and shouted: «Lazarus, come out!»<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Lazarus rose up, breathing in the
fresh air with his lungs full. But he couldn't walk. Strips were holding him
from head to toe. Every strip that bound him was a fear: the fear of
displeasing God, the fear of making a false move, the fear of not observing the
commandments to the letter, the fear of not carrying out the religious duties
in an exemplary way, the fear of not repeating exactly the same sacred
gestures, the same sacred words, the same sacred thoughts and the same sacred
mission programmed from time immemorial by religion; and, above all, the fear
of deviating from the standards set by the religious morality that the cult
sanctified: the fear of not always obeying religious authority in every detail;
the fear of getting out of the ranks established by the religious order; the
fear of what could exist outside the walls of religion. In short, the fear of
the «world», the fear of being a human being, the fear of the human adventure,
the fear of freedom, the fear of the unknown, the fear of the other. Lazarus
had become a religious mummy, a plaster statue, an embalmed living creature.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Because sometimes Lazarus could
have had in a flash a personal thought or a hint of doubt, or could have taken
a quick look over the fence and enjoyed it a little bit, he had about himself a
strong feeling of being a trash. Remorse was gnawing at him. He was full of
feelings of guilt. His face was ashen. The ulcers perforated his stomach. He
loathed being a human. He was dead. Let's just say he had fallen into a coma.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">« Lazarus, come out! » shouted
Jesus at him...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>« Let him be rid of his
strips! »… Right now, fear is over and, in spite of everything, trust begins:
trust in yourself, trust in the human being, trust in life and trust in God!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For us today, who is this Lazarus
in the tomb, who stinks for the world and is entangled in his strips? This
Lazarus is simply the old Church; the Church of the Law, the Church of Fear,
the Church of Death. It is that old Church which, nowadays, by the grace of
God, is falling to dust. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But the Lazarus who listens to
the voice of Jesus over all the other voices, the Lazarus who comes out of the
tomb alive, Lazarus who gets rid of his strips, this Lazarus, as beautiful as a
spring, is the eternally new Church, the Church of the Risen One who gently
grows on the ruins of the other. The voice of Jesus is the secret.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The voice of Jesus, indeed, is
not any kind of voice. It is not the voice of the books, or the voice of
tradition, or the voice of the hierarchy, nor the voice of religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, it is not either the voice of
anarchy, chaos, panic, libertinism, consumerism, or of the «free for all». It
is not even the voice of the prudent and reasonable people; and, even less, the
sacrosanct voice of the sacrosanct consensus at all costs, or of the «right
balance» between yes or no.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The voice of Jesus is the voice
of the Good News that is, was and will always be a «scandal» for the devout,
and pure «madness» for the rationalists and the wise people, may they be
believers or atheists.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In other words, Jesus' voice is
the unshakeable trust in the intelligence and fruitfulness of FREEDOM in spite
of everything! It is the assurance that creativity, novelty, daring, love,
compassion, justice and peace are not only sweet ideals; they are rather real
forces that are buried in the depths of all and every human being. Once
awakened, these very concrete energies have the great power to build, ordain,
turn on, transport, transmit and transform life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Jesus' voice is the voice that
awakens these energies and penetrates the heart of every human being with words
that overcome every coma: "Come out of your grave, lift your head, drop
your bandages, and walk! Open your eyes and see that life is pure opening to a
larger world. It goes from deaths to resurrections like a flower that blossoms
endlessly."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>« You, Lazarus, come out of the grave! »…Not
only out of the grave of that anesthetising religion which keeps you prisoner
of your fears and of your sweet dreams, but also the grave of the new religion
of cynicism and arrogance which, on the pretext of being in step with one’s
time, makes of the pompousness of the super ego the absolute norm of the good,
of the truth and of the beauty.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Drop everything? No, Lazarus...
Once you're well free of your grave and of your strips, you can always, if that
fancies you, recuperate the words, the gestures and the clothing of the former
religion, but on one condition: that these signs no longer prevent you from
walking or spreading your wings and flying in the sky with breathtaking
acrobatics that could amaze the stars. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eloy Roy<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">JESUS,
THE PIGS AND THE ECONOMY<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3p_ajntKUCjU_68S6BLyNeRYHAJ95x3Dkw-XEsg8fWXUKGo5bInIdK08SOZ5f_QT-wRIJLPlBb_bAmkjcYTAxaRx63vxkUATmVBw8SQ-v7jq6ztLM9XireW2SjLxuc5hTdL-Ouwv1qTjLfiq6hq3MxkU3dEvA5uImBArMzQMumylr14ceYMppUXBBew/s400/cochons.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3p_ajntKUCjU_68S6BLyNeRYHAJ95x3Dkw-XEsg8fWXUKGo5bInIdK08SOZ5f_QT-wRIJLPlBb_bAmkjcYTAxaRx63vxkUATmVBw8SQ-v7jq6ztLM9XireW2SjLxuc5hTdL-Ouwv1qTjLfiq6hq3MxkU3dEvA5uImBArMzQMumylr14ceYMppUXBBew/s320/cochons.png" width="320" /></a></b></div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></b><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Mark
5, 1-20<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Who is piggier: the pig or the
one who feeds it?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Gerasa is an ultra-pagan town
perched on a cape above Lake Galilee. A subdivision of the Roman Legion has
turned it into a military base and 2000 soldiers armed to the teeth are camped
there. Their mission is to control with an iron fist the whole area that the
Roman Empire is colonizing and exploiting.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In the eyes of the well-born
Jews, who live on the other side of the lake, these Romans are evil creatures
sent by the devil himself to contaminate their blessed land and lead their
people to perdition. For this foreign soldiery does not only kills and indulges
in all kinds of vices, but also worships degenerate gods, forces people to
worship the statue of their emperor and, to top it all, eats pigs!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Who are the people who supply
these Roman devils with pigs, if not the big owners of Gerasa? For them, the
Romans are manna fallen from heaven. So they frantically invest in pig breeding
and then sell them at high prices to the rich occupants.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Funny, isn't it? These
"pigs" of Romans, who poison the life of the Gerasians, are fattened
by... other Gerasians, who in turn are fattened by the money of the Romans. And
what is this? Business as usual.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The land of Jesus is a land of
Jews allergic to pigs, which is located, as we said, on the other side of the
lake, just opposite Gerasa. No self-respecting Jew would ever let his boat
approach this Gerasa, which stinks of the devil and pigs for miles around.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But one day, Jesus, without a
passport or anything, decides to cross this forbidden border. He called his
fellow adventurers, all as Jewish as himself, put them on their boat and headed
straight for Gerasa.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">No need to insist, the crossing
quickly turns into a nightmare. The guys are scared to death, perhaps more
because of their prejudices and superstitions than because of the terrible
storm that suddenly breaks out in the middle of the lake. Jesus is forced to
raise his voice to get his friends to pull themselves together and finally calm
down. Then, it is the arrival at Gerasa. All are safe and sound.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">As soon as Jesus stepped out of
the boat, a dark thing appeared from behind the tombs of the local cemetery and
ran towards him. The locals explain that it is a madman who lives with the
dead; at any time of the day or night, he howls like a beast, slashing his
flesh with sharp stones (as pagan seers are wont to do in their mystical
delirium). Whenever anyone tries to tie him up with chains and irons, he shatters
everything. No one can control him. He is a monster.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A monster who, when he gets close
to Jesus, throws himself on him as if to kill him. But Jesus stands up. Using
the same voice that overcame the storm on the lake, he knocks the wretch to his
feet. A hoarse sound, both pleading and sarcastic, comes from the man's throat.
Whimpering, he implores Jesus not to torture him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“ I beg you, If you want me to
come out of this man's body, send me into the bodies of the pigs that are there
on the hill”...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“What is your name?" asks a
Jesus who is determined to get to the bottom of things.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“My name is...
"Legion"...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The cat just got out of the bag!
So this man is no ordinary individual. He embodies in his person the people of
Gerasa, and many other peoples who, like Jesus' own people, are dominated, not
to say "possessed" by the Roman "Legion"...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In order to
"accommodate" themselves to the empire, these peoples lose their
identity, their freedom, their dignity and even their reason for living. They
become like waste... They self-destruct. They cover their bodies and souls with
deadly wounds, like that poor fellow with his sharp stones and his lair among
the tombs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Then Jesus orders the
"Legion" spirit to come out of the poor devil's body and sends it out
to the herd of pigs grazing on the escarpment above the lake. The shock is
brutal. In spite of their very bad reputation, the pigs, less accommodating
than some Jews, prove unable to swallow the "Legion" spirit and
prefer to commit suicide by throwing themselves into the lake from the top of
their cliff. 2000 pigs drowned that day. As many drowned pigs as there were
soldiers forming the Roman subdivision of Gerasa. There were, in fact, 2000 of
them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It is then that our unfortunate
man comes to his senses. He is washed, dressed properly and becomes a new man.
But the party immediately turns sour. The owners of the pigs are out of their
minds and drive Jesus out of their country.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Whoever wants to understand,
understand!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This story shows that Jesus does
not like the Roman legions, or those who collaborate with them. He is not a
friend of military boots, nor a friend of dictatorships. He is not a friend of
foreign powers who, under the mask of love for democracy, humanitarian aid or
development, or under that of the fight against terrorism or drugs, sneak into
other countries to control and dominate them. Nor is he a friend of those who
raise pigs to fatten other pigs...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But what a lack of kindness on
his part! That he has pulled a wretch out of a bottomless pit, everyone rejoices,
but at what price, great God! Let's put ourselves in the place of the breeders
of those 2000 pigs whose death Jesus caused, don't they have reason to be
furious with him? Is a human being worth 2000 pigs by any chance?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Yes, certainly!" Jesus
answers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Even if he is an outcast, a
madman, a depraved person, a monster who sows terror? Even if he is full of
devils, even if he is as evil as a Roman legion that steals, rapes, tramples,
humiliates and oppresses a whole people? Is it right to sacrifice the economy
of a whole village to rehabilitate such a monster?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Not only is it right to
sacrifice the economy of a whole village, but also that of a whole country,
says Jesus. Even that of the whole world!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The economy that has been making
rain and shine in the world until now is more destructive than 2 billion bombs
equal to those used on August 6 and 9, 1945, to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This economy was built on the
backs of 99% of humanity, at the cost of the dignity, freedom and rights of
entire people and nations, by mocking them, deceiving them, corrupting them,
exploiting them to the hilt, and slaughtering them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This economy is responsible for
the wounds, frustrations, hatred, violence and decadence of its victims.
Monsters like this poor devil of Gerasa are created every day by this economy
that sends them by the thousands to live among the dead and the nightmares of
the immense human dumps that keep growing all over the planet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It is cursed this economy that
literally murders our beautiful blue planet and that sacrifices people and
entire peoples to pigs and not pigs to people. That's why, one day, everything
will blow up. Not just 2,000 pigs will go down the drain, or two New York
towers will go up in smoke, but the entire world economy will collapse. It has
already started.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Obama himself, being a good boy,
feels sorry for the pigs of Wall Street and feeds them. But one day those same
pigs may turn on him and bite him. For you must not feed the pigs, nor cast
pearls at them <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Mt 7:6).</i> (See who
succeeded Obama)....<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Let alone give them billions,
Jesus would add...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Eloy Roy<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">THE
STOLEN GOSPEL<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For
the new evangelization<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">God speaks through the cries and
the silences of the impoverished of the Earth. The new evangelization will have
to pick up that voice; if not, it will only be a new miscarriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzuMcVY1BG3AKxckue3Ojkxgak0uGiYqCwD9AkcyGUoS5iYAMID6gFwaZUTnYvRTAb3SeBgPY9tQVpzaR3_Uo6dpujvP3ZrW6Mi3Vlkoq9JXjlQFVzNc3JpdSjpwtPPHBKCOeCmotM_9dadfHqC-FqrbPeuF7MNXXpNk5U8LF78ODBwBR_z8x1Gki2tw/s400/pauvre%20lazare.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="400" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzuMcVY1BG3AKxckue3Ojkxgak0uGiYqCwD9AkcyGUoS5iYAMID6gFwaZUTnYvRTAb3SeBgPY9tQVpzaR3_Uo6dpujvP3ZrW6Mi3Vlkoq9JXjlQFVzNc3JpdSjpwtPPHBKCOeCmotM_9dadfHqC-FqrbPeuF7MNXXpNk5U8LF78ODBwBR_z8x1Gki2tw/s320/pauvre%20lazare.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> Lazarus (Luke 16, 21)</span></i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><b><i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">EVERYTHING WAS STOLEN FROM THE
POOR, EVEN THE GOSPEL </span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Nothing can be done about it. The
intellectuals, the church people, the biblical experts, the televangelists, the
priests, the pastors, the bishops or the popes are not the owners of the
gospel. The gospel does not belong to them or to me.</span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">It belongs to the poor.</span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">That is simply so because the
soul of the gospel is Jesus and Jesus was a poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Jesus lived and fought for and
with the poor. He stood by the poor. He was the companion, the friend, the
brother, the defender of the poor. He suffered for the poor and died as the
poorest among the poor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In the same way that the sun
shines above the good as well as above the wicked, and above the rich as well
as above the poor, thus God loves everyone, said Jesus. But still, he did not
identify himself to the wicked nor to the rich. He identified himself to the
poor. Of course, he wanted to touch the heart of the wicked as well as of the
rich, but he did it from the poor and through them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">He identified himself to the poor
by becoming one of them. He made his own their groans and their hopes. If he
loved the whole of humanity, he loved it with the heart of the poor, with their
cry and with their most foolish dreams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The poor are the ones who inspired him the Beatitudes and also the
marvel of the Kingdom. Without the poor, the gospel would simply not exist, and
neither Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Jesus loved the poor to the point
of giving himself totally to the task of giving back to them hope and life. He
would show interest in them as being persons with a name and a face. He would
give them the opportunity to speak, to cry out their truth. He would listen to
the poor. He would open his arms and extend his hand to raise them up. In the
footsteps of Jesus, life was flourishing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And when he would meet on the
road rich people who exploited the people, he would not curse them. At times,
he would even enter their homes to share a meal. But he would accept to share
the table as a poor, the way he was. And he would not alter his discourse to
please them. He would even take the opportunity to tell them a few good truths,
without hatred, but also without any concession.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">If with Jesus comes the creative
Word of God sowed in our soil, this word can only be the word of the
impoverished. If we want to hear the voice of God, we have to listen to the
poor. If we really want to know God, we have to really know the poor. If we
want to come near God, we have to come near the poor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But the poor are not all saints.
Many among them are detestable, disgusting, beasts, wicked, deceitful, lazy, envious,
arrogant and violent. Nearly all of them dream of becoming like the rich. How
can God speak to us through that shapeless mass of brave folks among whom are
mixed together, like in a dump, so many «rejects» of humanity?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The same question could be asked
about Jesus who himself was discarded like a «reject» of humanity. He was
excommunicated from his community, subjected to torture as a criminal,
condemned as an apostate and a subversive, and crucified as an enemy of
Religion and of the Fatherland. Yet, we venerate that «reject» of humanity like
the «Savior» of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What that means for us Christians
is that it is there, in human misery, that is buried the supreme Word of God
which recreates humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We may object that Jesus was
«innocent» unlike the poor who are sinners just like the rest of us. True, but
that same judgment should apply as well to the poor, since they also are
innocent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">They are the creatures of a
delirious and perverse system that for centuries produces them by the hundreds
of millions with the only purpose of always enriching those who already own
everything.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">That system is a monster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It keeps on growing free of worries, thanks
to a multitude of good people like us who still stupidly believe in the virtues
of the strongest and in the miracles of war and money. Ironically, we pretend
to be the pillars of democracy and of Christianity. And even so, it so happens
that we pray God to bless all of that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Still, in a world which overflows
with riches, poverty is a heinous crime against humanity whose victims are not
extraterrestrial creatures but the very members of our own body.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">If only their cry could pierce
our heart, and their flaws fill us with horror, their sufferings hurt enough
our feelings as to blow up the tedious bubble of our comfortable blindness!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The new evangelization will have
to be built on the flagrant expectations of the impoverished of the Earth. If
not, it will collapse like that house about which Jesus says that an idiot had
built on sand instead of on rock, and which at the first strike of the flood
was carried away like a wisp of straw<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.
(Matthew 7: 26-27).</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Eloy Roy<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><b><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">When
Jesus blows his top</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">You make a whip and you hunt the
sellers, the merchants, the profiteers, and all those charlatans who destroy
the great Temple of the Earth. You drive out those who disembowel the Earth,
who empty it of its entrails, bleed it white, poison its waters, its air; those
who tear it apart, rape it, tear it to pieces. All those who profane the huge
Temple of Nature, the wonderful home of the human family, you kick them out ...
