Unknown's avatar Rev. David J. Schreffler 12:16 pm on October 22, 2018  

October 19, 2018 – Saint of the Day – Saints Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brébeuf, and Companions: Isaac Jogues and his companions were the first martyrs of the North American continent officially recognized by the Church. As a young Jesuit, Isaac Jogues, a man of learning and culture, taught literature in France. He gave up that career to work among the Huron Indians in the New World, and in 1636, he and his companions, under the leadership of Jean de Brébeuf, arrived in Quebec. The Hurons were constantly warred upon by the Iroquois, and in a few years Father Jogues was captured by the Iroquois and imprisoned for 13 months. His letters and journals tell how he and his companions were led from village to village, how they were beaten, tortured, and forced to watch as their Huron converts were mangled and killed.

Contentment and well-being at once become possible the moment you cease to act with them in view, and if you practice non-doing (wu wet), you will have both happiness and well-being. Here is how I sum it up:

Heaven does nothing: its non-doing is its serenity.

Earth does nothing: its non-doing is its rest.

From the union of these two non-doings

All actions proceed, All things are made.

How vast, how invisible This coming-to-be!

All things come from nowhere!

How vast, how invisible — No way to explain it!

All beings in their perfection Are born of non-doing.

Hence it is said: 

“Heaven and earth do nothing — Yet there is nothing they do not do.”

Where is the man who can attain To this non-doing? (Thomas Merton, Thoughts On The East,  “Perfect Joy”)

“Heaven and earth do nothing, Yet there is nothing they do not do.”

Where is the man who can attain To this non-doing?”

You know, I read Thomas Merton, and the more I do the more I wonder “Why can’t I write like that?” Who can conceive of a sentence like “Heaven and earth do nothing, yet there is nothing they do not do”? It says everything, and yet it says so little. I marvel at people who can write just a few words and seemingly say something so profound it would take others chapters to say the same thing.

And yet, Jesus was able to do the same. When Jesus says to the woman caught in adultery in John 8:7 “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” in this one sentence he completely encapsulates the nature of humanity – we are all sinful. None of us is capable to throw the first stone at our neighbor, because every day we commit sin – known and unknown, seen and unseen – it is our nature. Then, Jesus says one more thing to the woman before she leaves his presence: “I do not condemn you….Go now and leave your life of sin.” Jesus sees and recognizes her sin, and loves her anyway. And he encourages her to leave her life of sin. Her future may be uncertain – but she always knows that Jesus will love her in her sinful state – and that encourages all of us to do better in leaving our lives of sin – because Jesus will always love us too.

Pastor Dave