Am I not destroying my enemies when I make them my friends?”
Abraham Lincoln.
I have in my notes that this was quoted at the morning service at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Gwinnett five years ago today. It raised a wonderful discussion about Universalism, the belief that every human being will, in this life or beyond this life, find fulfillment, find what some call salvation. In the west, largely through Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, the word salvation has eroded over the centuries to mean not sending me to hell even though I am ultimately of no worth. The far better and holistic notion came in the early days of Christianity–salvation meant the full restoration of the human being to all that we really are. The problem was a kind of extistential amnesia. Salvation meant, in the most powerful sense, deep remembering.
It reminds me of an incident that happened years ago in Birmingham at a Centering Prayer conference with Fr. Thomas Keating. During a Q and A session, someone ask: “Fr. Keating, as a Catholic who practices centering prayer, I find it increasingly difficult to believe in Hell. As a Catholic, am I required to believe in Hell?” To which Keating responded after some silence: “Yes, as a Catholic, you are required to believe in Hell. However, you are not required to believe that anyone is in it.”
What if our vision, beginning today, were to make everyone we consider an enemy our friend? It would take some time, some work, and allowing that we are only half of the relationship. But, wouldn’t this, all by itself, nearly eliminate the hell we create on earth?
Bob Patrick