You make a whip and you chase the whole bunch with their bulldozers, their
insecticides, their drills, their cyanide, their oil, their bombs and their
dirty dollars…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(Mark: 11, 15-19) <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Translated from the French by Jacques Bourdages and Deepl <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-47632062531408584032021-11-24T11:17:00.001-05:002021-11-24T11:17:52.964-05:00<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In joining John the Baptist, whom the religious
apparatchiks considered a heretic and a rebel, Jesus had a spiritual experience
that gave him boundless confidence. Such was this confidence that from that
moment on he did not shy away from any risk in order to announce the good news
he carried within him. He showed this well when he left the Jordan region:
instead of taking the road back to Galilee, he went alone into the desert to
spend more than a month there without eating or drinking.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">JESUS HAD ANOTHER VERY RISKY ENCOUNTER<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjpjHeSVAQi-Zrl1bY8zpHcj_zGV0lPbwC1RvSakwOSbOLonF7nEa55YyqQLuqE4JA8yod7K5JriIqWJe_LdFgkh5To09JPn-7vBydtoYJcDr_RDlXEB3-c3Wzef6byNrScgphziBM9fy7/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjpjHeSVAQi-Zrl1bY8zpHcj_zGV0lPbwC1RvSakwOSbOLonF7nEa55YyqQLuqE4JA8yod7K5JriIqWJe_LdFgkh5To09JPn-7vBydtoYJcDr_RDlXEB3-c3Wzef6byNrScgphziBM9fy7/w400-h266/Bein+Harim+Tours.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Your baptism, dear Jesus,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">didn't take away your propensity for risk.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">on the contrary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">At the time of leaving for your native Galilee,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you had the desire<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to make a detour through the desert.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You knew that for a person alone<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the desert was not a very safe place,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">but you could not help it;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the desert was attracting you like a magnet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In the distant past,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">it was in the desert that<span style="color: red;"> </span>your ancestors,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">as soon as they had <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>been freed<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">from the slavery in Egypt,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">struggled like the devil in holy water<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to decide their future.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">For forty years they wandered in the desert,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">torn between the temptation to turn back to Egypt<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">or to start anew in a world full of unknowns.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In the end, with more fear than enthusiasm,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">they chose to start over from scratch<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">in the hope of laying the foundations for a new world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The centuries passed<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and the new world<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">kept on waiting.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">And so, one fine day<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you appeared in the desert<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to take up in your turn<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the unfinished project of your ancestors.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">For forty days,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">in total solitude,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">without drinking a drop,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">without eating a morsel,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you went from euphoria to nightmares.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Euphoria, because in the desert you were finding<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the calm and the freedom of the vast spaces,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the mystery of the broken mountains,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the vertigo of heights,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the purity of the air,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the beauty of endless horizons.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The desert brought you silence and emptiness<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">where nothing could distract you<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">from the powerful experience<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that you had just lived<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">in the waters of the Jordan<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">with John the Baptist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You could finally enjoy with comfort<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that still totally fresh encounter<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">in the peace of your Abba.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You could give yourself up in all freedom<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to the sweetest and most daring dreams.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">At first it was ecstasy,</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">which lasted several days,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">then, probably because of hunger,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">things turned into a nightmare.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Ideas, images, visions<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">began to fly around in your head<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">like a video game tournament.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Unknown worlds flashed before you,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and captivated you so strongly<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that you seemed not to touch the ground anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Inside yourself,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">A FIRST VOICE was heard,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">a totally unknown voice<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that, among a thousand things, was telling you:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">"If you want to change the world<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">for the glory of your God,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">if you want fountains<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to spring up in the deserts<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and flowers to grow in the dried hearts,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">there is only one way:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">draw the crowds to you!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">At the trade fairs, people come from afar<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and even go without food<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to be able to see the most unusual things<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">like a rabbit coming out of a hat<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">or a woman being sawed in two.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You, give food to your starving people!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Sell them dreams, flatter their bellies,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">perform miracles, magic, fireworks,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">turn stones into bread,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">because after all, God is with you,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and he gives you all <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>powers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Look at the the gray stones of this desert,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In the name of your God,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">change them all into golden loaves of bread!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">And then people from all over the world<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">will come to listen to you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">They will say of you that you are the reincarnation of Moses,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the greatest of all the prophets<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">who, in the desert, saved his people from hunger<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">by having the bread of manna<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and hoards of quail meat<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">rain upon them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You will also be acclaimed as the new Elisha,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that other great prophet<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">who multiplied the loaves<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and fed a starving crowd.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">(2 Kings 4:42-44) ....<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Turn the stones into bread<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and everybody will believe in you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You will be proclaimed Messiah,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the Anointed One sent by God,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the Son of God<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and the Saviour of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Through you God will do wonders<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and all nations will call you blessed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In the name of your God,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">turn stones into bread<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and your mission will be a worldwide success!"<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">That voice was soft, ingratiating and very friendly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It pleased you and aroused in you pleasure,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">encouragement, enthusiasm,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">but also very serious thoughts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You yourself, who at that moment was gripped by hunger<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">knew better than anyone that without bread<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">there was no hope,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that without bread, no life was possible,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and that the salvation of the world depended on bread.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Without the daily bread for all the men<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and for all the women of the Earth,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">it was clear that the world had no future.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Then, inside you, ANOTHER VOICE was heard;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">from the depths of your being<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">it was telling you:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">"Give all the bread you like<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to those who are hungry<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you will never satisfy them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">They will always feel<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">They will always feel within themselves<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that something else is missing...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Ancient wise men have written:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">"The human being does not live by bread alone,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">but by everything that comes from the mouth of
God".<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">(Deuteronomy 8, 4</span></i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The lamp only gives light if it is inhabited<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">by a fire that clothes it with light<span style="color: red;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">So it is with the human being;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Nourished only with the bread of the Earth,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">he does not enlighten according to his deepest truth<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">unless within him awaken<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the breath and the words of love<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that flow from the mouth of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">At these words, the sweet voice<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that urged you to turn stones into bread<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">remained mute as a carp.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The fires of the trade fair fell silent,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">peace returned in your mind.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">But after several days of silence,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the merry-go-round began to spin again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The carp came out of its silence<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and addressed you a new discourse:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">"When you assert that humans<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">do not live by bread alone,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you are perfectly right,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">but don't be stupid!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Life is hard, often cruel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Bread, love and fresh water<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">are needed to live, of course,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">illusion, dreams and pleasure are also needed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">If you want to win the world to your cause,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">build arenas, build theatres,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">create festivals, launch competitions,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">put on shows!"<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Here we go again...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You were seeing yourself climbing<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">on the roof of a skyscraper<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">or on the top of a bell tower,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">even the highest peak in the world,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and then you would throw yourself down<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">without a parachute<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and land without a scratch.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">With a burst of triumphant laughter<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you would call out to the whole world by shouting:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">"God is with me, as you can see!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Just as it is written in Psalm 91,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">I am carried on the wings of angels!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Therefore, listen to me!..."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Then you would see all the inhabitants of the Earth<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">jostle to hear you,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It was divine...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The voice was insisting: "You still hesitate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Are you afraid, by any chance?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Is not God your great friend?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Does he not watch over your every step?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">At the Jordan you met God<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and you bound yourself together for eternity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Go for it! Use him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Your ratings will reach the skies!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Then the other voice,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that of the Word and the Breath,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">intervened again:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">"God does not spur the crowds into action,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">he doesn't hypnotize people,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">he does not dazzle the eyes<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and even less the spirits.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">He hates blindness<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and loves only that which makes one free.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is written:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">"You shall not tempt the Lord your God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You shall not make him a Deus ex machina<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that can be manipulated like a remote control.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">God does not make movies.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The voice fell silent again…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">But the first voice,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the one of stones and loaves,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">had not said its last word.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It went back into the offensive, declaring:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">"I admit that my first two methods<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">were a bit excessive,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">but there is still a third one.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It's foolproof and 1000% safe.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Let's leave out the magic and the shows.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Let's be reasonable and practical,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">let's stick to the doable,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">let's get down to business.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">What you need to do,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">is to associate yourself with the rich and the powerful.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">That's it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">They're not all bad.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">There are good people among them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">They have everything they need to convince.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">They have the money, the weapons, the science, the prestige.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Above all, they have the connections;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the means of communication are in their hands.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">If you don't use them, they will use you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Trust them, entrust your career to them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Your life, your mission, your future<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">will never be placed in safer hands..."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The voice fell silent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Its words brought you back to earth,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">they seemed to you of an undeniable logic,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">full of common sense.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">They led you to imagine<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">what you could do for the glory of God<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">if you put that recipe into practice.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">And so you put yourself in the shoes of the characters<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">whom history honours as heroes<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and as models for humanity,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you saw yourself in the spotlight of the world<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">as the most applauded man,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and the most famous man on earth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Ally of the rich and the powerful,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you were intoxicated by your beauty and your greatness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In this world that was lying at your feet,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you were going to do wonders.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You were going to become the hero, the star,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you were going to become the god of the universe.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">And now, the voice of the Word and of the Breath<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">intervened again by saying to you:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">"It is written: You shall worship only the Lord your God".<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">This word was not the drop of water<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that makes the vase spill,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">but an icy waterspout<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">which suddenly extinguished your ardour.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It was the word that knocked you out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You needed the bite of the desert<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that burns during the day and freezes at night,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and the cramps of hunger and thirst<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">for you to discover until it hurts<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that these three paths:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the stones turned into bread,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the jump from the air without parachute,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and the pact with wealth and power<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">were not those of Life,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">but those of the Adversary<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">also called the "devil".<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You will have understood that these three ways<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">which camouflage themselves under the false sparkles<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">of magic and popularity,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and which rise thanks to money and weapons,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">these ways which often hide<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">under the veils of false piety,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">lead almost fatally<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to sterility and war,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">as well as to the desert<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and to nothingness...</span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The devil?...</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT8gjyKtJOQE_E2fOgWsSgwHymoj4sz9vqJ8Xc4GCcdx2uDZMWVuslhaNF2_1uPTsyr3CJbm1mL5JvRHVFs85hL4ZfjaNx9QaBTZ1oCeDYz4h5SGlnin1K-vcSdfH7FoJFr7ZCkldCny-t/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="5184" data-original-width="3888" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT8gjyKtJOQE_E2fOgWsSgwHymoj4sz9vqJ8Xc4GCcdx2uDZMWVuslhaNF2_1uPTsyr3CJbm1mL5JvRHVFs85hL4ZfjaNx9QaBTZ1oCeDYz4h5SGlnin1K-vcSdfH7FoJFr7ZCkldCny-t/w300-h400/IMG_7858+%25282%2529.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">What is most certain is that the devil<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">is more something than someone<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is something<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that comes out of ourselves<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and that lives in us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is a "mentality", a psychology, a philosophy, an ideology,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">a vision of things, a way of thinking and acting<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that is part of who we are.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is our dark side,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">which probably comes from an ancient fear,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">from a primordial fear<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">undoubtedly from the insurmountable anguish<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">of feeling like strangers<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">in an immensely unknown world<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">which we viscerally need to live<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">but in which we are<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">hardly a particle of dust<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">tossed about by the winds.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">A fear that drives us crazy,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">unable to measure,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">desperate and tough.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">A </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">world that forces us<span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to play endless tricks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and extreme violence<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">in order not to be devoured<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and to be able to survive<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is this part of ourselves<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">which hides behind the appearances,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the false light that hides<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">in the darkness and in the forbidden.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is our old hunting instinct.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is this part of ourselves<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that fascinates the most strangest theories,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the magic, the games of chance,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the miracle make-up,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the improved, renewed product, increased in value<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that would be the infallible carrier of happiness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is the car of the century,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">it is the spirit of religion<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">which claims to pierce all mysteries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is the spirit of science that has all the powers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is the spirit of "bread and games"<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">of the decadent Rome,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the spirit of the great corporations<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">which govern the world,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the spirit of the last nuclear toys<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that make us tremble with admiration and terror.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is the spirit of resources<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">concentrated in the hands<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">of a handful of individuals<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">who dance on mountains of gold<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and are honoured as geniuses and heroes<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">while they (and the politicians who serve them)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">are the very ones who starve humankind,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">not only for what they do,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">but for what they should do<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and they don't do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Spirit of tribe, spirit of <u>lie</u><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">spirit of revenge, spirit of <u>domination,</u><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">spirit of alpha males, spirit of dominant females;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">spirit of unbridled lust<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">stimulated by a whole industry of tricks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">promising performance over performance<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and endless ecstasies.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The false eyelashes, the false breasts, the false teeth,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the fake lips, the fake nails...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the fake notes, the fake coins,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the false diamonds, the false gods...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Spirit of pharaonic projects,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">spirit of the new Babel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and of the new Babylon<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">competing between them<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">for the highest monument<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">raised for eternity<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to the glory of the conquering phallus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Spirit which dreams of colonizing the stars<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">while it murders the only Earth we have.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Spirit of all the drugs and opium.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Spirit of lotteries, casinos, suicide...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Spirit of domination that makes you crazy:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Spirit of the Hitlers, the Stalins and the Napoleons,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">of Tojo, Franco, Mao, Castro and Idi Amin Dada,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Pinochet, Videla, Pol Pot and others,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the spirit of all tyrants, big and small,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and of all the narcissists<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">of yesterday, today and tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">spirit of all the saviors of the world<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">who torture in the name of democracy,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">who rape in the name of freedom,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">who steal in the name of justice<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">who lie in the name of truth<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and threaten to annihilate humankind<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">in the name of peace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Spirit of religious fanaticism<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that paralyzes thought with dogmas<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">claiming to contain the quintessence of pure truth,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">in the name of which they are ready<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to put the planet to fire and blood.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Spirit of pride, spirit of hatred, spirit of war,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">spirit that makes the human being a monster<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">a machine or a simple object<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to be sold, bought and thrown away.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is the spirit of ME, MYSELF AND I.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The very spirit of the EGO, when the ego,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">which is the substance of the personality,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">invades the consciousness<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to the point of making impossible<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the access to the deeper being<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">or the true self...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">This spirit, Jesus, you have seen it in the face.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You saw it as a huge balloon<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that could inflate itself with all your dreams<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and carry you so far<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that it finally burst into a thousand pieces<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">letting you fall<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">into a bottomless abyss<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">with your unfulfilled hungers<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and your unquenched thirsts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You cried, you shouted, you screamed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Like a wounded animal<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you rolled around in the desert sand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">With loud cries, you begged your Abba<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to have mercy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You fainted for a long time....<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">When you woke up,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the storm was gone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You saw a spring not far from you<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and you saw a caravan<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that was approaching to drink from it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">They were Bedouins, dark faces,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">turbans, white robes,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">strangers, infidels...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">who were busy around you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">They were bending over you,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">they gave you a drink<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and with you they shared<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">their meagre food.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Your heart was full of gratitude<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and your face full of smiles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In your eyes, these Bedouins were angels:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">through them, Abba himself<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">was coming to comfort and rescue you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It was then that in your heart<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">began to germinate<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the hymn that sums up your whole gospel:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">"I was a stranger,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">hungry, thirsty,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">naked, sick and in prison.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">From afar you saw my distress<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and you came running to <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You washed me, nursed me and fed me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">My eyes were dim,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">but you lent me yours.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">I was dead,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and you raised me up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Rejoice! for your heart<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">now knows the heart of ABBA,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and the joy that rises in you<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">is the joy of his Kingdom".<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">And so, when you got back on your feet<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you left the desert as happy as a king.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Stimulated by the dialectic and the dynamics<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">of the Kingdom that grows in the midst of chaos<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you set out singing the way back<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to your native Galilee.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You were emanating great peace<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that touched the people you met on your way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Health flowed from your hands.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">On your path, the smallest and the poorest,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and all those who thought they did not exist<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">raised their heads;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">even the flowers of the fields<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and the birds of the sky,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">all the trees and animals<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">had a smile on their face....<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">But at every turn of the road,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">new risks were awaiting you...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to be continued...</span></i></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Eloy Roy<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Translation from the
French in collaboration with J. Bourdages<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-81699188626294991112021-09-17T13:47:00.000-04:002021-09-17T13:47:21.559-04:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">A HIGH RISKING ENCOUNTER</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_WhC0IKQ2r2sr4slcfKkslGhoHbTOlh5AMQs0JLrXdckguZOPffOfQaiIvfVNnijw2Ndd59mz091mfru7HX8dQStsJc9MsTE6YcYitE6iSApfmQUOByuX5FTCFVEY7ezM2Ux7ntwLUhwY/s580/57-single-default.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="580" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_WhC0IKQ2r2sr4slcfKkslGhoHbTOlh5AMQs0JLrXdckguZOPffOfQaiIvfVNnijw2Ndd59mz091mfru7HX8dQStsJc9MsTE6YcYitE6iSApfmQUOByuX5FTCFVEY7ezM2Ux7ntwLUhwY/w492-h280/57-single-default.jpg" width="492" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Jesus and John the Baptist</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is not surprising, Jesus,</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that things turned out badly for
you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You played with fire and you
burned yourself. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Let us start with your encounter
with John the Baptist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Everybody knew that that guy <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">was a dangerous type,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">a marginal, an alarmist<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">who questioned everything.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Nowadays many would have labelled
him <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">as a “terrorist” or a “woke”…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">But the rebels, the poor and the
downtrodden <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">acclaimed him as a great prophet.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">To come close to him, for sure,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">was not “politically correct”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">But you, Jesus, a simple worker <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">in a lost dump hole of Galilee,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you who belonged to the anonymous
and the despised, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 20.0pt;">you ran the </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 20.0pt;">enormous risk</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to go and meet him along the
Jordan River</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You found him there, not far from
the desert,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">his two feet in the water<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and a camel skin on his
shoulders. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">A fire was burning in his heart
and his mouth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">He attacked the leaders, the
priests and the people<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that he compared to a rotten tree.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Brandishing some kind of an axe<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and acting as if cutting down a
tree<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">he showed the fate that was
awaiting them<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">if they did not give their life a
180 degree turn.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You saw him also as the new
Elijah<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">calling the fire from heaven<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">over internal divisions<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the social inequalities,
corruption.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">hatred and all kind of violence<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that reduced the people to a
wreck<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and paved a royal path for
foreign invasions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Anyway, the powerful Rome was
already there<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">with its powerful armies <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">occupying and exploiting the
country, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">shedding blood in torrents. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Even the “good people”, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">who, in spite of everything,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">remained faithful to the God of Israel,
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">did not escape John's wrath.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">He blamed their apathy,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">their naïve carefree attitude,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and especially their faith of
black-mailers, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">treating God as a national
property <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and their hostage. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">They thought they had a RIGHT on
him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">They believed that God, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the great friend and ally of
their ancestor Abraham, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">had the obligation to intervene before
long in person<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and turn the situation in their
favour.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">If not, maybe they would turn
their backs on him...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Meanwhile, the priests and the
rabbi,</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">whose careers depended on the
whims and fancies of the <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Romans, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">were panicking desperately. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">To make sure that they didn't
lose control over the people </span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">they filled its ears with the usual serenades <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">about peace, patience and
forgiveness,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and the obedience without
grumbling to the will of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">They preached that God was allowing
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the present occupation of the
country by the Romans<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to cleanse the people from all their
many sins. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In fact, in his boundless mercy, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">he was giving them a chance to amend
their ways <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">so that they return more than
ever <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to worship, prayers and sacrifices.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">With John the Baptist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that was another story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">For him, the time was not so much
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">for prayers and sacrifices,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">as for <u>justice<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ans sharing</u>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">To those people who piled up
riches<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">he would say: “Give half of your
belongings to the <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">poor!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">To tax collectors: “Stop
stealing!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">To the military: “Stop exploiting
the people!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">To the police:”Be content with
your salary!”</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In one word :we have to
strip injustice off like an old skin<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and throw ourselves into the
water to start anew. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Those words ran down within you,
Jesus,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">like fresh water in the throat of
a desert pilgrim.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">For you, they seem to spring up
straight from the <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">mouth of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">This minute, you exposed yourself
like a worm,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and, <u>at your own risk, you
dived</u><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">as well in the water of the river<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">like in the great movement of
John. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It was your « baptism »<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">(that word means exactly « diving »)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">But once under water, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">somehow in full apnoea,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you had the surprize of your
life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In a flash of lightning,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you entered in a <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">strange and marvellous state…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Ideas, dreams, desires,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">images, concepts,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">dogmas, rules and structures, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">all of that flew away like mist. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It was as if your “ordinary
conscience”, </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(the one of each day, the one of the ego)</span></i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">had suddenly been “submerged”…</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">by a « deeper
conscience ». <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">(that everyone possesses but is
ignored by most people)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You entered into the AMAZING,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">into a state of total liberty<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and absolute plenitude. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">All that you had believed until
now<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">as perceptible and true<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">appeared to you as empty and non-existent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It seemed that you were touching
the Real<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">for the first time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Like stream that joins the sea,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you were bathing in THE ONE-WHO-IS.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It was THE OPENING OUT,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">THE AWAKENING, THE ILLUMINATION. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In the eyes of humans, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">at that very moment,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you were really born <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">as the beloved SON of the Father,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">as the AWAKENED<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and the AWAKENER.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In that moment, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you received the mission<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to be LIGHT for the world. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">John the Baptist whom the good
people <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">regarded as the greatest of all
men <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">began to pale in front of you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Like the Moon with the approach
of the Sun,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">he slowly faded away...</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is in the light of the Bush on
fire<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that Moses had received the
mission to free his people<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">from the chains of slavery, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you, Jesus, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">it is in your luminous diving into<a name="_GoBack"></a> the Jordan River<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that you received<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the mission to liberate the <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">human being from the chains of
darkness and of death.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In the depths of your being<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the totality of your human
reality had unfurled.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It appeared to you as one, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">without any separation from the
rest of humanity<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">or from creation,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">or even from divinity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You saw also the whole of humans<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">as beloved sisters and brothers<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">of the One-Who-Is, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">linked to one another<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">like the rays of a same sun,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">enjoying an absolute freedom<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">in a diversity of limitless
nuances.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">There, you have embraced your
mission</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">to awaken among the humans the
deep dimension<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">of who we really are,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that is,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>women and men similar to you,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">in good health like you,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">sparkling with light like you<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">in harmony with the universe<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and connected with the Great
Source of all that is. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Apart from John,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">no one had any idea<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">of what you had just lived. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Contrary to Moses,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">no ray of light<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">had remained plastered to your
face.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">You were remaining a man like
others</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">with this sole difference<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">that you did not follow <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">the masters of the law<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">neither the extinguishers of
light and liberty;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">you were not a parakeet of the
official discourse<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">nor a bullhorn of the consensus
of the herd.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">With you was beginning<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">a <u>totally new</u> world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">And so, you left the country of
John</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">in the direction of your native
Galilee,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">on a path not laid out in advance<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">where were awaiting for you <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">many other high <u>risking</u>
situations...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span></i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">to be continued...</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Eloy Roy <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Translated from the French by Jacques Bourdages</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-11487758775701502682021-07-24T14:50:00.002-04:002021-07-24T14:50:26.700-04:00 RISKING THE GREAT LANDING<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Centennial of the Foreign
Missions Society of Québec, a question of risks: risking joy, risking the planetary
fraternity, risking the great landing…</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"> RISKING T</span></b><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">HE GREAT LANDING</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinNCk4ou9R3UaXhB-jc9H-Yxov0jRE6Uui0lZWNRG4Hg-gGutZvJnq78BNP_j6Oh9LOhVe04b9OJ3Bj1ld8_7d5gFDbNyd4MUdr4735Ab60Ji1YWuhbl_auOeVZpkT7nWvgzVpbyEVDMm0/s259/No%25C3%25A9+et+la+colombe+La+Bible.info.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinNCk4ou9R3UaXhB-jc9H-Yxov0jRE6Uui0lZWNRG4Hg-gGutZvJnq78BNP_j6Oh9LOhVe04b9OJ3Bj1ld8_7d5gFDbNyd4MUdr4735Ab60Ji1YWuhbl_auOeVZpkT7nWvgzVpbyEVDMm0/w515-h386/No%25C3%25A9+et+la+colombe+La+Bible.info.jpg" width="515" /></a></div> <i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Bible.info</span></i><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Our missionary arch has been crossing the waters of
the Earth for a hundred years. Every day, a Dove brings us on its wings fresh
news <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from all those peoples who, after
welcoming us with open arms, have over the years come to be part of us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The Dove tells us that Peace wants to be born in such
and such a country, while in another one it wants to die, that here Justice
hangs on over the abysses while over there it is always being trampled. How is
that one morning, Beauty wakes up all in bloom and in the evening, it goes to
bed in tears. It talks to us about life with its small victories and its great
misfortunes. It laughs for the joys but sheds tears for the new dramas that are
happening. Sometimes creeps into us like a worm the feeling of having worked
for nothing…But always the wind pushes us further. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Lately, the dove, all bewildered, comes to us with the
scoop that the great waters of the planet, far from going down, do not stop
rising, and that frightening cataclysms are taking place all over the world. It
assures us that the Earth is capsizing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">And now comes the bouquet! After one hundred years of
glorious services, our old missionary ark is moaning its last groans. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its hull is taking water on all sides. Its
crew is well beyond the age of piloting, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and our dear Dove<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that, until now, has been so useful in
keeping us in touch with earthly realities is simply kicking the bucket…Our old
arch<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>may hang on, still nothing
indicates that it will save us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">However, whether we like it or not, the wind blows
more and more<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>strongly and tells us<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>at full volume that time has come to run the
great risk of getting off the arch of our loves. Time has come of leaving
behind us<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>our precious navigation
charts, our compasses, our dictionaries of truths and beliefs cast in stone. Time
has come<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to take leave of our habits,
our certitudes and our securities and to dive with the faith of the old Abraham
into the NEWNESS OF A DIFFRENT WORLD THAT IS COMING AHAEAD STRAIGHT TOWARDS US.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">That world is not a craze, it is very real. And,
although we may have excellent reasons to be wary of it, THE-ONE-WHO-IS surely
blesses it with as much love as he blessed in the past the wicked Nineveh for
which the brave Jonah felt such horror, that he ran to hide from it into the
last pit of the Earth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">We the elders, let us rest assured, since we have done
a good job just by doing what we had to do. Let us sing our Nunc dimittis in
peace and let us abandon ourselves in the great rest that we have so much
deserved. Yet, following the example of old Simeon and of that good old lady Anne,
let us salute what is coming to us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">What is coming towards us is not a big thing. It’s
almost nothing. And it is as disconcerting as a very poor child who is worth a
little more than two turtledoves…Yet this child will grow up in the exploited,
oppressed <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and refugee sub-world of the
planet. There he will forge for himself a wisdom greater than that of Solomon. Nothing
will resist his wisdom. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soon with him
will come serious upheavals in our most revered dogmas as well as in our ways
of being church and in our ways of doing the mission. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">His wisdom will teach us, among other things, that
there never was and never will be another God than the God-Love. ("Love"
means here: pure grace, pure gratuitousness, pure gift). Since he is God, he
does not dwell in the heavens. He does not live in temples either, nor in any
other place; on the contrary, it is the universe which dwells in him. The only
abode he can have is that of love. Through love we are rooted in him, and
through love he lives in us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Storms, atrocities, cosmic catastrophes can do nothing
against this reality. In fact, what often seems to us like absurdity, violence
and chaos exists only on a very thin line on the surface of things. True
Reality is below and above all of these perceptions, however learned and
objective they may be. Much more, it goes beyond them infinitely.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In the light of God-Love, the myth of original sin -
and the great theory of redemption that follows from it - crumbles to dust. The
God-Love never demanded that a beloved divine Son, equal to himself, become
human in order to offer to his Father the sacrifice of infinite value of his own
blood in order to repair the infinite offense of the original sin. That is pure
fiction and could have been invented only by priests obsessed with sacrifices,
those who, day and night, in the Temple, dedicated themselves to immolating
victims to the Almighty in the ever-uncertain hope of appeasing his
uncontrollable anger.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">For the man of Nazareth who will have grown up for two
thousand years to emerge today in a world which has also grown, it will be
useless to have recourse to intermediaries to gain access to God. For God has
always been fully present to all humans and to each of them, as he is,
moreover, to the entire creation. His "doors", "arms" and
"heart" are open day and night to the entire universe. No need to
knock to enter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Everyone of good will who embraces the great project
of universal Brotherhood will be part of what will always be "the
church". This, however, will no longer be constituted as an absolute
monarchy and will no longer behave as "owner" and exclusive depositary
of God's truth. It will no longer be directed by dignitaries "apart"
and placed above the ordinary people, and women in that church will be
recognized as worthy as men to exercise the essential services to the
community.<span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In the breath of the Man of Nazareth, (that is to say
in his spirit and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>his way of thinking),
there will be no more missionary sending off aimed at "converting" others.
