And then on the very far outskirts of town (so far outside of Charlottesville along Ivy Road that I was sure I was in another township), I came across the All Saints Anglican Church. I hadn’t stopped for long enough that I was rather thirsty, and the church seemed quite lovely from afar (and had two cars clearly parked around the back), so I ambled off the roadway, crossed the church’s lovely lawn, and made my way up to its open primary portal. And then as I entered the main sanctuary I was met with quite the lovely sight – two pastors (Father Sean and Father Glenn) in full religious garb, alone at the sanctum’s altar, burning massive amounts of incense and reciting prayers aloud with sincere & heartfelt reverence – no showmanship, no theater, and not a single congregation member or potential donor within miles; and yet both of them were fully immersed in what they were doing; both of them in full participation with their version of the Divine. They saw me shortly after I entered and invited me to stay and recite their morning prayers with them, and I humbly and respectfully agreed – reciting Psalm 24-26* and then enjoying their quite fitting (at least for me and my peace pilgrimage) reading from Luke 22.** They then closed the private ceremony just as appropriately with a reading of Luke 1:68 (“Guide them onto the Path of Pace”) and then Sean took me downstairs to the church basement and offered me food for the road while allowing me to peacefully witness A) for The Way of Jesus over the Path of Paul – B) for the raw practicality of limitless Love over Paul’s (and often the church’s) veneer of judgment & fear – and C) for veganism as well.*** I wasn’t sure how much of any of my words hit home with him, of course, and yet it was clear that Sean was earnestly intrigued by the same and that he had at least attentively listened to what I had shared, so maybe Good Fruit will one day come of it after all. I parted ways with him in deep gratitude all the same thereafter, and we wished each other mutually well as we went our separate ways …

*I of course respectfully refused to utter Psalm 26:5 (“I hate the company of evildoers and will not sit with the wicked.”). After all, Jesus himself would never have spoken such nonsense either!

**“That thy faith fail thee not” … + Jesus commenting tongue in cheek when his disciples produced two swords to fend off the Romans, stating “It is enough” … + Jesus again in Gethsemane humbly proclaiming his desire that “Thy will, not mine, be done”

***Which is, after all, the only way to truly live “humble as a young child” as Jesus himself commanded.

“My faith has been tempered in Hell. My faith has emerged from the flames of the crematoria, from the concrete of the gas chamber. And there I have witnessed firsthand that it is not man who is impotent in the struggle against evil, but rather the power of evil that is impotent in the struggle against man. For the powerlessness of kindness, of senseless and radical and reckless kindness, is the true secret of any viable immortality. For it is this purer kindness that can never be conquered. Indeed, the more stupid, the more senseless, the more irresponsible it may seem, the vaster its influence becomes. In truth, evil itself stands impotent before it. Even the most zealous of prophets and preachers and reformers and political leaders are impotent before it. This dumb, blind, limitless Love is man’s truest Meaning. So we must ever remember that human history is not the battle of good struggling to overcome evil. It is a battle fought by a great evil struggling to – and ever failing to – crush the small yet indelible kernel of kindness within every human heart. So if what is most human in all human beings has not been destroyed by now, then we can know that evil will never conquer it … It seems to me that no matter what religion you subscribe to, acts of kindness are the stepping-stones to making the world a better place – because we become better people in it; each more akin in every instance to the shining face of God.” ~ inspired by Vasily Grossman & Jodi Picoult

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