Tag: justice

O, Dayspring!

December 21st 

O Dayspring, brightness of the everlasting light, Son of Justice, come to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death!

O Oriens* antiphon

These are the last words of David:

“The inspired utterance of David son of Jesse,
the utterance of the man exalted by the Most High,
the man anointed by the God of Jacob,
the hero of Israel’s songs:

The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me;
his word was on my tongue.
The God of Israel spoke,
the Rock of Israel said to me:
‘When one rules over people in righteousness,
when he rules in the fear of God,
he is like the light of morning at sunrise
on a cloudless morning,
like the brightness after rain
that brings grass from the earth.’
If my house were not right with God,
surely he would not have made with me an everlasting covenant,
arranged and secured in every part;
surely he would not bring to fruition my salvation
and grant me my every desire.”

2 Samuel 23:1-5 (NIV)

*If this sounds familiar it’s because O Come, O Come Emmanuel is based on the Greater  [‘O’] Antiphons. As I may have said before, they are very, very old, and have been translated, paraphrased and re-translated many times.

Here is another John Wesley hymn: literally the only version of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing I found that I liked, by the U.S. Army Band of all things. (I think it’s just because it needs a lot of deep voices, but most of the men’s choruses that did it used the Willcocks arrangement, which I loathe with a passion.)

…and here is an image of another spiral galaxy, M74, from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic.

Here’s this year’s calendar, if anyone’s interested.

Kierkegaard’s tripwire

November 23rd

One who is righteous has many adversities, but the LORD rescues him from them all. He protects all his bones; not one of them is broken. 

Psalm 34:19-20 (CSB)

Now and then someone speaks of “suffering punishment, when one does the Good.” How is that possible? From whom shall that punishment come? Certainly not from God! Is it, then, from the world — so that when in its wisdom the world is mistaken, it rewards the bad and punishes the Good? And yet no, it is not as that word “world” implies. For the word “world” sounds great and terrifying, and yet it must obey the same law as the most insignificant and miserable man. But even if the world gathered all its strength, there is one thing it is not able to do, it can no more punish an innocent one that it can put a dead person to death.

To be sure the world has power. It can lay many a burden upon the innocent one. It can make his life sour and laborious for him. It can rob him of his life. But it cannot punish an innocent one. How wonderful, here is a limit, a limit that is invisible, like a line that is easy to overlook with the senses, but one that has the strength of eternity in resisting any infringement. This may be overlooked by the world whose attention is focused upon that which is big —and the limit is insignificant, is for the present, a quiet-mannered nobody, but yet it is there. Perhaps it is completely hidden from the eyes of the world. For that, too, can be a part of the innocent one’s suffering, that the world’s injustice takes on the appearance of punishment — in the world’s eyes. But the limit is nevertheless there, and is in spit of all the strongest. And even if all the world rose up in tumult and even if everything were thrown into confusion: the limit is nevertheless there. And on the one side of it with the innocent ones is justice; and on the other side toward the world is an eternal impossibility of punishing an innocent one. Even if the world wishes to annihilate an innocent man and put him out of the way, it cannot put the limit out of the way, even though it be invisible. (Perhaps it is just on that account.)

from Kierkegaard’s Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing (Ch. 5)

Or does this already have a clever name like Chesterton’s fence, or Jacob’s ladder? I like ‘tripwire,’ but I’m open to suggestions.

Bad shepherds

June 21st

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

Mark 6:34 (NIV)

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.

“ ‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will tend them in a good pasture… I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

from Ezekiel 34

The other side of the coin, because, you know, this blog isn’t enough of a powder keg already. I really did try though; believe it or not, this is the least inflammatory section of the chapter.