Only the people who adhere in depth to the great project of the universal Brotherhood
and who are eager to contribute to extending it in the world, will be sent on
mission in order to go and live this fraternity personally with estranged human
groups on the planet, mainly the less privileged ones.<span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In short, with him, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>everything will start anew from nothing as in
all the new beginnings. It will be the end of our last idols.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf1uJX2rgzQswTEJL1iscCel8rfDvfkDdRxRcNJsleL97icHrEMgV4HDMoeBZ3549bGVVT-6CEaukwqf7wIOADtoBMaINOLVnfgjUaMTxxzDpG164fSfWMajYrxg10Ul52JHJMI0m2pNdF/s1026/ARCHE+CHUTE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="1026" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf1uJX2rgzQswTEJL1iscCel8rfDvfkDdRxRcNJsleL97icHrEMgV4HDMoeBZ3549bGVVT-6CEaukwqf7wIOADtoBMaINOLVnfgjUaMTxxzDpG164fSfWMajYrxg10Ul52JHJMI0m2pNdF/w577-h281/ARCHE+CHUTE.jpg" width="577" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Younger people will be less affected by these
upheavals because, fortunately, their roots in the past are not very deep. Will
they do better than their elders? <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Yes</b>,
because there is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">something new</b> in
them. Something new which comes to them from THE-ONE-WHO-IS who, in his time,
will make it spring from their own depths.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Finally, young and old, men and women, all of us, we
are going to prepare ourselves mentally, psychologically and spiritually to
take the olympic plunge into this changing world, before the giant waterfalls
which are very near <span style="background: #F8F9FA; color: #202124;">swallow all
at once</span> our ark and all that will still remain in it.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eloy Roy<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Translated from the French by Jacques Bourdages</span></i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-64949833496578276012021-06-22T21:30:00.002-04:002021-06-22T21:40:52.948-04:00<p> <b style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">RISKING THE UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD</span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: arial;">COUNTRIES WHERE THE FMS IS ON
MISSION</span></span></b><span class="jlqj4b"><span face=""Helvetica","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="background: whitesmoke; color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: arial;"> (The pictures are borrowed from the
Internet) </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">CHINA</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="FR-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkEtQjJXUjX8pt5Q-gjzhYgUSAMnLcFkbGUA0OEOHSmYACMxmBJDyIyTFbkYX5LAGHdjxx19U5d-H-MNASbcy3vD0E_202BjDLMb6j07ijjHhlsrRjMJ-5Ut4N1q2AHfdno1d-go2uojR_/s675/Ph+CNSA.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="675" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkEtQjJXUjX8pt5Q-gjzhYgUSAMnLcFkbGUA0OEOHSmYACMxmBJDyIyTFbkYX5LAGHdjxx19U5d-H-MNASbcy3vD0E_202BjDLMb6j07ijjHhlsrRjMJ-5Ut4N1q2AHfdno1d-go2uojR_/w570-h258/Ph+CNSA.jpg" width="570" /></a></b></div><p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><i>Chinese
Taikonauts </i><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> Who
said: «Sky's the limit»?</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">JAPAN</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKfxhe8K0FapmUBPvqrgPNEKKOTEiE1hQtIj78TS51-o8iV-XC9qCTa9HngJ07GCJgNtEhB-XC2cSDn93BfCLq_VVD66rUHxbj1_st5e_EoQQl55OZLqoBQCh7rvj4TqFMV60nn3EqLDsi/s1029/ph+Japan+Times.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="715" data-original-width="1029" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKfxhe8K0FapmUBPvqrgPNEKKOTEiE1hQtIj78TS51-o8iV-XC9qCTa9HngJ07GCJgNtEhB-XC2cSDn93BfCLq_VVD66rUHxbj1_st5e_EoQQl55OZLqoBQCh7rvj4TqFMV60nn3EqLDsi/w541-h375/ph+Japan+Times.jpg" width="541" /></a></b></div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></b><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="background: whitesmoke; font-family: arial; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Vocations crisis
among Shinto priests?</span></b><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="jlqj4b"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="background: whitesmoke; color: black; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">No problem!</span></b></span><span class="viiyi"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="background: whitesmoke; color: black; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">
</span></b></span><span class="jlqj4b"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="background: whitesmoke; color: black; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">With robots everything is sorted out.</span></b></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="background: whitesmoke; color: black; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">PHILIPPINE ISLANDS</span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="background: whitesmoke; color: black; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVYsv0uLURgIv906OjSmXXUjNsuKlCKWPHN0lkg3zJDdvKMyrfFLi2bMS75Cz8gSMWuqExfQg-G_hsr-lW_T49_jvHOxzHbe3UgSz1I0rBT-SglOjO4Ywq5bZTxwEqEvoiBGjx9F_71kDF/s940/Ph+Gulf+News.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="940" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVYsv0uLURgIv906OjSmXXUjNsuKlCKWPHN0lkg3zJDdvKMyrfFLi2bMS75Cz8gSMWuqExfQg-G_hsr-lW_T49_jvHOxzHbe3UgSz1I0rBT-SglOjO4Ywq5bZTxwEqEvoiBGjx9F_71kDF/w570-h321/Ph+Gulf+News.jpg" width="570" /></a></b></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: arial;">Not
only are jeepneys the glory of the Philippines</span></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">but
also amazing flying machines.</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="line-height: 115%;">CAMBODIA</span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXZLpIV0r3Ie6HWLbFK2pQPh-e4rDb0-nOC9cg5Ll8ZH2VCFtVJHAUP6Og-J-K1Zk-Ql6KVP4hjUl28uT5bwc2SpT-9NkClwROBtbCNH0xBXMvjOIOHGE7BInSc6E-4wLlnI0IIptXdafa/s1232/Ph+Westend61.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="821" data-original-width="1232" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXZLpIV0r3Ie6HWLbFK2pQPh-e4rDb0-nOC9cg5Ll8ZH2VCFtVJHAUP6Og-J-K1Zk-Ql6KVP4hjUl28uT5bwc2SpT-9NkClwROBtbCNH0xBXMvjOIOHGE7BInSc6E-4wLlnI0IIptXdafa/w531-h353/Ph+Westend61.jpg" width="531" /></a></b></div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /> </b><b><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Cambodia,
you were doomed to annihilation</span></b><div><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> but
here you are still standing!</span></b></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="line-height: 115%;">LATIN AMERICA</span></b></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi13-pmrZpAjs2TgpoNJZIvsRj3gbFbErPE_DAvOJXclyx_vWV67u26PBN7Ta3y8aiD1VwZwgfd4RdhYAPECbQuNgRa7esfILzTA4mloskypCEv9VfWf_YEeqziAeIV4fr1EU8WWRfKEB62/s800/Musee-art-contemporain-RIO.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="800" height="403" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi13-pmrZpAjs2TgpoNJZIvsRj3gbFbErPE_DAvOJXclyx_vWV67u26PBN7Ta3y8aiD1VwZwgfd4RdhYAPECbQuNgRa7esfILzTA4mloskypCEv9VfWf_YEeqziAeIV4fr1EU8WWRfKEB62/w542-h403/Musee-art-contemporain-RIO.jpg" width="542" /></a></b></div><b><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><i> <span style="font-family: arial;"> A museum in Rio de Janeiro</span></i></span></b><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="jlqj4b"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="background: whitesmoke; color: black; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;"><o:p><i> </i></o:p></span></b></span><b><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Latin
America, you are so much more than</span></b><span class="jlqj4b"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="background: whitesmoke; font-size: 22pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></b></span><b><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">your museums, your beaches and your carnivals ... You are a land of prophets</span></b></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">AFRICA</span></span></b><span face=""Helvetica","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="background: whitesmoke; color: black; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 26pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHwHFiSitAfXUUSEYGaybaCVfnHkAMHIB38QzrwtdH_uWC1Eptwbmf1ShEbh-tQPqbLbIBd6MuyOfpSYmrfO1lpRbXk3FQgvIeVZiZ17LYMkguf8G50j_ksuZnE7PXH35IJE1U-dsNS1N/s1000/simon-njami-l-afrique-doit-creer-son-propre-marche-de-l-artm435641.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHwHFiSitAfXUUSEYGaybaCVfnHkAMHIB38QzrwtdH_uWC1Eptwbmf1ShEbh-tQPqbLbIBd6MuyOfpSYmrfO1lpRbXk3FQgvIeVZiZ17LYMkguf8G50j_ksuZnE7PXH35IJE1U-dsNS1N/w480-h480/simon-njami-l-afrique-doit-creer-son-propre-marche-de-l-artm435641.jpg" width="480" /></a></b></div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><b style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: arial;">Africa, you are a goddess in the image
of God</span></span></b><p></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 16pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 16pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b><b><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The article</span></b></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 16pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"> RISKING THE UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD</span></span></b><span face=""Helvetica","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">All
music is our music,</span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">all languages
are our language;</span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">our
common home is Earth</span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">and the
whole world is our family.</span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 16pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">by Eloy Roy</span></i></b><span face=""Helvetica","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I
am one of those men and women of the Foreign Missions Society who, sent out for
a hundred years on the roads of the world, carry within themselves the Gospel
of Jesus of Nazareth…</span><span face=""Helvetica","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">We did
not bring Jesus to the countries where we went, because he was already there
much before we set foot there. For a hundred years, we have walked alongside
him, cross on shoulder, resurrection in heart, sometimes in pain, more often in
joy. </span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">We have
seen the venerable <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">China</b>, the eldest
of nations, whose civilization dates back to five thousand years; we have seen her
humiliated, ransacked, disembowelled and buried alive. Today, for better or for
worse, she has risen at the head of the world. </span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Paralyzed
by the nuclear monster, immortal <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Japan</b>
had fallen as low as she had ascended high in the skies. We have seen her rise
from nothingness with the strength of the Titan and give back to the Sun of the
Levant all the radiance of its former glory. </span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">We
arrived in the <b>Philippines</b>, marvellous islands, coveted, pirated, eaten
away by foreign empires. We have seen the people of these islands draw from
their guts and their faith the miracle of their survival and their march
forward. Courageous, warm and joyful, these islands have been for us a real
Promised Land where the abundance of the harvest has infinitely exceeded all
that we were able to sow there with both hands from the first days when we met.</span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: red; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span></i><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Having
landed in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Cambodia</b>, where strange
trees devour the ancient temples, we are moved witnesses of the miracle
returning from hell. An awful genocide, still very fresh in the memories, had
wiped out half of the entire population. Today, we have seen these people
regain quietly a taste for life. Through a veil of sadness that cast a shadow
over </span><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">her <span style="color: #1d2228;">looks, a pale smile
once again lights </span>her<span style="color: #1d2228;"> face.We find in it the
inimitable smile engraved on the lips of the 219 huge stone figures of the
magnificent Bayon of Angkor. We contemplate it and slowly work so that smile is
never erased from this martyred people called to live again for beauty and for
peace.</span></span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><u><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial; text-decoration: none;"> </span></o:p></span></u></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">We have
seen <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Latin America</b> a thousand times
raped, trampled, looted and martyred. Thousands of times we have seen her die
and come back to life, signing her most beautiful poems with her blood. </span><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Despite and against a majority of bishops stuck in an age in which they
felt invested by heaven to defend <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"law
and order"</i>,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"> </span></i><span style="color: #1d2228;">a legion of
witnesses to the gospel of Jesus have risen up. They were kidnapped, tortured
and killed, giving birth to a new consciousness. That consciousness does not
admit that one still proclaims in the world the Gospel of the prophet of
Nazareth without burning with passion for freedom, justice and equality as well
as for love, peace and worship, because any being endowed with reason as well
as every honest believer knows that without freedom,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>without justice and without an honest search
for equality, love is a lie, peace an illusion, and worship a comedy that
anaesthetizes and kills. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Unknown<b> Africa, </b>it is late that we reached
you. For centuries, you have bled yourself « dry » in the interest of
the West which has thus hoisted itself on your shoulders to reach the top of
the world only to then leave you trailing alone far behind. But, you who was
the cradle of humanity, you have shaken off the yoke and you are finding anew
your own identity</span><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">. Our eyes see it. By
your own and unique genius, you represent, like all the First Nations and all
the discriminated nations of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Earth,
an inexhaustible reservoir of new energies. You are one of the best hopes for a
new world that we are calling for with all our might and which is already
knocking at our doors. </span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Facing
challenges and risks of Himalayan size, we, the little people of the Foreign
Missions Society, have been, and are, less than a grain of sand. But at the
level of real people, of the human groups and of populations in which we have
implanted ourselves, we often have been a path towards a more human life. For
many crushed people, we have been a new lease of life. For many rejected, we
have been the fortune of a regained dignity. For many wounded, we have been
consolation and hope. For many in need, we have been a bit of a boost that they
needed to believe in themselves and to forge something <a name="_GoBack"></a>ahead
in life. </span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Looking
at things from where humans are born, suffer and die, not all the missionaries
were, nor are they, fanatics blinded by religion, nor sexual perverts, racists
or puppets of colonial powers. Few of them will perhaps stand out for the eminence
of their holiness or their heroism, but in the heart of those capable of
balancing things, the vast majority of those men and women are seen and
reminded as sincere friends, and above all, as true brothers and sisters in
humanity. And so, that is quite simply what we wanted to be </span><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">and what, by the grace of God, we want to continue to
be.</span><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Personally,
I do not think at all that we should believe in God so that we can bring our
stone to the construction of the great project of fraternity in the world. But,
as far as we are concerned, it is first and foremost because of our faith that
we committed ourselves in that adventure, since we believe with all our hearts
that God lives in us and in every human being, and that for all of us, he is
our Father and Mother. We believe that in the depths of all that we are, there
exists a seething source of life which makes all of humanity an immense
brotherhood. That universal brotherhood springs from the depths of the being of
Jesus of Nazareth and flows freely from his Gospel. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is that universal
brotherhood that our Missionary Society, within her limitations, wanted to live
to the fullest during her one hundred years of life. </span><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-language: FR;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And what she sincerely wishes now as a gift
for her hundred years is that all humanity, whether they are believers or not,
do as much as we did and do it even better. Because we, the
"missionaries" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(note that this
word is increasingly misleading and worn; it should be replaced), </i>we do not
have exclusive rights in this journey towards the great brotherhood. That is
why we gladly greet as our sisters and brothers the women and men around the
world who, in a thousand ways, are already on this path, and the millions more
who will continue to join. </span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-language: FR;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonospacing" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Living the Fraternity with all humans in an
openness, a freedom and a diversity </span><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">beyond all differences, all prejudices, all wounds, and beyond real
threats and fears</span><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-language: FR;">, in addition to living it in symbiosis with the Earth and the entire
Universe, is for us the most exalting experience to which humanity can be
summoned. For our Foreign Mission Society, participating in a project of such
magnitude is an incomparable privilege and an inexhaustible source of
happiness.</span></span><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> </span><span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="yiv7553310805msonormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Helvetica","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div>Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-79544833239732310452021-05-30T22:22:00.005-04:002021-05-31T11:14:57.547-04:00<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><span> </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: bold;">TAKING THE RISK OF
JOY</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBG25qgCJjrZqYsIcoJsNNuIC3T51cdrNKPhpoeFni9Fsy6hyLqBrGZJ8oaW_6xbxu3k6KtwDGpfG8S7jlMIQ3_Q5NMoQO09ggzFrnRB_2qttnVDEzKlm3toCwdxjf_qT-Y3v3uZC1f_M3/s744/sanfermines+foto++Adam+Jones+Flickr.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="744" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBG25qgCJjrZqYsIcoJsNNuIC3T51cdrNKPhpoeFni9Fsy6hyLqBrGZJ8oaW_6xbxu3k6KtwDGpfG8S7jlMIQ3_Q5NMoQO09ggzFrnRB_2qttnVDEzKlm3toCwdxjf_qT-Y3v3uZC1f_M3/w400-h210/sanfermines+foto++Adam+Jones+Flickr.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="text-align: left;">Festival of San Fermin, Pamplona, Spain <i>Photo:</i></span><i style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA"> </span></i><i style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA">Adam Jones Flickr</span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">by: Eloy Roy</span></span></b></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;">Written on the
occasion of the Centennial of the Foreign Mission Society of Quebec, these
lines are addressed to women and men, believers or not, lay or religious people,
who, by risking joy</span></i></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;">, <b><i>look forward to making a success of their lives.</i></b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;">For a hundred years, quite many young people</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"> let down their security belts and set off without any capsule, rocket
or rover in the direction of distant worlds.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;"> Arrived among peoples</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"> mostly unknown</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;">, and with no more luggage than what they carried in their hearts, they
sought to be close to them as Jesus himself would have done. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;">By rubbing shoulders with these peoples, the missionaries little by
little discovered their wisdom and beauties. Though u</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;">ntil very recently these peoples seemed hardly existing</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;">,</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"> they </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;">soon took root in their hearts. With them the
missionaries grew up and cleared their way. Altogether they suffered, they built
important things, and they lived a true communion with a multitude of
possibilities</span><span class="jlqj4b"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: whitesmoke; color: black; font-size: 9pt;">.</span></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">All the missionaries of these hundred years have had the unique joy of
seeing so many faces light up when, by internalizing their faith in a God who
loved them and who believed in them, they discovered self-esteem and the
strength of a community, dared to think for themselves, started to be more
critical and to take initiatives, started to create, innovate and no longer
fear changes<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">Over the years, the missionaries have seen them </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;">get rid of fears, excuses, and alibis that prevented them of making
choices and of taking control of their lives. They <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>saw them run the big risk of giving themselves
the right to exist and raise their heads, the right to speak out and be freer</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">. After years of patience and waiting, they were fortunate to see them born
to themselves as if they had passed from death to life. It was for the
missionaries the greatest of all joys. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a name="_GoBack"></a><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;">That joy, the old missionaries like myself still savour it and no one
will ever take it away from them <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 16 :22).
</i>But if they share it with gladness, they know that this joy is not their exclusivity.
On the contrary, they are now more aware,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>according to </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;">an updated
theology, t</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;">hat their joy also belongs to all human beings who,
in one way or another, put themselves at the service of life. It belongs to men
and women of all nations and of every language and belief who protect life,
make it grow and fill it with sunlight wherever they are on earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is unique to all humans who, through their
daily activities or only through their way of being, contribute in a way to
make life less unjust and more humane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u><o:p></o:p></u></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Anyway, that
joy was for one hundred years the secret of the men and women who
wholeheartedly took the risk of going to live the Gospel far away from the nest
that had seen them being born. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Along the way,
they reaped great successes but they also experienced setbacks, failures,
exiles, internal and external conflicts, jealousies, constant tensions between
the status quo and the call for openness and change, and yet, despite wounds
and weariness, this joy has not died out. Far from weakening, it has grown
stronger. So much so that even nowadays, though faced with often unfavourable
winds, young women and young men, almost all born in other skies, in turn run
the fine risk of taking part in the same adventure.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;">«JOY»,</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"> this word resumes in three
letters the inspiration that, one hundred years ago, gave birth to the tiny
rocket « Earth-Skies- Inter-Peoples » known as the « Foreign Missions Society
of Québec.» It</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;"> was born in
the joy, which is none other than the joy of the Risen Jesus (</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;">John
15 :11).</span></i><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;">We are not used to connecting a history like this to the Rising of Jesus</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"> . Yet, without the Resurrection, that history would not exist. It is
the faith in the Resurrection that brought the members of that Society out of their
refuges so as to send them on the paths of the «other». It is the dynamic of
the Resurrection that brought them closer to those who are usually seen as
foreigners. It is the Resurrection that pressed them to overcome real
«impossibles» so as to meet these peoples often so different and live them as a
part of themselves. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;">In reality,
the Resurrection is more that an olympic medal chiselled in a diamond that
would have been awarded to Jesus for his many merits. The Resurrection is
essentially the starting point and the arriving point of all Revelation and of
the entire Creation, including the Evolution. It is its motor, its central
pivot and its highest point. To read our one hundred years of mission without
connecting them tightly to it would be like separating a tree form its roots,
the river from its source or the human body from its proper heart. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;">Even when it
hides, the Sun does not stop keeping the Earth in its orbit and energizing it
with its rays. The same thing happens with </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the joy of the Resurrection which is
like the Sun in our nights. It is the cosmic and divine energy which flows in
our veins and in the veins of all humanity and </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;">will not be “complete” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(John 17:13)</i> until it reaches the confines of Creation after
irrigating on its pass the entire thickness of our terrestrial reality.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;">In the meantime, the Foreign Mission Society will cheerfully carry its
hundred years of life as a springboard and humbly continue to pursue its</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;"> march forward by following the inspirations of the Risen One. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 14.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus said: «I have
told you this <span style="background: white;">so that <u>my joy</u> may be in
you and that <u>your joy</u> may be complete</span></span>» </b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt;">(John 15: 11). <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-57903240209612935642020-03-18T16:23:00.000-04:002020-03-18T19:22:33.457-04:00THE NASTY CORONAVIRUS<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqW0lC7g4gLF_ZU4DjUZ3UmxBo5rV39NwK-gkDsIW9v6MSXusPaqMusWpajRHsn27X4Gm4KslkFhTz_dAntAyWDHCKKx0tQvcARQ-voLoC52OPz0gHYbhW34AUbsjnt0_jpkQHA8slCrI8/s1600/CORONAVIRUS+SOURCE+FOUND+IN+PANGOLIN+MEAT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqW0lC7g4gLF_ZU4DjUZ3UmxBo5rV39NwK-gkDsIW9v6MSXusPaqMusWpajRHsn27X4Gm4KslkFhTz_dAntAyWDHCKKx0tQvcARQ-voLoC52OPz0gHYbhW34AUbsjnt0_jpkQHA8slCrI8/s640/CORONAVIRUS+SOURCE+FOUND+IN+PANGOLIN+MEAT.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv7115720402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> Daily Maverick</span></i></div>
<div class="yiv7115720402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv7115720402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Coronavirus source found in pangolin meat</span></i></div>
<div class="yiv7115720402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv7115720402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="yiv7115720402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">by: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Eloy Roy</b></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv7115720402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="yiv7115720402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Every
second that the good Lord brings, our large industry produces tons of greenhouse
gases. The world has a fever, a dry cough and serious breathing problems ... It
is intoxicated. Cancer is in our lunch boxes. Fish are born with two heads, birds
with two beaks and we die like flies. Like good drunkards, we got used to these
things. We don't make a big deal out of it. It is not terribly serious, we tell
ourselves. These are the side effects of a thriving economy ... What is needed
is to stimulate growth even more. With exponential growth, all problems will be
solved. It will be the end of poverty. What a blessing!</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv7115720402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But the
nasty coronavirus has arrived. All borders are closed, the Stock Exchange is
nose diving, the price of oil is reaching a distressing level. The global
scourge of crazy tourism is slowly buried in the golden coffins of gigantic luxury
liners ... Masses are canceled. The Vatican is closed. Céline Dion is on leave.
