No single act of war or
violence has ever been a part of Divine Love’s plan for humanity. The desire to
harm or kill another being erupts from the defective minds of those who have
lost their connection with their divine source and with one another. Violence
stems from fear, hatred, greed, and the desire for power. The ability of one
person to hurt someone else is possible only because the illusion of separation
prevents one from sharing the pain inflicted on another aspect of self. In
reality, all souls are part of the one universal spirit, and for one soul to
torment another is no different from a person torturing his own body. The
difference is that the tormenter whose soul is closed off from other souls does
not feel any pain. The thicker and harder the shell is around a soul, the
easier it is for that individual to hurt others. So Love’s goal is to melt the
shells that divide its multitudinous parts from one another. The thinner the
shell, the more compassionate a person becomes.
The crusty shell that surrounds the human soul is
constructed by fear, to protect the individual from outside influences -- from
the unknown, the strange, and uncomfortable situations. Fear is the base
emotion from which all other negative emotions rise. So fear is the direct opposite of love, and
love is what is needed to melt the shell of resistance that enables one to
commit a violent act against another.
John, disciple of Jesus, wrote: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love
casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). Throughout history, the gods and
angels of peace have attempted to replace fear with love, in order to stem the
waves of conflict that have threatened to consume our world. They found success
here and there, among the Jains and the Buddhists, and some of the early Christians,
but the excuses for violence have been numerous and not easily squelched. Many
men grew to love warfare and grew bored and restless during the brief times of
peace. When there was no war to entertain them, they fought among themselves
and with their family members. These men came up with the notion that war is a
natural state of being, so anyone who dreams of world peace can just keep on
dreaming.
The
angels watched in dismay as the Church waged the Crusade wars for hundreds of
years. When most of their attempts to return Christianity to its peaceful roots
had failed, the angels of peace helped to found some religious sects that would
take seriously the goal of peace between nations. These pacifistic churches
included the Religious
Society of Friends,
also known as Quakers; the Amish, the Mennonites and the Church of the
Brethren. The angels reminded the founders of these
groups that if we are to love our enemies, as Jesus suggested, we cannot fear
them. Of course, learning to love one’s
enemy is not so easily accomplished, but the angels of peace have tried,
throughout history, to transform enmity into friendship.
When the
Quaker pacifist, William Penn, founded colonial Pennsylvania, his policies
barred the colonists from military involvement. His angelic guides encouraged a
friendly alliance between the Quakers and the Lenape, the Native American tribe
that lived in the region. The Lenape and the Quakers were both thin-shelled
people who felt a strong connection to the universe. The Lenape felt a kinship
with the nature spirits who provided them with food, clothing, and shelter. The
Quakers, coming from Europe, did not live so close to nature, but they felt a
deep connection to their divine source, constantly listening to the “still,
small voice within” for guidance. The Lenape taught the Quakers how to plant
and cultivate the “three sisters:” corn, squash, and beans. The Quakers taught
the Lenape about the Inner Light, which led them to be gentle, loving, kind,
and peaceful in their relations with all people. The Quakers and the Lenape lived together
harmoniously from 1681 until 1754, when some of the Quakers began to thirst for
power and wealth – the enemies of peace.
You
might think the angels would be discouraged when the Quakers and Lenape began
to fight, but they knew that the seeds of peace planted during the time of
harmony would not die. Just as a living bulb lies hidden beneath the earth and
snow during the long, cold winter, the seeds of peace wait patiently in the
realm of hope while the storms of war rage around them. The bulb will sprout
and become a flower when the spring sun warms the soil it rests in. The seeds
of peace will grow and bloom when Love melts the shell of separation, allowing
people to feel their oneness.
At the
same time that people of European descent were waging war against the natives
of the Americas, in order to confiscate their land, the British were using
violent methods to take possession of the Māori’s land in Aotearoa, which the British re-named New Zealand. Most of the Māori were a warlike people, but one Māori leader, Te Whiti-o-Rongomai, learned about the Christian way of
peace from the British missionaries, and used what he had learned to avoid war
with the very people who had brought the teachings of Jesus to his land. In
1881, a troop of British soldiers marched on Parihaka, the largest Māori
village in New Zealand, where Te Whiti reigned as chief. Te Whiti said to his
people: "No good thing has ever
been wrought by force ... there is no reason why force should continue to have
power over us."
The
seeds of peace had been watered and fertilized by Rongo, the Māori god of peace, the angels, and the missionaries. The people of Parihaka
were ready to hear what their chief had to say, so when he told them to greet
the oncoming soldiers with song and dance, food and drink, they willingly
prepared to be gracious hosts rather than take up arms against their
conquerors. Te Whiti and his people did not resist arrest, and so they
prevented British massacres and protected some of the land that would have been
taken by violence.
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