--Donald Spoto, from his biography Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi
...trudging into the distance in the bleeding stinking mad shadow of Jesus...the Lord out of dust had created him, had made him blood and nerve and mind, had made him to bleed and weep and think, and set him in a world of loss and fire... --Flannery O'Connor
12.11.2012
The Secular Call of Jesus
Conversion is, then, a response to God. Who invites us to a state of complete freedom, away from everything that is hostile to His goodness and mercy. The call one hears is not primarily or simply an encouragement to amend one's life or to follow a particular religious path. The call Jesus extended to his disciples, for example, was not religious--it was resoundingly secular. It was a summons to acknowledge God's unconditional love of us as individuals; and it was an invitation to proclaim that love to the world by acts of caring, forgiveness and compassion for others, by refusing to demand one's prerogatives at the expense of others and by refusing vengeance and reprisal. The New Testament summarizes the entire ministry and message of Jesus in one calm phrase that is deeply moving in its secular simplicity: "He went about doing good."