We make love with gloves ...</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv7115720402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During
this period of "just" wars which aims to protect the interests of
"the greatest" civilization of all times, they do not take a rest.
Behind the few vague desires to come to the help of less favored nations, and some
kind of solidarity or charity efforts that often yield more profit to the
donors than to the beneficiaries, we try to outdo one another in killing,
raping, torturing, devouring vulnerable populations; we squash, ignore or
despise the innocent, women, children, natives, people of color ... And we
practise corruption on a sublime metaphysical scale.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This system
which we adore with enthusiasm (because it has been identified with peace), and
which we nourish with our prayers, our money, our generosity and with all the
love of our hearts, causes billions of nameless crimes. And yet, all this seems
"normal" to us, does not require any planetary mobilization, no
global demonstration, no emergency measure. We all sleep on gas.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But here comes the bad guy that we did not see, the
nasty Coronavirus, to call it by name, gets into our house through the
doorknobs, handkerchiefs, toothpicks, farts, kisses, in schools, in the metro, in
planes, in stadiums and in countless temples, large and small, where we crowd
to flatter, adore and "boost" our finest delusions; here it comes,
yes, to upset our beautiful "normalcy" and, without notice, it screws
up everything.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
articles however serious and full of good faith, devotees suggest that while
waiting for the vaccine of salvation against this nasty virus, we return to our
practices of yesteryear, and stock up on our old beliefs, like lighting candles,
recite novenas, etc., (no holy water, however ..).</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Still,
if we were able to unmake the world, we also have the power to remake it, even
better. This power resides in our neurones and in the veins of our heart. Time
has come to go down there ...</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">From
past disasters, we have learned at least that Hitler, Stalin or characters like
Trump are not the best guides. Neither do our old-fashioned religions.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Let us
wage a merciless war against the nasty Coronavirus, since it is necessary, but,
please, let us not forget the other pandemic which is much more serious, the most
ancient, the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>deepest rooted, and toughest of all: that of
an extremely rich world which since always enriches the rich and condemns most
of humanity to a meager survival and premature death. This is the real scourge
to fight against, the real science to develop, the real religion to practice.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="FR-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">March
2020</span><span lang="FR-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY JACQUES BOURDAGES</i></span></div>
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Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-61058024021354792242019-12-23T15:25:00.003-05:002019-12-23T15:25:44.375-05:00CHRISTMAS 2019 IN 3 STEPS<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">1- ON THE TRESHOLD OF THE STABLE<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZKDQPrPIl0FyvGqkHpRYeT6_dV6M3AV9o4-uLU2kouHJ-MDJmU0eY_5-te9ffJDqz3POfCJS71KP3_qn0G0-KOj8tJ6JLzorbRAo1I9zKW67AoQR8TsYqgrg0cAmgqE9Djl8Mhv-xm-lz/s1600/A+blogue+grange+gratuit+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 700; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="182" data-original-width="277" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZKDQPrPIl0FyvGqkHpRYeT6_dV6M3AV9o4-uLU2kouHJ-MDJmU0eY_5-te9ffJDqz3POfCJS71KP3_qn0G0-KOj8tJ6JLzorbRAo1I9zKW67AoQR8TsYqgrg0cAmgqE9Djl8Mhv-xm-lz/s400/A+blogue+grange+gratuit+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Hello, God! Come in! No, no, you don't bother at all. In fact, you don't
take up much space.. . I now understand why nowadays many people don't pay much
attention to you ... You are so small!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">I was waiting for you on the clouds of the sky and here you appear in a
stable. I was figuring you shining like the sun but you are coming as a little
refugee child. I'm a little surprised, but you're welcome. I wanted to be nice <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by imagining you very tall and very above us,
but I see that your greatness consists in making you the smallest of us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Perhaps you want to tell us that a big person is not someone who has
stopped being small, but a little one who simply has grown up. And that there
is no full life, no future, therefore no "salvation" without the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"little one" in you and the
"little ones" around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The "little one" in you is the innermost and most secret part
of your inner being, and the "little ones" around the world are the
children, of course, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but they are also
families, neighbours, whole peoples that our old "way of being" has
maintained for centuries in a state of inferiority and misery by refusing them any
serious possibility of growing up ...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">From your smallness, God, you want to tell us great things. Come on in, make
yourself at home ...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">2- IN THE STABLE<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTi33XM3HAbUvsUv0ukZTNlu0UQ_JMsDR7FV45DX3T1qzugune7yZ_Gysvjx9KqCKCEU9wHR7HT3OSkyXhZYJeM3Dw9H3jRAMxmAxZaXyeYMyPrc_5cOLrSZhKK01EHPk1P8kKVUDzGLJG/s1600/no%25C3%25ABl+2014+1024x708.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 700; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTi33XM3HAbUvsUv0ukZTNlu0UQ_JMsDR7FV45DX3T1qzugune7yZ_Gysvjx9KqCKCEU9wHR7HT3OSkyXhZYJeM3Dw9H3jRAMxmAxZaXyeYMyPrc_5cOLrSZhKK01EHPk1P8kKVUDzGLJG/s400/no%25C3%25ABl+2014+1024x708.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">I don't wonder wether Jesus was God or not. I just tell
myself that if God speaks through birds, wind, light and all the events of
life, he surely spoke through Jesus of Nazareth. In any case, that’s what his
early disciples ended up believing. And that's what I believe too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">When the evangelist Luke tells us about Jesus who
comes into the world in a stable, it is not a historian, a journalist or a
scientist who writes, but a believer, that is to say someone who is capable to
glimpse the Reality looming behind the signs that appear to him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">What this Luke story tells us is that our
“all-powerful” God is not scary. He comes to us as if on tiptoe, making himself
as small and fragile as us. Luke wants the world to know that, although our
home is nothing but a stable, God has chosen to move in with us. Why? Because
he believes in us and loves us a lot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">God knows that one day we will understand that our
future as humans is no longer in the laws, nor in the temples, nor in
petroleum, or mining, or drones, or growth at any cost, nor in the stock market
or in our armies, or in buildings a hundred times higher than the pyramids, or
in the famous LHC, or in ever more science, more police, prisons or bombs ...
but quite simply in a "way of being" totally different from what has
been ours so far…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Certainly, we have accomplished grandiose things with
our current "way of being", but the fact remains that of a paradise
we have made a "stable", <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>our
Earth has become a huge trash can and half the world has turned into a
cemetery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Why did we get there? Could it be because we are half
angels and half demons? No, but probably because we are humans who are not yet
completely born to their total humanity…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The way we see and we think, the way we live, our
"way of being" that brought us to the current situation, is creaking
everywhere. Everything tells us that we have to mutate. That we are ripe for a
huge leap forward which will lead us to "be born" for good to all
that we are wonderful at the bottom of our being.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Human evolution is sluggish, but according to science,
it occasionally takes great leaps. It is one of these leaps that the 21st
century invites us to.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">At the start of the last two millennia, Jesus himself
made one of these dizzying leaps from a stable and a cross. Crossing our deaths,
he shook us to awaken the life powers that sleep in us. He opened the way for
us by training us towards another "way of being" where, since our
reality of flesh, we are allowed to live a truer, wider, deeper, freer
humanity. With him we are heading towards our true stature, where everything
will be integrated and unified, where in us and between us there will be no
more barriers, no more abyss that separates us from ourselves, from all of
humankind , of Nature and of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">For this great leap forward, God himself, by pure
grace, comes to pick us up in our "stables". Whether we are believers
or not, the great features of heart and mind of this Jesus born in a stable but
who now stands on our tombs, will sooner or later become embedded in our DNA,
deep within our being. A new "way of being" will flourish in us. We
will begin to become more truly human.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span><b style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 18pt;">3- Star of the Magi versus
"Black Holes"</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiERwU-ApeFyuHMY5O6q3d_GfBxJTKdixIfLfPtwWGHTHUYv1AuoUlCPC1Rzh5k4KHF9pVfuGl-swmMSbMueIi6G4aiqs3MJEWSIPzF2vj8Lo43ecqBJJQldmiK9XSB8G9wpOlCmzeX0B0x/s1600/A+bl+le-jet-de-matiere-s-est-propage-a-une-vitesse-proche-de-celle-de-la-lumiere.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 700; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="1200" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiERwU-ApeFyuHMY5O6q3d_GfBxJTKdixIfLfPtwWGHTHUYv1AuoUlCPC1Rzh5k4KHF9pVfuGl-swmMSbMueIi6G4aiqs3MJEWSIPzF2vj8Lo43ecqBJJQldmiK9XSB8G9wpOlCmzeX0B0x/s400/A+bl+le-jet-de-matiere-s-est-propage-a-une-vitesse-proche-de-celle-de-la-lumiere.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Black hole swallowing
a star</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"> There are 100 million
black holes in the universe<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">As Jerusalem, the capital city of the great king
Herod, approached, the Star of the Magi disappeared as if it had struck a
"black hole". The black hole is an astronomical monster that devours
the stars without letting the slightest spark of light escape from them. There
is therefore no possible peace between the Christmas Star and any system that
stands as a "black hole" in front of peoples' rights, in front of
democracy, in front of the voices of young people, women, natives, immigrants,
and which turns a deaf ear to the cries from the street and to the signs of
distress from the Earth itself ...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">As soon as it approaches these "black
holes", the Christmas Star fades and disappears. But it always comes back.
Sometimes it comes back on where you least expect it, like in Iraq, and in
Lebanon and even in Iran. In Hong Kong, it holds out. In Chile, Haiti, Algeria
too. Sometimes a great corrupt leader leaves, a head rolls, but that is not
enough. Something new is wanted. At the sight of the White House, the Star runs
away... Around the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vatican, she looks
out of breath but she hangs on as tight as she can. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">In fact, the Christmas Star never dies. When she
reappeared at the Magi, a celestial network came to warn them that their life
was hanging by a thread, because King Herod was very angry with them. His
secret services duly informed him that in Bethlehem these foreign Magi had
discovered a newborn baby in a stable, they knelt before him, greeted him like
the King of Kings and covered him with gifts. On hearing that, Herod was on the
brink of apoplexy. "I am the only king here!" he exclaimed, tearing
his clothes. Were it not for the Star which showed them a path by which to
escape, the poor Magi were cooked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Cheated by them, Herod therefore entered into an anger
which is still spoken of today, because, to calm down, he ordered the massacre
of all the children of Bethlehem who were less than two years old. The idea was
to kill in the bud the slightest hint of possible sedition around this kid that
the Magi had worshiped as a kind of god.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The child of the manger, this improbable seed of
subversive, barely escaped the fury of the king, because Joseph, his father,
having already smelled the affair, took the toddler with his mother, and the three,
in the middle of the night, fled just in time to Egypt. In exile, in the same
country where 1250 years before the incredible saga of the people called
"People of God" began, the beautiful Star that Herod had almost
extinguished, refuelled with energy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">A year passed, then Herod, for once in his life, did a
good thing: he died. The Star danced with joy. Without wasting a minute, she
set off again and returned to the country with Joseph, Mary and the little one.
This time, she headed straight for the brawler Galilee, the former stronghold
of Nephtali and Zabulon. Normally, this little corner of the universe would
have been a paradise, if, for centuries, the whole world had not envied its
magnificent lake, its fertile land, its fish, its figs, its vines, its sheep
and its ideal location for trading with neighbouring and foreign countries. It
had been torn from all sides. Galilee was bled white. She couldn't take it
anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">It was in this Galilee that on returning from Egypt
the Star grew. It was there, on the lakeshore, that she took flesh, bones,
heart, blood and face and that she became "Jesus".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">In the person of Jesus, she walked with the trampled
people of the country and made only one flesh with them. She raised them,
restarted them, took them out of their tombs. The Christmas Star, in the person
of Jesus, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>became the "light of the
nations".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">It didn't last three years. The little Herods who had
replaced the old man who was dead, still made the country tremble. In addition,
the presence on the ground of the Roman Legion (real band of wild elephants
released in a shopping center) did not help matters. So the "black
hole" of Jerusalem - Bethlehem - Galilee still had a bright future ahead
of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Especially since he could count on the total
collaboration of the clique of high priests and religious experts who behaved
as if they were themselves the Living Truth. From the Temple fortress where
they sat enthroned, they waged a relentless war against all strong-headed
people who did not obey every beck and call.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Now our Jesus-Star was just one of those " strong-headed
people", <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>because he was a free man.
He was not a yes-man (like a bunch who later claimed to be his disciples) ...
He was himself the headache of the Temple tenants. The latter, after having
accumulated an overwhelming case against him, threw themselves on him like
hyenas and they<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>shattered him on a
cross. In midday the world plunged into the darkest night of the universe. The
Star this time was dead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">But, whether we believe it or not, in the very place
where there was nothing left but emptiness and death, the Star reappeared
smoothly in the same breath as the rising sun of the first day of a new
Creation. Simple fishermen who had not caught a single fish during an endless
night suddenly "awoke". They got up and launched joyfully on all the
paths of the great adventure of the humans by sharing without counting a fish
with flavour of resurrection and morning of eternal spring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Today, after two thousand years, these brave fishermen
have aged. They are terribly tired. They can no longer find cheap labor to do
the work for them. They are unable to innovate, unable to invent. They no
longer know how to create. They are prisoners of their world, and although
still alive, they are already embalmed ... In any case, there is no longer a
great future for them. It is clear that the "Black Hole" has won. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Will the Star recover? Will she surprise again? Will
it come back on? ... I swear yes ... But I also swear that things will never be
the same again. NUNCA MÁS! Everything will be completely new!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">ELOY ROY</span><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">"See, I make all
things new" </span></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">(</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Revelation 21,5). <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-39067515600042744822019-11-27T13:50:00.000-05:002019-11-27T20:41:06.325-05:00DRIED BRANCH AND CUT FIR<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPut6QzmKjhV098jnP2ZHLw4OTbQjiMHCAhs1P7EYZcBss9qRqtMel2FHTcZZvpBC390TCYw7rBb6zYC_WuuQJuMZy84jWJWhgXa6zw1EzTuOZ2YkT2s2j8ICyD-GHgXgBHdrpz7WuNCEA/s1600/Arbolito+de+vida+5+%25283%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="806" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPut6QzmKjhV098jnP2ZHLw4OTbQjiMHCAhs1P7EYZcBss9qRqtMel2FHTcZZvpBC390TCYw7rBb6zYC_WuuQJuMZy84jWJWhgXa6zw1EzTuOZ2YkT2s2j8ICyD-GHgXgBHdrpz7WuNCEA/s400/Arbolito+de+vida+5+%25283%2529.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">In a land of mountains and sheep that I loved, we had
a Tree of Life. In the off-season, when everything seemed to be over, we took a
dry branch, decorated it with small balls of colored wool, and said, "They
represent the fruits we will reap tomorrow. Because again the Earth will
green</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">and life will flourish again. It
was our Christmas Tree, it was our tree of hope.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In December, in a cold country like Canada, we cut a
tree and say, "Nothing grows. Winter is back, life is gone ... But you, cut fir, we bring you home and we dress you with shiny balls and garlands of
gold. With you we defeat death. We affirm that nothing is finished ... Already
we see shining at the end of your branches new fruits. They are beautiful as
stars. Life was buried today and she fell asleep, but tomorrow she will come
back! "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4P0hcP8VtM5CD8Q_wg0x5Ves8wdCwT7SP-7hHEb8IgiRf1k74Ce-SX5jtgSO1UTXLyFX1X5V7iW-NS5Uzz6g9O4JxYcbOHgctjg65BYGxNq_4IM9tYN0wMTiWjlzKNNSEI-BZxUvxohtn/s1600/NOEL+BOULES+boules-noel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4P0hcP8VtM5CD8Q_wg0x5Ves8wdCwT7SP-7hHEb8IgiRf1k74Ce-SX5jtgSO1UTXLyFX1X5V7iW-NS5Uzz6g9O4JxYcbOHgctjg65BYGxNq_4IM9tYN0wMTiWjlzKNNSEI-BZxUvxohtn/s320/NOEL+BOULES+boules-noel.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes, life will reappear as surely as the sun will
return in the spring. Hold on, natives of my country,</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">yellow jackets from France, resistance fighters from Hong Kong,
Catalonia, Chile, Haiti, Algeria, Ukraine and Kurdistan: the sun is already
rising in the winter of your battles! All of you who are struggling with the
Goliaths who are trying to decide your fate in Bolivia, Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq,
Iran, Venezuela, Mali, Xinjiang and elsewhere, hold on! As always, the great
powers pretend to rescue you to better divert your resistance to their
advantage, don't let them fool you! You, the lucid, the persecuted, the poor,
you, the last of this world, hang on! And you too, planet Earth, so massacred,
so devastated, so mortally wounded. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Right now, all over the world, you, ignored people,
are straightening your heads. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You seize
the freedom of speech from which you had been robbed and you face tear gas,
batons and water cannons. With umbrellas you make fun of the balls of the
Empire ... Hold on! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By pushing back some
corruption champions, you have already given them a chance to make perhaps the
only honest gesture of their lives: that of resigning ... But you aim further.
It's all the System you want to throw overboard. Sharks expect no less. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Thanks to you, life wants to come back in our winters.
On the dead trees begin to glow beautiful fruits. Christmas is the future of
the world. By snuggling in a crib and suffering a thousand calamities, Life
will eventually outwit the old Herod for good. Evil cannot last forever because
it carries in itself the seeds of its own ruin. Only good never dies. Let's hold
on!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Eloy Roy<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-21832769545497717892019-09-25T15:17:00.002-04:002019-09-25T15:47:26.470-04:00GRETA <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrM4K1QH4cRVcE4hWy5FPKQO5-s9kWr45kzXIP3hWmB5svs_YcNyGMa-sEk6n-TWXdICChyphenhyphenZUepRTqL7D-u0pYkaYZQz_oONYlXMYAgjIFl2pNPhZq5Fxlss9uP5DFBJpyu5IyIZ4NToi/s1600/blog+poumon-terre-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="700" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrM4K1QH4cRVcE4hWy5FPKQO5-s9kWr45kzXIP3hWmB5svs_YcNyGMa-sEk6n-TWXdICChyphenhyphenZUepRTqL7D-u0pYkaYZQz_oONYlXMYAgjIFl2pNPhZq5Fxlss9uP5DFBJpyu5IyIZ4NToi/s400/blog+poumon-terre-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The
measured people, the ones who see themselves as the norm of what is wise and civilized,
do not like Greta: too emotional, too apocalyptic, even bordering on
fanaticism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to them, she
should shut up and go back to school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Two millennia before, other "politically correct" people
wanted to silence John the Baptist because, like Greta and many others, he saw
fire and shouted: "Fire! Fire!"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Later, for similar reasons, they also tried to close their mouths to
Jesus and his followers. But it was Jesus who close their mouths answering them
in a heartbeat: "If these people keep quiet, the very stones will cry
out!" <i>(Luke 19:40).</i></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Greta's
speech at the UN: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In English:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMrtLsQbaok">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMrtLsQbaok</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-22002613986349529022019-08-15T21:01:00.000-04:002019-08-15T21:05:01.825-04:00LET HIM BE RID OF HIS STRIPS!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIeQ6e_jEA3MxunmGwpIKXdDFMqjsjbLpKKg5SkwhIyKuLInjDMZ2blUEtTYzv3_cTYkgWphMxzS7D-EmJJgej9hXwfr8hV3UHPtC1N74X73r_jJE-086DBepdrcOfcBqx3pEUDypqSpEw/s1600/Blog+momie+Colortout.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="505" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIeQ6e_jEA3MxunmGwpIKXdDFMqjsjbLpKKg5SkwhIyKuLInjDMZ2blUEtTYzv3_cTYkgWphMxzS7D-EmJJgej9hXwfr8hV3UHPtC1N74X73r_jJE-086DBepdrcOfcBqx3pEUDypqSpEw/s320/Blog+momie+Colortout.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">As I meditated on the resurrection of Lazarus in the
gospel of John 11:1-44, it came to my mind that even RELIGION can be a killing
machine. As a system, indeed, Religion is a bit like an iron box that too often
strangles God and shrinks him rather than revealing him. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gospel is quite the opposite: it open boxes,
it awakens, resurrects, "reveals" (i.e. "removes the
veil"); it frees from frames, it opens paths, brings to light what is
hidden; it takes you out of the grave. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Lazarus was a very good boy and a great friend of
Jesus, but he lived sunken </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">since ever
in things of religion. He did not have a personal life. He was «dead to the
world». For him, the world smelled bad. For the world, however, he was the
one who did not smell good ... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Upon learning that Lazarus' situation had reached a
critical point, Jesus was perturbed by that. He approached the place where his
friend had locked himself up like in a tomb, and shouted to him, "Lazarus,
get out of there! ». He went near the tomb of his friend and shouted: «Lazarus,
come out!»</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Lazarus rose up, breathing in the fresh air with his
lungs full. But he couldn't walk. Strips were holding him from head to toe. Every
strip that bound him was a fear</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">: the fear of
displeasing God, the fear of making a false move, the fear of not observing the
commandments to the letter, the fear of not carrying out the religious duties
in an exemplary way, the fear of<span style="color: red;"> </span>not repeating
exactly the same sacred gestures, the same sacred words, the same sacred
thoughts and the same sacred mission programmed from time immemorial by
religion; and, above all, the fear of deviating from the standards set by the
religious morality that the cult sanctified. The fear of not always obeying
religious authority in every detail. The fear of getting out of the ranks
established by the religious order. The fear of what could exist outside the
walls of religion. In short, the fear of the «world», the fear of being a human
being, the fear of the human adventure, the fear of freedom, the fear of the unknown,
the fear of the other. Lazarus had become a religious mummy, a plaster statue,
an embalmed living creature.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.4pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Because sometimes Lazarus could
have had in a flash a personal thought or a hint of doubt, or could have taken
a quick look over the fence and enjoyed it a little bit, he had about himself a
strong feeling of being a trash. Remorse was gnawing at him. He was full of
feelings of guilt. His face was ashen. The ulcers perforated his stomach. He
loathed<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>being a human. He was dead.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"> Let's just say he had fallen into a coma. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">« Lazarus,
come out! » shouted Jesus at him...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>« Let him be rid of his strips!»… Right now, fear is over and, in spite
of everything, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>trust begins: trust in
yourself, trust in the human being, trust in life and trust in God!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">For us today, who is this Lazarus in the tomb, who
stinks for the world and is entangled in his strips?... This Lazarus is simply
the old Church; the Church of the Law, the Church of Fear, the Church of Death.
