Tolle, lege

Just came across these quotes by St Augustine:

- A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.

- Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.

- God had one Son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.

- Hear the other side.

- If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.

- Love is the beauty of the soul.

- The desire is thy prayers; and if thy desire is without ceasing, thy prayer will also be without ceasing. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer.

- What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.

The eye that blinks

I just finished reading The Chosen by Chaim Potok, which gives an insight into the Hasidic Jewish community through a friendship between two boys in 19040s Brooklyn. One is a secular Jew with an intellectual Zionist father; the other is the brilliant son and rightful heir to a Hasidic rebbe. The novel, which was written in 1967, is perceptive, touching, exquisite and unusual, according to the Boston Sunday Herald. 

There are many parts in the book that are worthy of mention. I felt compelled to post this excerpt as a reminder of the important things in life.

"Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value there is to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye?" He paused again, his eyes misty now, then went on. "I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. he can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. Do you understand what I am saying? A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning. That I do not think you understand yet. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here. Do you understand what I am saying?"

Off the hook

"When a trout rising to a fly gets hooked on a line and finds himself unable to swim about freely, he begins a fight which results in struggles and splashes and sometimes an escape. Often, of course, the situation is too tough for him.

In the same way the human being struggles with his environment and with the hooks that catch him. Sometimes he masters his difficulties; sometimes they are too much for him. His struggles are all that the world sees and it usually misunderstands them. It is hard for a free fish to understand what is happening to a hooked one."

- Karl A. Menninger (The Human Mind)

Dr Menninger is regarded by many as the father of American psychiatry. Among other things, he was of the view that criminals should be treated rather than punished. Much criminal behavior, he said, is a pathological reaction to severe punishment suffered earlier in life; further punishment, he said, will only worsen the situation. The quote above articulated his view.

I came across this quote while reading The Chosen by Chaim Potok. It set me to thinking that sometimes Christians have the mentality of a free fish. We are not able to comprehend or understand what is happening to someone who is still bound in captivity and who has yet to be set free through Christ. We become impatient, we become frustrated, we become judgmental, we become cold, and we give up on them. 

The irony is that we were once in their state, hooked on our own lines of sin.