The path (which had by then proven to indeed be almost as physically challenging as rumor had portrayed) thereafter began to wind down Down DOWN — through the village of Pratclaux and then into the town of Monistrol, where I entered its lovely Catholic church for another brief yet blessed respite from the dust and the heat … 🙂

“Too often the love which is proclaimed in the churches suppresses the element of loss and sacrifice and even death in our caring activity. In truth Christians often speak of love as helping others when things are going well &/or after receiving an unexpected abundance. And yet this version of love is really not LOVE at all, for it ignores the simple fact that real Love — the Love mentioned and championed by Jesus Christ — is ever characterized by bold self-expenditure; a true sacrifice and a true losing and a true deterioration of the self. Christians often speak of love as if the person loving had no problems, no needs, and no limits. Indeed this kind of proclamation is heard in almost every church and resounds within almost every sanctuary. We hear it so often said: ‘Since you currently have no or relatively few unanswered needs, why don’t you go out and help those other people who are in greater states of suffering?’ And yet so rarely do we never hear pastors or preachers go on to add: ‘Your goodness given to others becomes most transformative and brings by far the most peace when you yourself are most in need of the same.’ No, no — Christian love is all too often seen as some kind of spiritual cornucopia; where we can either reach out to the stranger’s needs and problems and still have everything we need for ourselves, or when by doing the former we somehow are rewarded with the latter. And when people try to live out this codependent — and actually quite selfish — kind of delusion, they become nervous, and ultimately terrified, when their self-expending begins to take its natural toll. They don’t even begin to comprehend that it is just this gravity of sacrifice that gives our Love its weight, and that it is just this same lack of reward that ultimately provides the only reward worth receiving. As such, those who are true followers of The Way of Christ — those who truly worship Jesus by truly loving in his name — always serve the needs of others willingly — if not joyfully. They do not cope with their own disappointments or whine about their own shortfalls. They do not pray for their own betterment or anguish over how their own needs remain unmet by the twists & turns circumstance, by the whims of their superiors or their society, or by the strategies of their own ids or egos. No indeed, for at the very center of their life — at the very innermost core of their existence — they are ever grateful to God; not because their rewards are inevitably vouchsafed, but rather because the opportunities to give freely are ever available. They have completely abandoned their neediness, and as such they are fully free to serve the needy, to companion the needy, to reflect and become one with the needy.” ~ inspired by Arthur C. McGill

Filed under: Peace Pilgrimage #02: Walking HOME (2019) by Scaughdt