It is that old Church which, nowadays, by the grace of God, is falling to
dust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">But the Lazarus who listens to the voice of Jesus over
all the other voices, </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">the Lazarus who comes
out of the tomb alive, Lazarus who gets rid of his strips, this Lazarus, as beautiful
as a spring, is the eternally new Church, the Church of the Risen One who
gently grows on the ruins of the other. <span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The voice of Jesus is the secret. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The voice of Jesus, indeed, is not any kind of voice.
It is not the voice of the books, nor the voice of tradition, nor the voice of
the hierarchy, nor he voice o religion. However, it is not either the
voice of anarchy, chaos, panic, libertinism, consumerism, or of the
«free for all». It is not even the voice of the prudent and
reasonable people; and, even less, the sacrosanct voice of the sacrosanct
consensus at all costs, or of the «right balance» between yes or no.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The voice of Jesus is the voice of the Good News that
is, was and will always be a «scandal» for the devout , and pure «madness» for
the rationalists and the wise people, may they be believers or atheists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">In other words, Jesus' voice is the unshakeable trust
in the intelligence and fruitfulness of FREEDOM</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"> in spite of everything! It is the assurance that
creativity, novelty, daring, love, compassion, justice and peace are not only
sweet ideals; they are rather <u>real forces that are buried in the depths of
all and every human being</u>. Once awakened, these very concrete energies
have the great power to build, ordain, turn on, transport, transmit and
transform life<span style="color: red;">. </span></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Jesus' voice is the voice that awakens these energies
and penetrates the heart of every human being with words that overcome every
coma: "Come out of your grave, lift your head, drop your bandages, walk!
Open your eyes and see that life is pure opening to a larger world. It goes
from deaths to resurrections like a flower that blossoms endlessly." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">« You,
Lazarus, come out of the grave! »…Not only out of the grave of that
anesthetising religion which keeps you prisoner of your fears and of your sweet
dreams, but also the grave of the new religion of cynicism and arrogance which,
on the pretext of being in step with one’s time, makes of the pompousness of
the super ego the absolute norm of the good, of the truth and of the beauty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 106%;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 106%;">Drop everything?..... But no, Lazarus... Once you're well free of your
grave and of your strips, </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 106%;">you can always, if that fancies you, recuperate the
words, the gestures and the clothing of the former religion, but on one
condition: that these signs no longer prevent you from walking or spreading
your wings and flying in the sky with breathtaking acrobatics that could amaze
the stars.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 106%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv6170254402msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span> </span><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: large;">Eloy Roy</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="yiv8065096762msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-1408257331643677582019-05-27T14:17:00.003-04:002019-05-27T15:40:26.796-04:00THE FOUR OF LA RIOJA<div class="yiv0313884764msonormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Duty of memory <o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv0313884764msonormal" style="background: white;">
<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> «</span></b><i><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">You
hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets end decorate the monuments of the
holy men. You say: had we lived in the time of our fathers, we would not have
joined them in the blood of the prophets... And now, finish off what your
fathers began!» (Matthew 23, 29-32)<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></i>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSQt_cewM7fv0gRBtfdCYdvzwLUxxDWEJ0VYs_v9F-xR1GM3NYpO0j9AtwSJ4RxJSu2OvfQx0XuZJk6n4IG4KERpq2oauirIQfuJZ8tppsdrpDtV7Mb-jU8v8Ho0mtzVaadUNPhA8rHV2J/s1600/ang+Wordpress+2015-05-15-08-07-25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="214" data-original-width="598" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSQt_cewM7fv0gRBtfdCYdvzwLUxxDWEJ0VYs_v9F-xR1GM3NYpO0j9AtwSJ4RxJSu2OvfQx0XuZJk6n4IG4KERpq2oauirIQfuJZ8tppsdrpDtV7Mb-jU8v8Ho0mtzVaadUNPhA8rHV2J/s640/ang+Wordpress+2015-05-15-08-07-25.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fotos; Word Press</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Four witnesses of the Gospel have just been beatified in Argentina. They
are Enrique Angelelli, Carlos Murias and Wenceslao Pedernera. The three were
Argentines; the first was a bishop, the second was a Franciscan friar, the
third was a committed lay peasant. Their companion, Gabriel Longueville, a
French missionary priest, was also beatified with them. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The four men lived in
La Rioja, an impoverished province in the hinterland, where, in 1976, </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">waited for them a
brutal end. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Who would've believed that? Forty years ago,</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> a merciless military
dictatorship takes place in Argentina. Many bishops, priests and catholic faithful
welcome that dictatorship as the «God-given arm» from heaven to save the
country from distress. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And so, in less than 6 years, that «arm of God»
overloads the shoulder of the State with a debt impossible to repay, shoots
15,000 persons, </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">makes 30,000 people disappear,</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> takes 10,000 political
prisoners and forces to exile more than million people. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And then, this same
"arm of God" goes to La Rioja, and treacherously murders four men deeply
</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">committed with the poorest people of that </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">impoverished</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> province</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But recently, on May 10 of this year, this same Catholic Church declares
martyrs and "blessed" in the heavens the four men murdered by that
same dictatorship that she herself had
glorified as the "arm of God"! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While these four men of God were in grave danger, and the Church, which
knew everything about that (because it
had privileged access to the dictatorship), not only did not lift a finger to
defend them, but, on the contrary, did everything to discredit them and make
the burden on them even heavier. And now, forty three years later, when they
are dead and the dictatorship has been overthrown, she declares simply in the
face of the world that these men were not demons, but saints.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Saints, they were indeed, and they became so because they committed the very serious sin of</span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">disturbing. They lived among the poor and the discontented. They denounced the prevailing </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">injustice and fought it. They became involved with groups that claimed their rights and called </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">for changes. They did not push anyone to violence, but did not hesitate to make it clear that </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">the terrible violence ravaging the country was not caused by the poor but by those who </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">abused them. That violence did not come from overexploited workers who had every reason </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">to revolt, but from the enormous injustices and intolerable inequalities caused by the corruption</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">the rapacity, the harshness, the blindness, and the cruelty of the great proprietors, of their men </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">of hand and their unconditional friends of the police and army, copiously formatted</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, I</span><span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">ndoctrinated,</span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">armed and led by the "big brother" of humankind who is still alive, and who is very well known, </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">envied, revered and hated all over the world.</span></pre>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Four of La Rioja have never eaten at the table of billionaires. They never blessed or praised</span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">the Dictatorship that violated, tortured, imprisoned, shot, wiped out thousands of people, swearing</span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">to cleanse the country of all the "subversives" (like them) who dared to dream of a fairer society.</span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">They did not recognize any legitimacy for the militaries who used their weapons to commit even </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">worse atrocities than the ones that they claimed to fight. They regarded them simply for what they </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">were: usurpers and killers, even if General Videla, the supreme leader of the dictatorship, went to </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mass and received the holy communion everyday, and his right arm, the Admiral Massera, played </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">tennis on weekends with the Apostolic Nuncio. <o:p></o:p></span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">They did not obey these authorities, nor that of most of the bishops who, before the atrocities </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">that were committed in the country, washed their hands or remained silent, or who, by indulging </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">in acrobatics about love, forgiveness and peace showered the death policy of the dictatorship </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">with holy water. They preferred "to obey God rather than men", as the apostle Peter declared to </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">the High Priest so boldly the day after the murder of Jesus in Jerusalem (Acts 5, 29). They had </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">no other teacher than the Jesus of the Gospel, the one who came to bring peace, but not any </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">kind of peace nor at any price.<o:p></o:p></span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">According to them, there was no doubt that in La Rioja Jesus was fighting with them to help the </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">exploited peasants to raise their heads, with the results that we know. When men and women </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">strive to live and act like Jesus, they end up being slandered, despised and often ridiculed by </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">their own brothers. One day, they are murdered. Just like Jesus. This is what happened to the </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Four of La Rioja.</span><o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "inherit" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">At the time of their death, there were not many people crying for them except a handful of brave </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">human rights activists and a number of diehard Christians who still wanted to walk according to </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">the gospel in spite of everything. Except also a few cranks like me who, </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">since the Second Vatican </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Council, </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">had the naivety of believing in another Church.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> I</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">t took an Argentine to sit on the papal throne so that the bad </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">reputation of the Four of La Rioja </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">would be washed away. This beatification, which they would never have imagined, is, in fact, a </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">beautiful act of justice that honours this pope; it is also an appreciable balm on the hearts of the </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">thousands of other victims of the fierce dictatorship. But, unfortunately, it might also be a kind of</span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">"embalming" for the dictatorship itself with all its rottenness and all the cowards who, within the </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Church, have cooperated with it without having shown until now the slightest repentance.</span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></pre>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I would not be surprised if, to cover the crimes of
the elite, pious "beneficent ladies" of high society start raising
money to build and decorate a magnificent monument to our new
"blessed", but It is certain that, despite the condemnation by the
courts of a good number of criminals of the dictatorship, there are still
thousands of them who are smoothly sailing as in the best of all worlds.</span><i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span></i><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Argentina has not recovered from the evil that has been caused to it, so that as long as there is </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">something to be stolen in the country, the dark forces that have generated so many dictatorships</span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">and engendered, not four, but hundreds, even thousands of martyrs in the past, seem to still </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">have a bright future ahead of them.<o:p></o:p></span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The dictatorship may have been overthrown, it is not sure that it did not win. Nor is it certain that</span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">the well-deserved beatification of the Four of Rioja is enough for the Church to regain its beauty.</span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Unless the new "blessed" get down to the arduous task of realizing for their country and for the </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Church miracles of a very special magnitude.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></b><b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Eloy Roy<o:p></o:p></span></b></pre>
<pre style="background: white;"><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">May 2019<o:p></o:p></span></pre>
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<pre style="background: white;"><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></pre>
Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-26038451568066948372018-11-03T21:03:00.003-04:002018-11-03T21:12:19.810-04:00FROM A POND OF PIRANHAS INTO A SWAMP OF CROCODILES<br />
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhznSm2n2FX0_1I4bdnejXKEDyNnjCgDGU1GwobcsphdD3WaLnSqgtnC8pR0hexpML30TVnEVneeS-u1uMszf3n1r5xVTc5823nDtLZBOe70q_UtSwRgpTBRwS-Fvz-y-Dt0LmxCyf-Ehsi/s1600/Carav+INTERNET.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="1057" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhznSm2n2FX0_1I4bdnejXKEDyNnjCgDGU1GwobcsphdD3WaLnSqgtnC8pR0hexpML30TVnEVneeS-u1uMszf3n1r5xVTc5823nDtLZBOe70q_UtSwRgpTBRwS-Fvz-y-Dt0LmxCyf-Ehsi/s640/Carav+INTERNET.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Photo Internet</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><i>Running away from Honduras
towards the USA </i></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 8.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For more than 60 years, we,
the missionaries of the SME, have walked along with the people of Honduras.
With a straw hat on our heads and a machete in our hands, we have walked at
their side, riding on mules, by foot, by motorcycle, by jeep…In the oppressive
heat, in spite of malaria, the amoeba, and other details, we have overcome the
mountains, opened roads, built schools, dug water wells</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 22.0pt;">. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Through radio
and other means, we have transmitted basic knowledge that allowed to shake
fear, resignation, the feeling of helplessness. From the religious faith of
that beloved people, a sincere faith but often paralyzing, we have made a motor
of awakening, of hope and of dynamism so as to walk together towards a better
world. We worked tirelessly at the formation of thousands of humble agents of
social and ecclesial transformation. Some of us were at the heart of a movement
that led a good number of families grappling with insoluble problems of poverty
towards new rich lands in the middle of the jungle. We saw thousands of brave
people take charge of themselves and find themselves capable of being masters
of their life and of their destiny. Violence that was everywhere had mostly
disappeared from the scene.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But all of a
sudden appeared at the horizon something that we had not foreseen: the plague
of drugs.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Cocaine, the queen of drugs, left Columbia (and also Peru and</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Bolivia) and
went up towards the USA, where it can be purchased at a good price and where it
is consumed as manna coming from heaven. It made its way throughout central
America, sowing fear everywhere on its journey. It was used to finance the
strong forces that confronted one another<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>in the region and fed the atrocious wars that caused more than 300,000
deaths in El Salvador and in Guatemala. As a result, thousands of people of
those two countries, including from neighbouring Honduras, took refuge in the
USA and went to fill up the reserves of cheap labor at the center of the
Empire. Cramped in the most obscure neighbourhoods of California and in the
surrounding areas, many different groups initiated themselves with the latest
refinements of drug trafficking, and also learned how to create gangs capable
of imposing their rules. Those gangs drew so much attention among the criminal
networks of the USA that the American authorities began to hunt for them and
sent them back to their countries of origin. Back home, those gangs called
"maras", <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>engaged in
never-ending battles among themselves so as to control the territory. That
violence goes on until now. In Honduras only, we count everyday about
twenty murders connected to drugs. As for Mexico, it has transformed itself
into a real human slaughterhouse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The madness of drug…fed by what? By the north American market. The
Americans wage wars throughout the whole world pretending to «render service»
to humanity, but they are incapable to combat the plague of drugs on their own
territory. Why? Because they don’t want to. And they don’t want to because
drugs earn them billions and billions of dollars.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During that time, we, the missionaries of Honduras,
are powerless looking at the huge fire that threatens to reduce to nothingness
our most beautiful dreams for that country. Yet, through the dense smoke of
that kind of "quema", we can only but admire the "kamikaze"
courage of those caravans that are heading for the Wall, even if we have no
illusion about the issue of so a desperate adventure.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And God in all that?</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">"Quién sabe"..It is not impossible that he is there, in the
middle itself of those caravans, walking, suffering or dying with those brave
people, with his eyes fixed on an Earth without walls where, tomorrow maybe...,
humans will all be welcome like beloved children of the same home. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Eloy Roy</span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">T</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">ranslated from the French by Jacques Bourdages</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-69368743610730269992018-10-16T14:38:00.000-04:002018-10-16T14:38:18.487-04:00ROMERO, THE TROUBLEMAKER<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">In his message for the World Youth
Day 2013, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Pope Francis enthusiastically told thousands
<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">of young people coming from all over the
world: <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">"BE TROUBLE MAKERS<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>!" Now, he has just <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">elevated to sainthood a bishop from
Central <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">America who, for sure, caused
trouble even <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">when he had against him two Popes and
the <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">majority of the fellow bishops of his
country. </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Canonization of Romero, the
troublemaker</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">A good move</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Romero who, from being a reactionary became a revolutionary, was
declared a saint by pope Francis. A very good move, indeed! Romero actually was
a saint of nonviolence and forgiveness, but above all, he was a saint of
justice. He is among a few other saints the saint of the voiceless, a saint
anti "establishment", a saint of the liberation of the oppressed, a
saint who confronted identified oppressors with their machines of exploitation
and destruction. Romero is a saint who incarnated the Gospel of Jesus by
defying very powerful contrary forces, especially those most cunning and cruel
ones coming <u>from within</u> the Church itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">It is to be hoped that the canonization ceremony, the pompous masses,
the golden haloes, the pink cheeks, the palms, the relics, the flowery pictures
and the indulgences will not emasculate that valiant defender of the poor.
Romero has not been canonized to perform miracles like curing kids from scarlet
fever, or the mother/father superior from diarrhea, but to confront directly
the political, economic and social system that, in El Salvador as well as in
all world countries, creates poverty and maintains its growth and its lasting
existence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Romero once belonged, but does not anymore belong to the clerical
apparatchik. He is the blood brother of the millions of dispossessed in a
country taken over through force and corruption by fourteen families who manage
it like their own «ranch». That oligarchy is surrounded by heavily armed
acolytes who look like a kind of under product of the yankee empire. To kill or
to have killed almost a hundred thousand farmers dispossessed from their land
does not weigh a thing for them, and they would not let an archbishop ruin
their «party»…</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">By canonizing Romero, pope Francis (who, as a Latin American, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>understands those things), is making up, in
part, for a very severe injustice. He proclaims in the face of the whole world
that the battle waged with all his strength by that man in his country was not
the battle of a lunatic communist activist but that of a faithful disciple of
Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Salvadorans know very well Romero’s killer: a high ranking army officer
who was never prosecuted. This canonization should encourage them to continue
without respite to call for justice. Let us dare hope also that it will inspire
a real and sincere remorse among the bishops, the priests and the lay people
who have spared no effort to make immensely heavier and more cruel the cross of
Romero. Let us hope also that from heaven, the Polish pope (already canonized)
will at least shed a tear. He had answered the cries of distress of his brother
archbishop of El Salvador by lecturing him and making him cry. He even sent him
out of his pontifical bureau by telling him to stop harming the military
government of El Salvador that, even if it was not always a good catholic, at
least it had the merit of not being communist (!)… This took place at the
Vatican, barely two or three weeks before Romero be shot and killed in the
middle of the mass by a henchman of that good catholic government of El
Salvador.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Nowadays, Oscar Romero is praised here and there as the patron saint «of
a Church that had to pay the price of blood for having had the courage to oppose
itself against military dictatorships». That is true, but we have to know what
kind of Church it is all about. There are two churches: the one from above that
for centuries played in the yard of dictators and of people stinking rich, and
a church from below that was the church of Romero. In a large measure, the
church from above was a direct or indirect accomplice of real rivers of blood shed
by many Romeros and by thousands of men and women identified to the cause of
the poor. Saint Romero is certainly not the patron saint of that church from
above which has, moreover, the very bad habit of canonizing (so as to recuperate
them) those it has contributed in crucifying. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">In any case, Romero is definitely not the patron saint of the Opus Dei,
of the Legionaries of Christ and of other organizations of the catholic right
that were mandated by John Paul II and by his successor, Benedict XVI, to bring
to an end the Theology of liberation, to the basic ecclesial communities and to
the «Church of the Poor» for which Romero (and thousands of others) shed their
blood in Latin America. To forget this or to keep on denying it would be equal
to spit once again in the face of the man whom pope Francis has just canonized.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Let there be no misunderstanding about that: the greatest sin of the
Church is not the scandalous actions of priests and bishops against the sixth
commandment, but its visceral rejection of its own prophets, less they are dead
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Read Matthew 23: 29-32).</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">This being clarified, may the new, courageous and magnificent saint of
the Americas, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, be known and imitated in the whole world!.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Eloy Roy</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-8462601517785723182018-09-28T23:37:00.003-04:002018-09-29T14:15:28.728-04:00FROM THE SHADOW TO THE SILENT WORK <div style="text-align: justify;">
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<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-large;">SEPTEMBER 29, 2018</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>A STRING OF 17 SHORT MESSAGES</i></span><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: x-large;">Shadow</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPt_xgoIaWtiibnOxrgWuSwBrFCFG022vc3uesHfl2IWOkZDGmsrXmFQGtXAdTeMHKQbX0H1rsV94r5xddKzZiDuB3DtkUoMb8v1VxbxKFc88tTc3NgXFJu-cfTORPQ30CmGVxYlxd8y0A/s1600/Blog+SHADOW.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPt_xgoIaWtiibnOxrgWuSwBrFCFG022vc3uesHfl2IWOkZDGmsrXmFQGtXAdTeMHKQbX0H1rsV94r5xddKzZiDuB3DtkUoMb8v1VxbxKFc88tTc3NgXFJu-cfTORPQ30CmGVxYlxd8y0A/s400/Blog+SHADOW.JPG" width="266" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Only in the light<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">you may see the shadow</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">but the light indeed</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">does not create the shadow</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">the night</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">does not make the day</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">life</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">does not give birth</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">to death</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">myself I create the shadow</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">when I block the sun</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Huge miracle</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">While rushing
towards self-destruction, we continue to grow in number, in knowledge and even
in consciousness. Is it not a huge miracle? ...</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">The cross</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiR2KVVHM-jt7sfnVPT6K3Zv_mqfeGRJrpSfvLKDu_MzZWzNwvrOETPYYUzcIbX0lXrSey7YVtFXgqXgQvFk3ZBtagFHdij1Vk7yqM97kdIF47DvWXKPzCTKgBdWD8FyH2BzT0aXM5jFgt/s1600/BLOG+SAILBOAT+coolstuffontheinternet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="639" data-original-width="960" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiR2KVVHM-jt7sfnVPT6K3Zv_mqfeGRJrpSfvLKDu_MzZWzNwvrOETPYYUzcIbX0lXrSey7YVtFXgqXgQvFk3ZBtagFHdij1Vk7yqM97kdIF47DvWXKPzCTKgBdWD8FyH2BzT0aXM5jFgt/s400/BLOG+SAILBOAT+coolstuffontheinternet.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>coolstuffontheinternet</i></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The cross of Jesus is not about turning away from
the Earth to chase after Heaven, nor choosing the divine by rejecting the
humane; it's about becoming one with the two, as the boat is to<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>the sail.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Feet washing </span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKC6V2HajB-gaJw7tMDi66Oa5DeEOZXMxed3ahQTeCeFzd56rDVBQ2RnBkp7EKYENWlEsmKOkoWovP5PuL0SIedfQcoXb0D_rwY01sRtC-H6IRr2n4mjVDBCTjKXItQkgEuuD6mL1YE5k1/s1600/blog+lav+arroser.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKC6V2HajB-gaJw7tMDi66Oa5DeEOZXMxed3ahQTeCeFzd56rDVBQ2RnBkp7EKYENWlEsmKOkoWovP5PuL0SIedfQcoXb0D_rwY01sRtC-H6IRr2n4mjVDBCTjKXItQkgEuuD6mL1YE5k1/s1600/blog+lav+arroser.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As if we were plants, Jesus
leans over us and waters our feet so that </span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">we grow in humanity. Maybe he would
also like to shine our shoes as </span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">the little lustrabotas of the South do, while
he himself goes barefoot</span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> like them ... </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Anyway, washing our feet or
shining our shoes, Jesus just wants us to know how a leader must act in his
community: not as a commander, but as a caring brother. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Eppur si muove!</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">And yet it moves!</span></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtkfsDL-ZvLatuas8lIxBuR-QTAjRqAr5wjKW3NdH6WlwCD2JPtENcmbbhs4vzmFMLk1gE7Vs_AERApSeK5sZiAbqkxSu9ysgEDt6WMabHfT1XzaD08vEGuIt3qYWzieiurxWk9EnCRVBa/s1600/Blog+galileo-church-pope-cartoon+WordPress.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="513" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtkfsDL-ZvLatuas8lIxBuR-QTAjRqAr5wjKW3NdH6WlwCD2JPtENcmbbhs4vzmFMLk1gE7Vs_AERApSeK5sZiAbqkxSu9ysgEDt6WMabHfT1XzaD08vEGuIt3qYWzieiurxWk9EnCRVBa/s320/Blog+galileo-church-pope-cartoon+WordPress.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">WordPress</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: justify;">We do not "feel" that the Earth turns,
and yet, it took millennia of observation to admit that it turns indeed.
