(The title is a quote from the book, “Nosso Lar” by Francisco Cândido Xavier. It is translated from Portuguese to English in the book, “Astral City”. )
There are many people in the world right now, who currently say that their hatred leads them to bring justice. We see and hear many people all over the world saying that their hatred brings justice. But, all sane people know that their saying this, doesn’t make it true. Yet, frustratingly, like the others, all of us still have times when we grasp hold of the idea thinking that with our hatred, we can enact justice.
But, hatred is not justice. When we catch ourselves and step back – stepping back from our own hatred, which we can do, albeit asking God’s help to do this – we can acknowledge that the words of the title statement are true words.
In the moments of hatred rising, why do we take hold of the idea that hatred might bring justice? More often, it is because of our suffering. We may believe that to be rid of the pain of hatred as well as the suffering of others or our own being attacked by our human brothers and sisters, we must act out of hatred in return, calling it justice.
But, hatred is not justice. God’s gift to us is not hatred. In that vein, we may wonder, ‘then what do we do with criminals and terrorist’s?’
There are many things we can do. We start with God. Our prayers, our meditations, our acts from the heart – all of these are where we start. In addition, as the human race, throughout human history, we also have progressed on a path of developing laws designed to govern behavior. This evolutionary path is not finished. We are not at the end of evolving lawfully or socially. Our efforts to walk a higher road has led humans to strive to design laws and create consequences to breaking those laws according to ever higher principles of honest justice.
For us as individuals, we can take a look at our self. We can choose to let the statement live in our own behaviors and choices. This can help us as individuals to choose a different behavior towards the people in our lives and the people who we only know about on TV. We can choose to hold onto the principle that hatred is not justice, and then look for ways to make it real in our day-to-day lives, activities and relationships.
When we choose to remember that hatred is not justice, we can also act from this awareness towards those who think that their hatred is their source of justice. When we act from hatred, we don’t always realize that our hatred is the same as others’ hatred. We may deny our hatred, and they do, too. We may justify our hatred, but so do they. In the end, where is the difference in hatreds?
There are too many examples in the news, every day, of when people act from the belief that their hatred is different – their hatred is righteous – their hatred is justified – their hatred is a gift from God. No one religion holds the monopoly on these acts of hatred – every philosophy and religion has people who have acted believing hatred (whether in large ways or small ways) is their way to justice.
But, hatred is not justice. We will evolve beyond hatred, learning this, if we remember one day at a time, that justice does exist, even though we may never, in our own minds and our own paradigms, understand fully how it could be. We can evolve beyond hatred, with God’s help. We can evolve beyond hatred through our prayers, our meditations, one day at a time, through our efforts on each day that we remember God and God’s Infinite and unending Love for each of us.
God will never give up on teaching us – “hatred is not justice” – that God is the Justice we seek, in addition to God being Infinite Understanding, Infinite Patience, Infinite Kindness, Infinite Love, Infinite Forgiveness, Infinite Peace, Infinite Mercy and more.
These are God’s true gifts to us.
*******
“What would you want heaven to be like? Are you creating that in your heart and mind, right now? Are you helping to create that for others in the world?” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2006-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)
“It is best that we don’t believe everything we hear about someone. It is also best that we don’t believe everything we say about someone.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2006-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)
“For us to release ourselves from prison, we must release everyone else, as well. For us to release ourselves from karma, we must release everyone else from the karma we assign to them and expect them to go through, as well. Mercy and Forgiveness are the keys. We cannot move on, when our hands are holding on to the chains we place on others.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2006-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)