Similarly, if you don't "feel" directly the existence of God, if you
are not able to see, to touch, to analyze God in the same way as you observe,
feel with your hand and explore any object, that is far from being a proof that
God does not exist. It is only a proof that God is not an object.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It is rather the proof that the tools that are
created to scan matter are not very useful to scrutinize the fields which go
beyond matter.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But here comes the big question: is there really
anything outside of what is called Matter? Just ask quantum physics what Matter
really means... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Is not God simply Matter itself which would be made
of life, intelligence, love and power going beyond everything: a God at a time
infinitely immanent and infinitely transcendent? ...<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">The old lady</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBj6Li6ermLIlo9X9XDK22Z2flbvJvEWLAvdWtA29CCxJAfuXQdsiXhOMdHADGNZf8C_8p364amRapI2dX5HykkK3qQX2PVwIPKd2FeAV1gDB94vwWFMD4WoVnVYdch6LVyY09koyGZxlF/s1600/blog+nuevo992nu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="470" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBj6Li6ermLIlo9X9XDK22Z2flbvJvEWLAvdWtA29CCxJAfuXQdsiXhOMdHADGNZf8C_8p364amRapI2dX5HykkK3qQX2PVwIPKd2FeAV1gDB94vwWFMD4WoVnVYdch6LVyY09koyGZxlF/s320/blog+nuevo992nu.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">She was so old<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">and so poor<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">that she had
eaten<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">
</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">all her teeth<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">The devil’s find</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9KR5nasVHKtvI7GRxZc7-9eFTlybxVldO7OlxGIEsNL9PsfvnA59JnYoFbJtYAKW65AAQBKvTwYXhtfIUcpLQ3LwW8u4q-yIduYdVIkuYMWWqsPLg1UsatfXvjOwsK6vZV_MUjmnb1O-u/s1600/BLOG+DEVIL.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="218" data-original-width="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9KR5nasVHKtvI7GRxZc7-9eFTlybxVldO7OlxGIEsNL9PsfvnA59JnYoFbJtYAKW65AAQBKvTwYXhtfIUcpLQ3LwW8u4q-yIduYdVIkuYMWWqsPLg1UsatfXvjOwsK6vZV_MUjmnb1O-u/s1600/BLOG+DEVIL.png" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A devil who has just arrived in town cries out:
"Eureka! I have found something that is foolproof. You are going to see
the Catholic Church get bogged down in molasses for eternity! "The master
blow consists in bringing into the head of the church the brilliant idea of
imposing celibacy on priests. "I am going to make them believe," says
the devil, "that this brilliant idea comes from none other than God!"</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But this devil, a little behind the times with the
news, comes close to dying of a massive myocardial infarction when he discovers
that, with her rule of obligatory celibacy for priests, the Church is already
ahead of him for 1713 years. It never really worked - and today maybe less than
ever - but the Church holds to it to the death.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">"I did not have to lift a finger," says
the devil out of spite, "and it's been almost two millennia since the
Church put herself into molasses. What infuriates me the most is that she loves
molasses! </span><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">"</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Server </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jesus, man of Nazareth, you
are the universal Server of all human computers. You are our Connection with
all that overwhelms us. You are the living link that puts us in touch with all
men, women, children, youth and elders of every language, every culture,
religion and nation in the world. By your flesh, your blood, your word, your
spirit, you make of all of us one body. You connect us to the stars and
establish us in a deep and personal loving relationship with "THE ONE WHO
IS". You are our Brother in humanity and our great Server in unity. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Great Recycler</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jesus took
upon<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u> </u></i>himself our garbage,
rubbish and cancers, our decay, our death and everything else. By his Breath of
creative love, God turned all that scrap into light ... "Great
Recycler" is another name that I would like to give to the Risen One.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Karma and grace</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Karma is a
law as old as the world. This law says: you harvest what you sow. In other
words, you are destined to endure indefinitely the consequences of your
actions, good or bad.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nobody rids
oneself of his karma. You are chained up to it.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">To
freeyourself from your bad karma, very respectable religions offer you tricks,
including the sacrifice of yourself until the complete annihilation of your
being. It does not always work ... But do not despair. After millennia of trial
and error, anguish and guilt feelings, the human conscience has given birth to
an absolute novelty which is named: "Grace".</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Grace means
Free. Everything is free. God himself is entirely Free. God is Grace. All sin
is forgiven; all debt is erased, sacrifices are abolished.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A man, whose
memory has come down to us, lived this reality by loving even those who nailed him
on a cross. Many have seen in this man the very face of God. With him, the long
process of purifications and reincarnations that has no end, and the endless
chains of guilt, revenge, and hatred come definitively to an end.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">With him, God
joins us in our sludge. He searches for us in the depths of what we are. He
raises us, remakes us in his image, "by pure grace" <i>(Ephesians
2: 4-6).</i> Death itself is destroyed.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Believe it or
not, we have entered already "the Resurrection Era".</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It cannot be
seen yet, but it's on the move! For the time being, things are still taking
place slowly at the level of the roots...</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Floods<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFfylVSpHYBB__HJJ2KPyxeVfm8hE2SPSXBOZ9NpPYzwGl_3dHS2eXOoiKsewcc3lgDhs1bQhiPDd7MAKjdO2vXAyhSbDEW0KwNl9sGc6S0SYVSFlCTlwPx9Gd6GUaEf6JH-rC1a3f2UPv/s1600/blog+fishing-boat-i-horacio-cardozo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFfylVSpHYBB__HJJ2KPyxeVfm8hE2SPSXBOZ9NpPYzwGl_3dHS2eXOoiKsewcc3lgDhs1bQhiPDd7MAKjdO2vXAyhSbDEW0KwNl9sGc6S0SYVSFlCTlwPx9Gd6GUaEf6JH-rC1a3f2UPv/s320/blog+fishing-boat-i-horacio-cardozo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The river was so
high<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">that a duck and
his sheduck<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">took a rowboat<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">to cross over</span><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">The losers</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-q0hMWB9kH3hS5G9PzLLdg1XZ_BfMJcUXFncMYJy3P9i3KWyFuNvecFkkvGNUqhkRqR0ffNn2ysaG6qtPYtQx8NjjxhdweH4b7_je5Zbz5Guoeb5yVa0TvM-SKk7eN-nDXEPptXDyrRCf/s1600/Blog+Libyan+Migrants+attempting+to+reach+Europe%252C+walk+towards+a+detention+center+near+the+coastal+town+of+Guarabouli+in+July+2017+%2528AFP%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="620" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-q0hMWB9kH3hS5G9PzLLdg1XZ_BfMJcUXFncMYJy3P9i3KWyFuNvecFkkvGNUqhkRqR0ffNn2ysaG6qtPYtQx8NjjxhdweH4b7_je5Zbz5Guoeb5yVa0TvM-SKk7eN-nDXEPptXDyrRCf/s400/Blog+Libyan+Migrants+attempting+to+reach+Europe%252C+walk+towards+a+detention+center+near+the+coastal+town+of+Guarabouli+in+July+2017+%2528AFP%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The winners
are sometimes crowned as gods. That’s o.k. But the others, those who always are
at the tail end?... What happens to the lowest of the low, to the
eternal losers in beauty, in love, in friendship, in tenderness;
to the losers at work, in competitive sports<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and in canonization contests ? They are
always there waiting in line and longing for a chance that never comes. They
languish and suffer.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">With God,
it's different. He loves to crown everyone, both losers and winners. To all of
them he pays the same fair and reasonable salary, and offers them the same
trophy. Starting with whom? With the losers.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">God is not
only fair, he is also truly good.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Read: The
workers in the vineyard, Matthew 20, 1-16</span></i><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">When Jesus blows his top</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-xzVoydtFsTJjuwtuDBSZx2RxreHp3rJKGDp_gGPgWb-y9pMlS9FYnKHWBlsAl4TDxbLsxPEl6G4mCLgT5p7PA2Jx1V9BrOkzOb_6NuVpTCgN-saf5JySeilWBu08vGqtPh8WNaFbsIZE/s1600/Blog+missi+interbible.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="548" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-xzVoydtFsTJjuwtuDBSZx2RxreHp3rJKGDp_gGPgWb-y9pMlS9FYnKHWBlsAl4TDxbLsxPEl6G4mCLgT5p7PA2Jx1V9BrOkzOb_6NuVpTCgN-saf5JySeilWBu08vGqtPh8WNaFbsIZE/s640/Blog+missi+interbible.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">interbible</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">You make a
whip and you hunt the sellers, the merchants, the profiteers, and all those
charlatans who destroy the great Temple of the Earth. You drive out those who disembowel
the Earth, who empty it of its entrails, bleed it white, poison its
waters, its air; those who tear it apart, rape it, tear it to pieces. All those
who profane the huge Temple of Nature, the wonderful home of the human family, you
kick them out ... You make a whip and you chase the whole bunch with<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u> </u></i>their bulldozers, their
insecticides, their drills, their cyanide, their oil, their old tires, their
bombs and their dirty dollars ...</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt;"> </span><i><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">(Mark: 11, 15-19)</span></i><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Wind and Sun </span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwyTqUOiNa7_pY286nVJqyR3H3FUzK8SRuTw7UKPEm0lk7t36pkqNKntfZmUAF6x3bNDHSBkuOBLxhvyaf4ITc0KyzUjo8lv611ZsqQdJBRqNTvUeI8Xv4kP6Nu71nRMw4EVtm33WwERqs/s1600/Blog+%25C3%2589nergie-solaire-et-%25C3%25A9olienne+VivAfrik.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwyTqUOiNa7_pY286nVJqyR3H3FUzK8SRuTw7UKPEm0lk7t36pkqNKntfZmUAF6x3bNDHSBkuOBLxhvyaf4ITc0KyzUjo8lv611ZsqQdJBRqNTvUeI8Xv4kP6Nu71nRMw4EVtm33WwERqs/s640/Blog+%25C3%2589nergie-solaire-et-%25C3%25A9olienne+VivAfrik.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">VivAfrik</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Despite
her numerous sins, her advanced age and accumulated fatigue, the Church still
believes that she carries a new world in her womb. In order to take back her
breath, she remembers, each year at Pentecost, that it was in a whirlwind and
under a shower of fire that she was born (Acts 2: 1-4).</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Strange
coincidence ... Our world is actually discovering that the windmills and solar
power will free us from fossil fuels and save the planet.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Wind and
Fire of Pentecost, the Aeolian and Solar energy: twin brothers, always new,
clean and renewable! A new youthfulness for the Church and a sure future for
the new world that is sprouting in her womb. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Life is always new</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkHuhmqAMxFIE87vFFeZcg1RdmW_WXefRNVTezyKtE3ZZ4uVR6QbbvDx21NDd57smV3mowVyMhnLqw_Vi8sD9lSSGY3pzJ1GUgm4iRXbYtXUt7btJzJKu3KfDUg4-ZzMGrTAdWotGZp5cl/s1600/missi+eau.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="182" data-original-width="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkHuhmqAMxFIE87vFFeZcg1RdmW_WXefRNVTezyKtE3ZZ4uVR6QbbvDx21NDd57smV3mowVyMhnLqw_Vi8sD9lSSGY3pzJ1GUgm4iRXbYtXUt7btJzJKu3KfDUg4-ZzMGrTAdWotGZp5cl/s1600/missi+eau.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> As long
as it lasts, life is new in each one of its moments. It is never the sum of all
the experiences that would have piled up since the beginning. Like spring water
that is always new, so is life in me. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It flows all the time. In abundance. In great gushes!</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Love is
always new also; old love is not love anymore. If it grows old, it stagnates,
dies out and disappears.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There is no
old God either. God is always infinitely new. He would get old and die the
moment you imprison him. He is like those birds that refuse to eat and let
themselves die if they are caged; their life is freedom. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So is God.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The gospel of
Jesus is never old Good News. If, for a single moment, the gospel would cease
to be new, it would no longer be the gospel. Every page of what is told about
Jesus is a surprise. Each step after him is a step towards freedom and
creativity, and often towards an impossibility that becomes a possibility. So
it was yesterday, so it is today, so will it be tomorrow and forever and ever.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nothing is
more similar to death than what does not move or change; nothing deadlier than
what is always the same.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
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<b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;">My happiness</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnEgZsRXTWnY2OTFyZETCpwV94lZ8KRQqq2q9iFFXsI_YyyxfdoPS9D36MGz-0NOwd8A87LntzONyPTidz7YocmXTb9V3lk_amTIicoeU9J2KiRsBrT6xCWjiGJ3pa6AM5Vxn4cpNIZ0sx/s1600/Blog+happiness+Daily+Times.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnEgZsRXTWnY2OTFyZETCpwV94lZ8KRQqq2q9iFFXsI_YyyxfdoPS9D36MGz-0NOwd8A87LntzONyPTidz7YocmXTb9V3lk_amTIicoeU9J2KiRsBrT6xCWjiGJ3pa6AM5Vxn4cpNIZ0sx/s320/Blog+happiness+Daily+Times.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The lamp lights up</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The bird sings</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The brook runs down</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The wind blows</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The fire warms up</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The tree produces its fruit</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And me?</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I do your will, Lord,</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This is my only happiness</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">If I look</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">for a different food</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The lamp no longer lights up</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The bird remains silent</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The wind dies out</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The fire goes out</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The tree turns into stone</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The river dries up as a bone</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Silent work</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSeNogSHz4e0KHMYXXbcUATeZVL80NIZWxmKUKXOSxzSXEgl1C0ZZVgxthXB5lihmSUGHyn0kpyajSMSAYmRYUatGzK_BzC2uZZC0y9DzAZ4bOBAvdaYB3XswbaShww86galHLgXHR3qyI/s1600/Blog+Palme+Google+Sites.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSeNogSHz4e0KHMYXXbcUATeZVL80NIZWxmKUKXOSxzSXEgl1C0ZZVgxthXB5lihmSUGHyn0kpyajSMSAYmRYUatGzK_BzC2uZZC0y9DzAZ4bOBAvdaYB3XswbaShww86galHLgXHR3qyI/s320/Blog+Palme+Google+Sites.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">While I am resting in you,</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Life of life,</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">you seep like water<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">into</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">my emptiness</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">and silently,</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">along my shores,</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">your Kingdom grows<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><b style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Eloy
Roy</span></b></div>
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<br />Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-42922959360982125322018-08-31T21:01:00.003-04:002018-08-31T21:01:22.088-04:00ABDUL SAM-ON<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw6_-_UFK9Q4Lq7RaxKL1YOottim6Lgo5XhbtC8my5T6eeoGjPrQbMJjOsbAFMcghuC5E0TCG5wIHf67oHD4sbP1TEW1r3UT3aoTT5VnLZsv24AFEOuGLGftq7RbpzI935SMxy3BqYuSue/s1600/Blog+Abdul+Sam+On++Kurier.at.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="543" data-original-width="614" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw6_-_UFK9Q4Lq7RaxKL1YOottim6Lgo5XhbtC8my5T6eeoGjPrQbMJjOsbAFMcghuC5E0TCG5wIHf67oHD4sbP1TEW1r3UT3aoTT5VnLZsv24AFEOuGLGftq7RbpzI935SMxy3BqYuSue/s400/Blog+Abdul+Sam+On++Kurier.at.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Kurier.at</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Abdul Sam-On:</span></b><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">You are a Burmese and you are 14
years old. For eight years, you have lived in Thailand. The Buddhist and highly militarized Burma, where you come from, uses to starve, hunt and kill people like
you, because you are a Rohingya and a Muslim, and you are suspected
of terrorism.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">At the age of 6, you were forced to
go into exile with hundreds of thousands like you. After a very long walk, you
crossed the border of Thailand. Since you do not have an<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>identity card, under the law you have no rights, you don't exist,
you are nobody. Since you don't even have the status of a refugee, you are
not welcome in Thailand, but you are tolerated... However, you speak five
languages: Burmese, Thai, English, Mandarin and Wa. You play the guitar, you go
to school and you are an excellent football player in the <i>Wild Boars</i> team.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Last July, during an excursion, you
and your <i>Boars</i> friends, you found yourselves imprisoned in a
very deep and extremely dangerous cave that the torrential rains of the monsoon
suddenly flooded. The water rushed furiously behind you as you sought refuge
deeper into the rocky cavities. Water<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>had
been rising for days. At the spot where you managed to huddle, the flood made
narrower and narrower the little space that allowed you to breathe. For nine
days, until blessed British divers managed to spot you, you lived the horror:
little air, total darkness, nothing to eat, hardly a trickle of water to
survive.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The rescue operation, complicated and
risky to the extreme, could only start after another eight long days. In this
operation, one of the Thai divers lost his life. In the end, risking the whole
thing, you happily all came out of that chasm unscathed. The witnesses speak of
a miracle.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">How could this happen? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">You, Abdul Sam-On, you have been the man of the situation. Being the only one able to communicate in
English, you were the lifeline between your companions and the British
rescuers. Without your knowledge of English and without your wits and coolness </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">, in a word, without you, young undocumented Rohingya and illegal
immigrant, this cave would have been, with all certainty, your tomb and that of
</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">the whole <i>Wild
Boars</i>.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thanks to you high above, dear Abdul
Sam-On, for what you are and what you did. Thank you also to the good Thai
Christians who, eight years ago, welcomed you as a real son in their home.
These good-hearted people have transmitted to you their faith in a God who
loves not only Christians, Buddhists, Burmese and Thais, but also Muslims,
Rohingyas, undocumented migrants, refugees, foreigners and illegals. And,
of course, he also loves brave Australian, British and Thai rescuers. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">When everything was over, your
fellow <i>Boars</i> told the media with great emotion that in the depths of the cave you
had prayed a lot to God, and God answered your prayers.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">You who continue now to be a zero
before the law, you have been no less than the "savior" of your
twelve brothers. Your story is great. It looks really like that of the young
Joseph of the good old Bible. It even sounds like the story of Jesus himself,
who also had twelve friends and committed his life to connect humans<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>to each other to lead us, through
millions of mountains and ravines, outside many perilous caves of this world,
including the cave of death.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv9743158037msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 7;"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Eloy Roy</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<br />Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-71523819827436578392018-05-30T16:59:00.000-04:002018-05-30T17:02:26.046-04:00MAMOUDOU<br />
<div class="yiv1138164735msonormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFH5BpjBOAoGH4AoFD4j5ChyphenhyphenOK7_bSveFKP73oAZTQD-jgiPpsWEcdlLsBmIz8pSCfVztOT_UNNmqzsLhzWU4mrXLXxMStghP6evIno81STE6yQYqGZlqFbOQ6g6o2savSKPSqiIM0qZ5L/s1600/Ici+fr.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFH5BpjBOAoGH4AoFD4j5ChyphenhyphenOK7_bSveFKP73oAZTQD-jgiPpsWEcdlLsBmIz8pSCfVztOT_UNNmqzsLhzWU4mrXLXxMStghP6evIno81STE6yQYqGZlqFbOQ6g6o2savSKPSqiIM0qZ5L/s400/Ici+fr.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv1138164735msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="yiv1138164735msonormal" style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="yiv1138164735msonormal" style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;">I</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">n Paris, Mamoudou Gassama, an illegal resident coming
from Mali, climbs barehanded in 30 seconds up to the balcony of a fifth floor
and saves the life of a 4 years old child hanging in the air. That heroic act earns
him on the spot dazzling fame and allows him to earn the French nationality.
What an achievement! </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv1138164735msonormal" style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdYRmGfTTUTXiS95fI6FQdtfbFwlxhEFwJRC3LhDAW2W8CKDiqSt-RwETDUK537JBDOGP8pjNlUgwl3_zmAIHcLbIAY5g1MBz3KIZtKyM9xGb-Ti9TwbTkKz3dawf-sj10WuE2HRlrrmdf/s1600/Mamoudou.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdYRmGfTTUTXiS95fI6FQdtfbFwlxhEFwJRC3LhDAW2W8CKDiqSt-RwETDUK537JBDOGP8pjNlUgwl3_zmAIHcLbIAY5g1MBz3KIZtKyM9xGb-Ti9TwbTkKz3dawf-sj10WuE2HRlrrmdf/s400/Mamoudou.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv1138164735msonormal" style="background: white; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Internaute.com</span><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></b></span></i></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15.05pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #101010; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15.05pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #101010; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">« I was afraid, but I did not think at anything,
I just thought about saving him, and thank God, I saved him. And then, we
entered the apartment, I began to shake, I could not stand on my two feet
anymore» </span></i><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #101010; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">he explained,
all moved.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv1138164735msonormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1138164735msonormal" style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">If all human beings cannot be like Mamoudou, it is not
because we lack energy; what we lack very often is the spark.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #26282a;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv1138164735msonormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1138164735msonormal" style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">That spark resides in the heart of the
humble of the Earth who risk their life each day to carve for themselves a
little place on the planet. Used to storm<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>mountains deemed insurmountable, it is not the five stories of a
building in Paris that will frighten them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv1138164735msonormal" style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Our </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">future
belongs to people like them. </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><span style="color: #26282a;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv1138164735msonormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1138164735msonormal" style="background: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Translated from the French by Jacques Bourdages</span></i><span style="color: #26282a;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-80920034252334649852017-12-14T14:33:00.000-05:002017-12-14T14:33:09.612-05:00A SELDOM SEEN VISIT IN JERUSALEM<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAdXUfBeOSPchZT4MR5pMUXZHLZzekrQ_y26TpE59eTTYgNy7W4-7B8Ji36cFFoSbH9PG0diOh6WphWzUmBinTbFWszh_DXN_zIL107z8WT-b6s-YQXwlLwXEJHdE7-lYiO6VYkgr5SdTH/s1600/ois+colibris-de-Tracy-Johnson-13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="717" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAdXUfBeOSPchZT4MR5pMUXZHLZzekrQ_y26TpE59eTTYgNy7W4-7B8Ji36cFFoSbH9PG0diOh6WphWzUmBinTbFWszh_DXN_zIL107z8WT-b6s-YQXwlLwXEJHdE7-lYiO6VYkgr5SdTH/s320/ois+colibris-de-Tracy-Johnson-13.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pic.:Tracy Johnson</i></span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">I had a dream. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">The chief Rabbi, the chief
Mufti, Benjamin and Mahmoud took their seats around the negotiations table. They
are waiting for Trump. But, instead of Trump, it is God in person who presents
himself at the meeting (he had not showed himself in the region for ages…)</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">The negotiations have not
yet begun that already daggers are being drawn with one another:</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">- Jerusalem is the
capital of the Jews!</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">- No it is that
of the Palestinians!</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">- We arrived
here 3000 years ago! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">- You were away
for 2000 years and we came. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"> It is
from this place that Mohammed went to heaven...</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">God sighs, the Temple of
the Mount shakes. Total silence. God takes the floor: </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">I will be short. In your opinion, dear Jews, Jerusalem is your eternal
capital. But here we have a little problem: your temple that was destroyed by
the Romans 20 centuries ago, you are dreaming of rebuilding it on the same spot
where it stood, that is, exactly where actually stand two of the most sacred
mosques of the Muslim world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">As for you, dear
Palestinians, those two mosques built on the location of the former temple of
the Jews are untouchable. They are the eternal proof that God preferred Islam to have his glory
radiate throughout the world. Jerusalem, therefore, cannot but be the capital
of the Palestinians. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Well, time has come to shed
light on the one who I am. I may surprise you, but I am Yahweh and I am Allah as
well. In reality, I am the unique God, the same God for your two people and for
the whole world. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">First, I must thank you for
that faith which drives the Jewish community wishing to build for me a
magnificent temple, and for the same faith which drives the Muslim community to
sacrifice everything so as to protect its admirable mosques. But since the deadlock
has been going on for nearly 70 years and that you go on self-destructing one
another about the whole thing, I beg you to take note of this. Without
intending to hurt you, I declare, from the bottom of my heart, that NEVER AGAIN
DO I WANT TO HEAR ABOUT TEMPLES OR MOSQUES. I DON’T WANT THEM TO EXIST ANY
LONGER! </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">In the Bible, the prophets taught
in many ways that I was fed up with sacrifices and with all that the humans imagine
to honor me. That same teaching can be found also in the Koran; if not, it
should be added in these words: THE ONLY TEMPLE AND THE ONLY MOSQUE THAT I WANT
IS A CLEAN HEART. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">This means a heart that
does not lie, that does not cheat, doesn’t take revenge, does not have one’s
heart set on taking over the planet and squash everything that he does not
succeed to take control of. I want a heart that is not the heart of a wild
beast gone insane. <i> </i>I want a heart that is simply HUMAN, a
heart STRONG enough to feel compassion and to forgive. I do not want anything
else. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Yes, I am Allah and I am Yahweh.
I am given many other names; but in fact, I have no name. I am simply «THE ONE
WHO IS» for the Jews, for the Muslims and for all human beings. To hate one
another for questions of capital, of race or of religion, is to hate the best
of yourselves. To damn one another is to damn yourself, to damn me and to damn
the universe. I understand the unbelievers; even myself, when I see some of
your schemes, I nearly have the temptation to stop believing in myself…</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Give the lie then to that prophecy
of doom that says that of Jerusalem «there will not be left a stone upon another
stone». Have your thrice holy city blossom
by inventing among yourselves a new being in whom Jews and Arabs will meet as
brothers like they were at the beginning and who separated themselves after a
very sad accident in history. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Do not hasten the end of
the world as passionately hoped for by the fundamentalists, the lunatics; the cynics
and the unconditional enthusiasts of the actual «strongest man of the planet»…Do
not play that game. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">That’s it. You won’t see me
anymore, but I will be with you to the very end of your future. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">With those words, God disappears.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">At the same moment appears
a magnificent bird that sings a tune of another world before taking flight
towards the four points of the compass.
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">At this point, I wake up.
</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">(Note : If you wish to
know the feelings that may<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a> have gone through the heart of
God while he was speaking, please read: Luke 19 : 41-44).</span></i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">
</span></b><b><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Eloy Roy<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Kindly translated fom the French by Jacques
Bourdages. Thousands of thanks!</span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-49844568719800163602017-10-15T16:30:00.003-04:002017-10-15T16:30:47.185-04:00NOTRE PASSÉ JUDÉO-CHRÉTIEN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXFkmQqsXLJeKQFG-9lxWY9Dbfj4NkFPCs_rVEsJRLtrboOOppbR5i4sS96lJYfg6fBZhwvuq_bPK4YL6v3u7kWgH6mfmzA1qX38k7QhLK8KsIxD7Akan5MVFAuMjcDPHQJfdCsDkiQryx/s1600/%25C3%2589glise+des+pauv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="620" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXFkmQqsXLJeKQFG-9lxWY9Dbfj4NkFPCs_rVEsJRLtrboOOppbR5i4sS96lJYfg6fBZhwvuq_bPK4YL6v3u7kWgH6mfmzA1qX38k7QhLK8KsIxD7Akan5MVFAuMjcDPHQJfdCsDkiQryx/s640/%25C3%2589glise+des+pauv.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Les nouveaux curés et les nouvelles prêtresses de la pensée
correcte de notre Québec n’en finissent pas de blâmer l’abominable Église
catholique pour tout ce qui est croche dans notre petit monde québécois. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Notre côté bougon, quétaine, « grand parleux-p’tit faiseux » ;
notre méfiance maladive à l’égard des riches et notre rapport trouble au sexe et
au progrès, tout cela nous viendrait de ce passé judéo-chrétien que l’Église,
la mère de tous les maux, nous aurait vissé
dans les os et planté entre les deux oreilles pour les siècles des siècles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">C’est en mettre gros sur le dos de l’Église. Il me semble
que le défrichage d’un pays extrêmement rude et notre soumission forcée à un conquérant
riche et méprisant (pourtant aussi judéo-chrétien que nous), nous ont cassé les
reins autrement plus sûrement que les commandements de Dieu et de l’Église. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Quand du haut de la chaire l’Église martelait que l’argent était
la source de tous les maux et ne devait pas être traité comme un dieu, elle n’abusait
pas; elle ne faisait que dénoncer ce qui crevait les yeux. Hier comme
aujourd’hui. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">L’Église, en effet, en raison de son grand âge, a été pendant
des siècles le témoin de beaucoup d’horreurs causées par la puissance de
l’argent. Partout à travers le monde, ses yeux ont vu les riches s’entretuer pour
s’arracher les biens des plus faibles. Elle a vu d’innombrables peuples se faire
écraser, exploiter, sacrifier par la rapacité des maîtres de l’argent. Cette horreur,
elle l’a vécue à chaque instant de son histoire ; parfois elle en a été la complice, mais plus souvent,
la première victime. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Malgré tout, alors que les gratte-ciel en or des ultra-riches
poussaient allègrement au milieu des ruines, l’Église a probablement été la seule institution au monde
à prendre à cœur le sort des pauvres. Aux quatre coins de la Terre, elle s’est engagée dans les sentiers boueux de la
misère humaine, elle a pansé les plaies des plus malheureux et fait naître des légions
à leur humanité. Sa vie a été un accouchement perpétuel dans les larmes et le
sang, le plus souvent dans l’héroïsme et l’obscurité, et malgré tout, dans la
joie. Et aussi dans la contradiction, bien sûr. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Car les choses étant comme elles sont, alors qu’elle prenait la défense des pauvres, l’Église
a souvent protégé les riches. Elle a fait cela d’abord et avant tout pour avoir
le simple droit d’exister, et, par la suite, pour pouvoir bâtir églises,
écoles, hôpitaux, - palais même ! -, et missionner dans le monde
entier. Tout récemment, dans certaines
instances de haut niveau, il lui est encore
arrivé, sous le couvert de la piété, de se prêter à des manœuvres qui sont un
affront à l’Évangile… Et malgré cela (ou peut-être justement à cause de
cela), l’Église a toujours cru bon de ne pas bénir l’Argent. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">De quel argent s’agit-il? Sûrement, pas de l’argent propre.
La Bible des Juifs, que les chrétiens appellent Ancien Testament, fait sans réserve l’éloge de la richesse qui n’est
pas le fruit de la ruse, de la force et du
mensonge. Si quelqu’un devient riche par des moyens honnêtes, s’il s’enrichit
sans tromper, sans humilier, sans soudoyer, sans exploiter, sans écraser et
sans tuer, sa richesse est une bénédiction de Dieu. Cette richesse, toutefois, est
plutôt rare…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Par contre, il existe, comme on sait, un <u>argent sale</u>.
Un argent répugnant qui règne bel et bien sur le monde en dieu tout-puissant. Cet
argent vient de l’évasion fiscale, de la drogue, de la contrebande, de la vente
des humains, du très juteux commerce des armes, du crime érigé en business,
ainsi que de la politique qui fait bon ménage avec les grands lobbies. Cette
richesse sale naît de la corruption, de l’extorsion et de la fraude ; elle
vient des prêts usuraires à haute échelle ; elle vient de l’exploitation
systématique de multitudes sans défense ;
elle vient de la terreur et des guerres ; bref, elle vient de toutes les injustices, petites
et grandes, qui se commettent sous le soleil. Pour les plus riches elle
signifie « progrès », pour l’humanité et pour notre planète elle
est la plus puissante machine de destruction massive qui n’ait jamais été
inventée. Elle dégouline de sang. Elle est la grande malédiction du monde.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Par le passé, des pays sont devenus des puissances géantes à force d'accaparer les terres, la force de
travail et l’âme de nombreuses contrées, en échange de fusils, d’alcool et de
verroteries de couleurs. Aujourd'hui encore, une belle racaille aux dents blanches
et à la perruque blonde ne cesse de sillonner le monde dans des flottes de
supersoniques pour nous offrir de la pacotille, de l’opium et des bombes en
échange de notre liberté, de notre humanité et de la santé de notre petite
planète bleue. Ne pas livrer son âme à
ces « bons investisseurs », est-ce que ce n’est pas, en vérité, un
signe d’intelligence ? Est-ce être « épais », petit et colonisé,
et avoir le cerveau déformé par nos racines judéo-chrétiennes que de croire que
tout ce qui brille n’est pas or? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Par ailleurs, l’argent propre - il doit bien y en avoir
quelque part -, l’argent du génie, du
travail créateur et de l’honnêteté, cet argent qui sert à faire grandir les
humains et à étendre la justice dans le monde, celui-là est béni de Dieu. Il
est estimé non seulement par les femmes et les hommes éclairés par les prophètes et par Jésus de Nazareth, mais par tous les humains, croyants ou pas, qui ont des yeux
pour voir, des oreilles pour entendre, un brin de sagesse, et un peu de cœur au ventre.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eloy
Roy</span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-47124855974758960832017-09-26T14:40:00.005-04:002017-09-26T15:18:08.507-04:00<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDDyNJgxPPfvcEvuzAvWv-SwYY34ffXUjRVPu9VXdV4fVnrp-KvfcSgG0CmDWp7_U9f4oalMNQwYi_vRJ-Dh5HoigCZxb5zUP9Pod7Z_b6cixSDCchZSyCtyOpGin6BHxWVpYxfk6Pm7xK/s1600/H%25C3%2589RODE+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1271" data-original-width="1097" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDDyNJgxPPfvcEvuzAvWv-SwYY34ffXUjRVPu9VXdV4fVnrp-KvfcSgG0CmDWp7_U9f4oalMNQwYi_vRJ-Dh5HoigCZxb5zUP9Pod7Z_b6cixSDCchZSyCtyOpGin6BHxWVpYxfk6Pm7xK/s320/H%25C3%2589RODE+1.jpg" width="276" /></a></div>
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<strong><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">SAINT HEROD</span></span></strong><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Political story with known characters. </span></i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Tired of being thought of as a baby eater, king Herod converts to
religion. Perched on a golden palanquin held up by twelve slaves, he goes to
the Crib of Bethlehem to adore the Infant God. The stench of the place is
nauseating and nearly suffocates him. He tears his shirt as a mark of disgust
and cries out with a slight cough: ««By the beard of Abraham, what a shame! And
what a way of welcoming God on Earth!». He kicks out the shepherds, the sheep
and other creatures, takes the holy family under his wing, sets the stable on
fire and goes back to Jerusalem.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">He himself carries the infant Jesus in his arms, tickles
him, cradles him and becomes so fond of the kid that it did not take time
before he adopted him as a son and make him heir to his throne.<span style="letter-spacing: -.15pt;"> </span>Joseph, like his famous ancestor carrying
the same name, is appointed prime minister of the kingdom, and Mary, as First
Lady, is given the sweet task of dispensing privileges, benefits, small gifts
and other liberalities to the most faithful friends of the Crown. The national
conscience, scrupulously oriented by the antennae of the almighty Minister of
the Interior, sings day and night the praises of his king. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And so, that is the way that happy years go by in
Herod’s kingdom. Still, the skies begin to become overcast on the day when,
after becoming an adult, Jesus sets out on touring the country. While at the
royal palace the cream of society has an easy time, Jesus, in the interior
regions, discovers a population overburden with outrageous taxes and terrorized
by the various Temple policemen, Romans and those of Herod. He is deeply moved,
devastated and scandalized. He hurries back home and rushes to meet Herod and
get things off his chest.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">- I always believed that you were a good person, but you’re a
monster! You’re a treacherous man, a liar, a hypocrite, an unfair, cruel and
vicious individual! </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">- Me, a vicious man? answers back the king
with tears in his eyes. You are forgetting that the bad man that I am was the
one to bring you out of your dung heap. The unfair one here is you. Listen to
me carefully. In my kingdom, we respect God’s will. It is God who created the
differences. To some, he gave talents, to others, none; that is why we find
ourselves with rich people and poor people, with well-educated people and
ignorant people. It devolves therefore
on the first to think and to command, and to the others to obey and work. This
is the order that God, in his unfathomable wisdom, has established for all men
on earth. Delinquents and rebels are to
be punished as it should be in an exemplary way. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">- What things some people come out with! protested
Jesus bursting out with indignation…Listen to John the Baptist, read Moses and
the Prophets! The will of God is quite the reverse of what you are saying. As
far back as the first lines of the Bible, we do not see God allotting land to
some individuals rather than to some others. He allots it to all human beings
so that every man and every woman may live with decency. The more you receive,
the more you must give; the greatest you are, the more you have to take care of
the little ones. God created us BROTHERS and SISTERS, and EQUAL. The Law, the
Prophets, the whole Bible come down to that! Do not look for the will of God
elsewhere. Neither you nor anyone has the right to change one iota in it! </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Even His Excellency Caiaphas, in spite of his big
mouth, is incapable of pacifying Jesus. He goes to open his mouth when Jesus, who
knows already by heart the sermon that awaits him, puts his fingers in his ears
so as not to hear it, but His Excellency,
nevertheless, will try his hand in delivering once again to Jesus the same
speech that he had already delivered to him for, at least, one million times…</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">-</span><span lang="EN-CA"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.65pt;">Ah,</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> my child! Beware of those ideas that travel through the world in these
times of tragedy. The Baptist is not a bad person, but still he is an
excessively a populist and an alarmist. He should shut up. The things he
preaches, while abusing with our patience, are to be taken with a pinch of salt.
You see, the era of the prophets is over. The world has changed. Today we have
the Roman Empire on our back; a terrifying power! One little spark and it is a
blaze. Never in our history have we have felt so much need to remain calm. It
is not by criticising the king, the private property, the social differences
and the Arm Forces that we will improve things. Think about it a little. Who
produces wealth and assures the security in this country: the poor or the rich?
Do you think that it is by cutting the means of subsistence of the rich that we
will feed the poor and reinforce our borders? The poor do not know a thing
about business. We will not all the same put into their hands our national
wealth, our security and our future. Besides, whatever we do for them, it’s a
waste of time; Scripture says it well: « Poor people will always exist». </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">Jesus does not interrupt the
High Priest. In the twilight, he seems to catch a glimpse of God signaling to
him to keep cool, because, some day, like all the dinosaurs, Caiaphas will
disappear. So, Jesus bites his tongue and lets the pontiff the opportunity to carry
on with his speech on his favorites themes: </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">The spirit of rebellion is the
work of the Devil. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">Violence is only used to
increase violence. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">- It is true, the poor are hungry; yet, what they need the most
is not bread, but words of peace, love and consolation. And for God’s sake, let
them work! Work is the natural remedy to vices and bizarre ideas. Actually,
there is a dire shortage of labors in the farms, but the poor snub that kind of
work. They are simply lazy bastards! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">We must not let ourselves be moved by their moaning; they
are never satisfied, anyway. Yet, they are richer than they think, and at times
happier. Sometimes, the High Priest himself envies them.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">As for the Bible and the prophets, there also, prudence! The Bible is
full of utopian ideas of sweet dreamers and of apocalypses created by
extremists. Noxious opium if ever there was one! The reference point so as to
not get lost with the Bible is not so much the truth as such, because very
often the truth kills; it is rather: order and peace in the community. <span style="letter-spacing: -.3pt;">« Unity! », my dear, here is the final
word of the Bible. But then, only a strong authority can make unity with a
unruly people who has the tendency to break up and lose its way. And so, to
understand the Bible well and place oneself in relation to God’s will, the key
is submission to the authority. And to submit to the authority is to obey God. </span></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">And then, what matters most at
the end, it is not that change of structures but a change of hearts…</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-US" style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">And bla bla bla… </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">Jesus is speechless. He has a
strong desire to tell Caiaphas that the counsels are those of a selfish and coward
heart which places his interests and those of his royal stooge light years
above the interests of the people…</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.35pt;"> But what’s the use? Caiaphas and
Herod are so deeply convinced in their minds that their way of thinking is
dictated to them by God himself. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="yiv4433958301msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">A few moments after that final attempt for brain
washing, Jesus goes back once again and visits the two stooges in total
simplicity. He gives them back the honor insignia that they had lavished on him
and tells them: « Take back these chains which belong to you. All the
things you have given me, I leave them behind. I won’t stay one second more in
the rottenness of this palace! I do prefer to go back to my stable instead!
». </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">With these words, he makes off. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The rest of the story is known. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Jesus sinks into the sufferings and into the dreams of those who are
left out of the society. He realizes among them things that are simply spectacular
and very moving. His popularity attains the pinnacle of fame. Those big landlords, the ultra right-minded,
the super devout, and the authorities in charge of the nation are really mad at
him. The religious fundamentalists and the armed radicals, who cannot recover
him for their sectarian cliques, hate his guts. So much so that only after two
or three years later, Jesus is found hanging on a cross. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Caiaphas and Herod are there. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Herod sighs: </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">- What a pity! </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I had told him ahead of time that all this would end badly! </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Caiaphas sighs also : </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">- What a shame, really! A young man with a so promising future!</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="yiv4433958301msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.5pt;">- Whom I brought out from
nothingness…, adds Herod while repressing a tear. Alas, he had a rebellious
side which led him to regrettable excesses. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.5pt;">We spoiled him too much. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.5pt;">Nowadays, the youth is like that…It is so sad! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">- Cheer up, my brother, whispered the Sovereign
pontiff while blessing his king. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Let us be
magnanimous. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Let us forgive that poor boy who let himself be
bewitched and who played with fire. He thought he was doing the right thing,
but instead of uniting the people, he divided it much more. Only time will be
able to erase the damages he has caused. Still, let us remember the nice things
that, in his moments of lucidity, this dear Jesus preached about love. Those
ideas, I share them with him 100%, because that is exactly what myself has been
preaching without cease all the time: love, reconciliation, peace<span style="letter-spacing: -.25pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -.35pt;">…
</span></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">On that day, at the foot of the cross, the good
king Herod and Caiaphas forgive Jesus for his numerous slips-up, and swear to
love one another as brothers more than ever. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "brush script mt";"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span><b><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: "brush script mt";"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The end</span></span></b><b style="font-size: x-large;"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Our short story has come to an end. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Malicious gossip has it that at least 95% of our Church is much more the
Church of saint Herod and of blessed Caiaphas than that of Jesus of Nazareth. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And you, what do you say?... </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: center;"> </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsg83EnQyaA13Qb0VgRaV_nT-K3ZRE6CvdR3TTi7pTTz-ry9OKofUVkSEaqasPBgpMS5tRZXpgzrI56VvCxGT3nkmnvrGc-06y_sXumJ3ZfPqeIdHxGkBqiuEcew6Eiw5lFPkNn0ljuhmy/s1600/SIGNATURE+Eloy+PETIT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="81" data-original-width="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsg83EnQyaA13Qb0VgRaV_nT-K3ZRE6CvdR3TTi7pTTz-ry9OKofUVkSEaqasPBgpMS5tRZXpgzrI56VvCxGT3nkmnvrGc-06y_sXumJ3ZfPqeIdHxGkBqiuEcew6Eiw5lFPkNn0ljuhmy/s1600/SIGNATURE+Eloy+PETIT.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: center;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">December 1990- September 2017<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Kindly
translated from the French by Jacques BourdageS</span></span></span></span></i></div>
Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-87345634040258409502016-12-02T16:41:00.001-05:002016-12-02T17:07:59.073-05:00CASTRO THE MYTHICAL<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiBhe30fsCYsyQmIVDKHhpiP0zNx2iMhx69otO5uFtV3TN2Tcm-nd0XW3131Tlt8BWJb8WjJV6VkZxFpJ7V6P2IgKq1q0iwcuax28KJXoSHokyLEo5g_4KtXjfNmKDqucF5wL6evIt5GJ3/s1600/castro8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiBhe30fsCYsyQmIVDKHhpiP0zNx2iMhx69otO5uFtV3TN2Tcm-nd0XW3131Tlt8BWJb8WjJV6VkZxFpJ7V6P2IgKq1q0iwcuax28KJXoSHokyLEo5g_4KtXjfNmKDqucF5wL6evIt5GJ3/s400/castro8.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Internet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 26.6667px;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px;"><i>No oppressor is good, and no oppressed is bad</i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Fidel, I do not want to offend you, but I am asking
myself how come you let Nelson Mandela overtake you...</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="yiv3681495740msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The apartheid regime of South Africa was maybe more
cruel than the one laying to waste Cuba under the thumb of Batista and of his
mafiosi yankees. Under the inspiration of the CIA (her again!), the criminals
who were ransacking and pillaging South Africa took hold of Mandela and had him
imprisoned. For 27 years, he suffered hell. But in jail, Mandela grew up, so
much so that in the eyes of the people he became a hero as popular as you in Cuba. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When he came out of that inferno, he could have only
to snap his fingers so that the people rise up and make a stew with the
oppressors. But Nelson did not chose that path. He chose to initiate a revolution
light years away from yours. Animated by an inner strength that he had
developed in jail, he categorically refused to fight hate with hate, lying with
lying, injustice with injustice, tyranny with tyranny. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="yiv3681495740msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">You also, my dear Fidel, you could have done something
similar. You hold up to the Yankee Empire and you became the standard of the
oppressed of the world. Yet, by the pathways that you followed, you were not
always a great man. You acted, sad to say, as a delinquent. It is true that you
realized many good things, but the enthusiasts of Pablo Escobar say the same
thing of their hero who was still a huge bandit…</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="yiv3681495740msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Never did you admit to one sole error. Humility was
not your strongest point; that is the strength of the great. Mandela took 27 years to discover that
strength, and he became great. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">You Fidel, through your courage, you won the heart of
your people. You freed them from illiteracy and you offered them the best medicine
in the world. You sent legions of Cuban doctors and teachers to be of help in
abandoned regions of many depressed countries. But you also led wars, small
ones and bigger ones, that were questionable. One of them, it seems, would have contributed to the
liberation of South Africa. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mandela must have expressed
his gratitude to you for that help. Great! </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The worst still is that you abused your own people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="yiv3681495740msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Under the pretext to liberate them and protect
them, you took your people hostage. You brainwashed, humiliated and submitted them to
silence and to hunger. The USA was boycotting you, that is true, but the rest
of the planet sided with you. You could make business with the majority of the
world’s countries. In spite of that, you let your people stagnate. You sent to
the firing squad and let rot in your gaols thousands of Cubans. You pushed back
into exile thousands of others (they were not all followers of Batista neither
agents of the CIA). Thousands of your people went out to sea on makeshift boats
in the hope of earning their freedom; hundreds among them ended in the belly of
sharks. Those people were not all traitors to their country. They simply wanted
to live. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="yiv1826989469msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In your revolution project, you see, there was no
place for anyone else but you. And in
your great revolution which claimed to be liberating, only one thing was missing:
freedom. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A mere detail, of course… Should I tell you that </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I am not talking about the freedom of consuming which is a real madness
in the capitalist world, but about the ordinary freedom which sets apart the
human being from a puppet? </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">My dear Fidel, as a symbol of resistance to the
piggyness of the Great U.S. Octopus, I give you 10 on 10, and I place you
between Martí and Bolívar. Yet, because of some movements in your head that
have cause much innocent and useless pain and death, I am sorry to have to
place you between Pinochet and no other one but …Batista. Sorry! </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This does not please me, I can assure you, since I
respect you and I respect those among your people who sincerely love you. From
the bottom of my heart, I would wish that Mandela would interfere in the case
and find for you a place outside the club of all the Neros of History. I would
appreciate that he would keep you far away also from the scoundrels who made
attempts on your life 638 times (maybe not because you were a bad boy but
rather because you did not belong to their gang...). Much work for Mandela. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Reflecting on your
life,</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">allow me three words
for those who have the desire to save the world and wish to avoid
stupidities: </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">1-</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 7.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Either left wing
or right wing, no oppressor is good. And no oppressed is bad. Oppression is
always an evil, even for the best of causes.
</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">2-</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 7.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Good or evil,
every human being is greater than the most marvelous of ideologies or the most
holy of religions. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">3-</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 7.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Connected to a
deep-rooted commitment for justice and freedom, forgiveness is, like humility,
the other human force which makes a human being really great. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-AR" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> ¡VIVA LA
REVOLUCIÓN!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-AR" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="ES-AR" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span lang="ES-AR" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><strong style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span lang="ES-AR" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;">Eloy Roy</span></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><i>Translated from the French by Jacques Bourdages</i></span></div>
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Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-26990149390335856642016-08-31T14:09:00.003-04:002016-08-31T14:09:56.799-04:00DRAGON<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirdqil25tk5JQGtl5LFfdOyIx_cmndiqcjEJmDZQriT54jZqaItLXR7L_9Fj6iWeWYYP1LJItDQ7nWmke181Z-2MO3uOFYwENpu05R2Vkq5JgTQQP2HlPiAMozbulYyZ1W9jAHCjqW4znW/s1600/drag+3bcd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="323" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirdqil25tk5JQGtl5LFfdOyIx_cmndiqcjEJmDZQriT54jZqaItLXR7L_9Fj6iWeWYYP1LJItDQ7nWmke181Z-2MO3uOFYwENpu05R2Vkq5JgTQQP2HlPiAMozbulYyZ1W9jAHCjqW4znW/s400/drag+3bcd.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">My dear Dragon, in any
case, of all the dragons of the world, you are the most wonderful! Your
mother was an exquisite sausage princess who had a sulphurous affair with a
police dog…From that atomic fusion, dear Dragon, you were born as the synthesis
of the thesis and the antithesis. With you the conflict of the opposites is
over and the eternal battle between the intelligence and the stick comes to an
end. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">When you entered my life in
Tilcara, some thirty-five years ago, you were only a puppy given by a nice boy
of the village to my son Edu. He and I welcomed you, filled with joy, like a
little star fallen from above. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Your childhood was a non-stop
running of mischievousness and laughs. With the time, you sat down and you
became my secretary and confidant. After dinner, lying like a mat on the floor
you would listen with patience the monologues in Spanish and in French of the
incorrigible dreamer that I always have been. At times, you would look at me
with bored eyes, but you would never grumble. To express your opinion, you
would waggle your tail.
</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;">In the altar area of</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> the
church, you would begin by shaking yourself up from the fleas and to scratch
yourself where you were bitten; and then, you would lie between the two cactus
wooden legs of the altar. Coiled up on the red carpet, you would stoically
listen to my never-ending sermons. At times, you would applaud with your ears,
other times, you would simply yawn. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">You were sensual. Because
of your maternal ancestry, you adored all the pleasures of life: cushions,
sofas, the golden armchair covered of episcopal velvet… But because of your
paternal ancestry you would look for trouble and rumpus. You would roam in the
streets, you would sneak everywhere, you were cheeky and roguish. At times, you
were having the gracious bearing of a prince, but often you looked like a
lout. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Great seducer, you let
yourself be kidnapped for weeks by a lady doctor who gave you your bath,
perfumed you, dressed you with tulle and had you sleep in her bed between silk
sheets. You were also for two to three months the escort of a lady teacher; you
would accompany her in the mountains, on a rocky path, walking together back
and forth between Tilcara and the small school of Alfarcito. If by chance I
would catch you taking too much advantage of the kindness of those big-hearted
people, you would turn your head away, pretending not to know me…</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">In the
whole town of Tilcara, few were the houses where you did not feel at home, and
few the solitudes you did not share. If the drums, the sikus and the cracked
bell of the church had not been an unbearable torture for your ears, you would
have been the first to dance at the carnival and sing in the processions. And
never in your life would you have missed one of those peacefully noisy </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;">manifestations<span style="color: red;"> </span>which simply required that our crooked world be
changed from top to bottom.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Anyway, I suspect that beyond your love for the <i>dolce vita</i>, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">you had a soft spot for the poor and for justice</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">, for the cause of those who disappeared during the dictatorship, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">for Women Rights and for the Earth, for freedom and democracy, for the
affirmation of the indigenous culture, and for a Church that would not
prostitute itself with money and guns (I end here, otherwise people will think
that it is self-projection…). </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Still, I think that you
succeeded to understand before me that
the struggles between good and evil, or between the right and the left, are
often very self destroying on the long run, and that the path towards a decent future is,
before all else, to be gauchos. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">You would spend nights flirting with the First Canine
Lady of the village on the roof of the mayor’s residence. But at sunrise, you
would jump over at the nearby Sisters and weave your way in their mini chapel.
The Sisters were members of your fan club, and you liked to be with them for
the morning prayers. Luisa, the most kind and the eldest of the community, was
your favourite. You would cling to her skirt and, between two psalms, she would
gently pet you. As a good daughter of St. Francis, she would turn a blind eye
to your private life and see no trace of the slightest flaw. In the
afternoon, she would go out to work to help her neighbors, while you, so as to
regain your strength eroded by your nocturnal excesses, you would take a nap
like an angel on her immaculate bed. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">You fought with the most terrifying mastiffs, the most
snobbish and the most ill-mannered of Tilcara; they have gashed through your
face with their huge teeth and have left on your body the glorious stitches of
countless scars. Those famous wars have still brought you to conquer the
most sophisticated females in town. You have populated the region with many
kids that carry on until now your work of civilisation. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">In the parish, when ended the war of missiles, you did
not join force with the old Teutonic priest who had succeeded in getting his
hands on the parish and already was preparing for war so as to put the minds of
the village through his Taliban theology. For not one second did you let
yourself be intimidated by him. During his first mass, you were in the church
as usual, rolled up under the altar table. At the moment the first words of
that creep squealed in your ears, you bounced on your behind, raised a leg
slowly and copiously watered the cactus wooden leg of the altar table. And
then, calmly, you relaxed your ears as a sign of supreme indifference, spread
out your tail like an antenna, lifted your head and went down the central aisle
of the church with the dignity of a Viltipoco getting back his lost glory.
Never again did you set paws in that church that you loved, and where you were
one of the most assiduous faithful. Never. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">From a window in the skies, God had seen everything.
Even today, He remembers that scene with pleasure, marveling at the guts you
had as a Dragon and at the remarkable soundness of your discernment. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Years went by. I was in far-away China when a letter
reached me from Tilcara. In that letter were described your
last moments on this Earth. One day, carrying on your back your sixteen years
of life as a dog, you climbed one by one half of the narrow steps of the
Escalinata (high staircase of the village which links two areas separated by a steep
slope). You arrived almost a moribund at the house of Norma Maine. It is from
that place that you had decided to say goodbye to the world.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Norma and her children welcomed you with
emotion. Up to your last breath, they lavished you with tenderness.
Still, your days were counted. When the moment to leave came, a mysterious
sensation of cold fell over you; it swept up to your bones and your teeth were
chattering. – The Bible says that, on the point of dying, the old king
David (another mischievous one loved by God) was stricken also by a terrible
attack of cold. But by putting Abishag, a young good looking girl in the bed of
the king, the old man bucked up and left for the hereafter without shaking. -
That highly instructive story was not known by Norma and her children;
nevertheless, they reproduced it to perfection. Seeing you shaking so much, the
children ran to their neighbor to borrow a young cute female dog that they
hastened to place against your freezing bones. Gradually, a bit of warmth
spread in your being, and calm came. You therefore were to leave this world with
the same consolations than king </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt;">David, that old womanizer and brave vanquisher of Goliath, the giant… </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">When your time came, Norma and the children cried
their eyes out<span style="color: red;">.</span> Norma went on her knees praying
God that he would inspire her the best gesture<span style="color: red;"> </span>that
would help you to leave without pain. Unconsciously, she already had in her
hands a water pitcher; without hesitation, she baptized you!</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">And so you died as a Catholic, my dear Dragon...</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: red; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;">Not as a Catholic of the imperial Church of the golden
pointed hats and of the corporals, but as a Catholic of a large anonymous
Church without walls, tender and courageous, made up of ordinary people who often
do unauthorized things by the books, but usually follow their good heart and never
turn their backs on the cribs and the calvaries of this world. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The three angels of the Escalinata carried your body
of Dragon over Tilcara, on the flanks of the Black Mountain. They buried you in
secret, at about 300 meters higher than the cross, in line with where the sun
rises in the morning. It is from that place that your little soul of Dragon
went on its trip on the old footpath in zigzag - and not yet totally
erased - « which links the valley to the stars»…You have returned quietly to
the country where you came from.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8klMbzjr-CYbmj1jiRz3qSDeCd0uVysY6P-AaSvvu94l9gkmTL9NX040seo10BBMUIFt6rY2iX9bfXGGBJEUncE9SpU1hE5xSDwOKfjtd6GFBYmWFjIJhAEBUMHu9sawbBJ3XEI5Kok7j/s1600/EL+PR%25C3%258DNCIPE+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8klMbzjr-CYbmj1jiRz3qSDeCd0uVysY6P-AaSvvu94l9gkmTL9NX040seo10BBMUIFt6rY2iX9bfXGGBJEUncE9SpU1hE5xSDwOKfjtd6GFBYmWFjIJhAEBUMHu9sawbBJ3XEI5Kok7j/s320/EL+PR%25C3%258DNCIPE+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">
</span><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 16pt;">Eloy</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span><i><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Translated from the French by Jacques Bourdages</span></span></i></div>
Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-45347912968462208292016-06-08T15:08:00.000-04:002016-06-08T15:08:10.435-04:00<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"> JULIEN, AUTHOR OF THE BIBLE</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxDSF2kBBIGrgYUXmI8gXMfkJs4v0FLitX01m3eAiE87EfTdkF9mjQKQVFv1UsllQpy5puySnx0-BgDZvCovS6lbI9GzxHCI48Ry1f5cZFvM5CxQ61l7SrAYY8beFKC6eHQ16vehQS5Qyx/s1600/Vezina+Julien+POP2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxDSF2kBBIGrgYUXmI8gXMfkJs4v0FLitX01m3eAiE87EfTdkF9mjQKQVFv1UsllQpy5puySnx0-BgDZvCovS6lbI9GzxHCI48Ry1f5cZFvM5CxQ61l7SrAYY8beFKC6eHQ16vehQS5Qyx/s320/Vezina+Julien+POP2.jpg" width="220" /></a></div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">For our modern sensitivity,
our good Julien Vézina* is not quite the type of missionary to imitate. Anyway,
he is inimitable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">In the mountains of South
Honduras where the climate is very hot and where life is very rough, he is the
freest man of the world. He does not sleep, eats very little and never stops. He
is a man whose passion is to be with the ordinary people, to make them happy,
to serve them. He plays cat-and-mouse with the children, he extracts teeth, and
if no midwife is available for delivery, he is the one who plays the role of
«mid-husband». </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">No unemployment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">When we are Julien Vézina, we
enrol in the Eucharistic Crusade the babies still breast feeding and communion
is given to them just like with adults. We direct the brass bands at all the patriotic
celebrations and we play any musical instrument. We use the typewriter at the speed of
lightning and we create documents. For those thousands of people who have no
papers and need a baptism certificate so as to have the right to exist, but
don’t have one because the archives were burnt or stolen, Julien, with closed
eyes, produces the so desired document without fuss, «authenticates» it by
stamping it with the seal of the parish and turns it over to the new citizen, saying:
«Next! » It’s free.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">His catechesis is at the
forefront of technology. The exterior walls of all the chapels – already
whitewashed – are used as screens for the projection of films that are unique
in the whole world. The material is being carried in the mountains by a caravan
of seven or eight mules, including Anselma, his pet mule. Julien himself edits
his films with sequences «borrowed» (to use a euphemism) from other movies of
his impressive collection. He pastes them to one another according to a
surrealist framework of which he only has the secret. Short scenes about Jesus
and Mary are shown here and there between the adventures of Mickey Mouse and
are followed by other topics as essential to salvation as the most beautiful
goals of the CH of Montréal in the series of the Stanley Cup, or excerpts of
the family rosary with Cardinal Léger, without omitting the Max Brothers and
the apparitions of Fatima… Each time, a huge success! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">One day, in Cuba (he was
missionary in the Philippines and in Cuba before ending up in Honduras), Julien
is going his way wearing a white cassock when two braggarts ask him what kind
of woman is he to go out with a dress on. Without a word Julien grabs them together
by the neck, lifts them at full arms and knocks their heads against one another
like in the best movies of the already mentioned Max brothers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">The strength of our Tarzan
is legendary. The gloomiest military men and the most roguish prisoners bow in
front of him out of respect. When he speaks, people listen to him, and even
though the stories he invents are unbelievable, everybody believes in all he
says. For example, to urge the parents to bring up their children in a good
way, he does not hesitate to tell that when he was in Cuba, Fidel Castro was
his altar boy. He tells them: «How many times have I warned the mother to send
her son to catechism, and since she did not listen to me, well, he became the
devil who is making the world tremble!». <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Not only does Julien
impress by his physical strength and his stories, but also by his kindness and
his tenderness. Under the shell of a boxer, Julien has a child’s heart. His preferred
weapon to open hearts is the candies. At all times, he has a bag of them handy,
and he distributes them on his way. To the young girl who stick to him like
glue, to the grandmother who looks at him as if he was God, to the policeman
armed to the teeth and who struts like a peacock, and to the toughest one who
hates the whole world, it takes only a candy to become great friends. Jesus
said: « Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth»; this beatitude,
Julien lives it out by dint of candies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">At the time, it was
forbidden to priests to celebrate more than one mass a day, except in very rare
cases. Julien himself would nonetheless celebrate up to five masses a day, each
one at a different place, by using the host and wine consecrated in a previous
mass. Everything goes on in an
impeccable way and with an atmosphere of perfect piety, especially as, from the
sign of the cross at the beginning up to the final blessing, the mass would
last hardly ten minutes, hymns and homily included. No one complains. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">If you are a confrere of Julien and live under the same roof, do not be
surprized when things from your bedsheets, your towels, your shorts, your
shirts, your pants, your altar linen, your cassock and your surplice disappear
like magic. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">It is the “invisible hand”
of Julien that is </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">taking away from you everything
that can be useful to the poor. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">From this indescribable
companion, I learn that we can cheerfully open the way to salvation with Jesus’
gospel in one hand and dynamite sticks in the other hand, throwing up in the
air everything that in the troubled geography of the country was an obstacle to
the passage of the holy jeep of the missionary.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">I even learned from the
mouth of some pious country women that it was not the pope who wrote the Bible
– as claimed by ignorant people – but by Padre Julián… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">In the jail of Choluteca,
the Padre Julián is not only the chaplain but also the greatest of the heroes.
Today, the jail and its chaplain are awaiting hastily the official visit of the
First Lady of the country. In the hope
that she will demonstrate her generosity toward that institution which wallows
in misery, Julián personally organizes the reception. He carefully teaches his
friends – a great number of them are known murderers – how to welcome the
august visitor. From the moment that the prisoners see Doña Alejandrina enter solemnly
arm in arm with Julián, a clamour reaches the heavens. But instead of «Long Live
the First Lady», what bursts out from all over is «Long Live Padre Julián!” The
face of the good Julián turns to a red beet. As a good catholic, Doña
Alejandrina amuses herself. It seems that on that day a bundle of lempiras came
out of her purse. Did this help in improving the life conditions of those
unhappy prisoners? We have to ask the administration… One thing is sure: if
that money had been put directly into the hands of our good Robin Hood Julián,
there would not have been any question asked.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Julien was not a “Curé
d’Ars”, nor a new Moses, nor a Che Guevara, nor a Mother Teresa, neither the
most up to date version of a 21st century missionary. He was only the « Padre
Julián », the unique Padre Julián. And then, one day, he passed away. Even
though he and I were as similar as day and night, I had much affection for him.
I was really saddened by his departure. I had the feeling that a great marvel
had just left us. If the delinquents and all the underprivileged whom he loved
and served during his life had accompanied us during his burial, I am sure that
we would have heard them crying as far as the end of the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">
</span><b><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;">Eloy Roy</span></b><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Translated
from the French by Jacques Bourdages<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span lang="ES-AR" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: ES-AR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">JULIEN
VÉZINA, p.m.é </span></b><b><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">1913-1983</span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Missionary i</span><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: small;">n The Philippines :
1941-1945 </span></span>In Cuba : 1945-1956, in Honduras :
1956-196. Died in LavaL, Québec,
Canada: Feb 14, 1983</b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></h1>
Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-69208069045167941372016-05-09T15:42:00.001-04:002016-05-09T15:46:48.211-04:00VOTING FOR LOSERS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKXA7dPefBKlikoN1P97uUE3yVoPbW_k71NdkLCc9n0y0nOmIHQfQnwf5qVgdPBp2aFC9LNxU2AQvKD9WNasT9C5YhHPGJQTkA_tv4E0Q-1c-7fwgmoPOdHFOTGHjmJ_NuWA4FUT72ETDS/s1600/bernie-sanders-standard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKXA7dPefBKlikoN1P97uUE3yVoPbW_k71NdkLCc9n0y0nOmIHQfQnwf5qVgdPBp2aFC9LNxU2AQvKD9WNasT9C5YhHPGJQTkA_tv4E0Q-1c-7fwgmoPOdHFOTGHjmJ_NuWA4FUT72ETDS/s400/bernie-sanders-standard.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">If I were an American, in the next presidential election I would vote for
Bernie Sanders. That’s because Bernie is the freest, the most humane, the more
just and the truest among all the candidates in line. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But Bernie will lose, for sure. Why? Probably because</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> the
majority of</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Americans - like most of the inhabitants of our planet - want nothing
but </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">money, even dirty money that trickles down with blood. W</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">hat is
«more free, more humane, more just and more true» comes second for them. Moreover,
they don’t give a damn! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">«The majority», I said, not everybody, since a minority will vote for
Bernie. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">2000 years ago, I would have voted for Jesus, you</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> see? ...</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And so,
why do I vote for losers? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The youth knows very well why. The youth feels that Old Sanders’ ideas are
vital for democracy, for social justice and for the peace in the world. The youth
is aware that the future of the humankind is going exactly in this direction.
So t</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">he youth votes for Sanders. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jesus lost for a time. He got thrashed incredibly (no surprise!). What
he sowed, still, has sprouted, grown, ripened somewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Those who lose in searching for <u>justice and
brotherhood </u>will be sooner or later the real winners, even though before
arriving there they have to be crushed a thousand times. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Bernie will lose, but because of the waves that he is raising, Hillary
is redirecting her boat. Now she is siding with the ordinary people more than
with Wall Street and the Washington clique. This is a very big step forward. When
she wins the election (if ever she wins), the victory will be hers, of course, but,
who </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">will be able to say
that Bernie has really lost? <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <b>Eloy Roy<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Translated
from the French by Jacques Bourdages<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<br />
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<i><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> A new
consciousness is arising. </span></i><i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7968263935251479633.post-29779055547915826172016-04-26T11:05:00.000-04:002016-04-26T11:05:03.605-04:00THE WORN AWAY GREAT BOAT<div class="MsoNormal">
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<b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvb7K3yGHqpXZDxgd981vLp1OuGHkqqerZQzThU2jxxJVgYK00wdJ3kmMjzGEvygtVKsuZEKwjCszhNucykoOAEGqFC6Jj-xewSZj1OYdLFueFHaqzT5Du_Y0k8bTOWoEOTshfkMBwZy3/s1600/13051731_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvb7K3yGHqpXZDxgd981vLp1OuGHkqqerZQzThU2jxxJVgYK00wdJ3kmMjzGEvygtVKsuZEKwjCszhNucykoOAEGqFC6Jj-xewSZj1OYdLFueFHaqzT5Du_Y0k8bTOWoEOTshfkMBwZy3/s400/13051731_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></b></div>
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 22pt;"><b> </b><i> </i></span><span lang="EN-CA"><i>Green Yatra</i></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 22pt;"><i> </i><b> </b></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
Great Boat, it’s the Earth. It is the Common Good, the material and cultural
basic goods. In other words, they are the goods which allow men and women of
the planet to have everywhere the same chances. Those goods are: the Earth, the
air, the water, the dignity, the respect, justice, freedom, education, health,
housing, work, security, peace and beauty. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA">But
the Great Boat is being worn away from all sides. </span><span lang="EN-US">By
whom? By those who have axes, saws, hammers, nail. They are well known. </span><span lang="EN-CA">They are in governments and in all the sectors of
society. I may be one of them. With the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>planks that we
are chopping out of the Great Boat, we are throwing together yachts or
launches. </span><span lang="EN-US">And then we bugger
off! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA">Sin
is obsolete, for sure, but let us have a good look at the picture above. If
that obsolete thing exists, that’s its face.</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>Eloy</span></span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-AR"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-AR"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Translated from the French by J. Bourdages</i></span></span></div>
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Eloy Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093995927430969845noreply@blogger.com0