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rhysismydaddy · 4 years ago

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Unholy Matrimony Pt. 1 (Nessian)

Nesta’s part of the Damnation Series.

OOF this took so long sorry. I rewrote it, changed it, then deleted it entirely about 9 times. I literally started writing the version before you, from scratch, on Sunday. All parts are linked below, so I’m only tagging people on this version! To go to the next chapter, there is also a link at the bottom <3

ALSO, an important caviat: Nesta is an only child in this one! I originally wrote it for her to be adopted and not know it, but it wasn’t really relevant to the story, so... idk. Just ignore that plot hole I guess.

Parts 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 -- pls like each part I’m insecure

______________________________________________

~Cassian~

“You’re getting married.”

The glass of bourbon halfway to my mouth pauses, because despite being known for being rash and unpredictable, even I’m surprised by the sudden change in conversation.

My eyebrows raise as I look over at Rhysand, my best friend and Capo, trying to figure out if this bastard is serious. His tone says he is, but that doesn’t make sense, because before a few seconds ago, the word “marriage” was in neither of our vocabularies.

He’s been single for as long as I have, although I’m starting to suspect he’s got a bird in the city. He’s too damn happy these days, and the other day I saw him laugh at something on his phone.

Which is weird, because we both know long-term commitments don’t really do well with our lifestyle.

We were raised to not give a shit about anything except the job. We kill without remorse, live in the shadows, and whatever other shitty euphemism you want to use. Settling down in some suburban, picket-fence prison has absolutely no appeal to Made Men.

Don’t get me wrong, most of us get married at some point. But never for love.

Some men choose a bride that’s pretty and sweet. Someone who will donate to charity and help clean up their image. Governors’ daughters, women from old-money families, and social princesses make up this category.

Some men marry to advance their station in the Family. Second sons who will never inherit the business marry daughters of Underbosses to get a nice boost to their status.

And then there’s the ones who are forced to marry by their capo--ie. me-- so they choose whatever attractive woman that’s in the Family and available. Those are always the happiest.

But regardless of the reasoning, marriage in the mafia is heartless, political, and for me, unnecessary.

I know I’ll have to pick someone eventually, but there aren’t a whole lot of desirable options at the moment. Not many of the other Underbosses have daughters that are over the age of fifteen right now, and I have no interest in doing the child-bride thing.

Plus, there’s no way I’d marry someone outside of the family. At my rank, it isn’t an option.

That leaves... a widow?

The only one I know is Ianthe, and considering I highly suspect she killed her last husband and the fact that she’s crazy, there’s no way in hell I’d legally bind myself to her for life.

So he must be joking.

I take a pull from my cigar and look over at Rhys with narrowed eyes. “Uh huh. Sure. To who, exactly?”

“Volchonok.”

The Wolf Cub.

The cigar snaps in my fingers.

“You’re fucking kidding,” I say, honestly hoping that’s the case. He’s either that or insane, and I’d hate to lock someone who’s like a brother to me in a padded room.

Rhysand’s unflinching gaze doesn’t change, but his tone morphs from that of my friend to my boss. “You will marry her, Cassian.”

“She’s a fucking Russian,” I spit, not understanding. That should be reason enough for him to be joking.

In our world, being Russian is a crime similar to stabbing the Pope.

We’ve been at war over New York with them ever since they decided to try and get a stronghold on the east coast, and I’ve killed more of them than I can fucking count. Now I’m marrying one?

“Yes, she is, and so is her father, Alexei Olov.” Aka the Bratva Boss responsible for blowing up half of St. Petersburg last year when the local police refused to buy his weapons. “You will marry her, move to New York full time, and run the city with her by your side.”

“Why? Two or three more years, and we’ll have the city anyway.” Every day the Russians get weaker, and I’ve been responsible for pushing them out of my city block by block.

So there has to be a reason we’re suddenly okay with the enemy.

Rhysand sighs. “It was his idea, not mine. Orlov has agreed to sell our coke in Moscow and Seattle instead of his usual dealer and will supply us all the weapons we need for five years. There will also be no more midnight raids, bullshit arrests on bullshit charges, or missing shipments. He’s offering you a dowry, too.”

I don’t need his money, but the old fashioned term makes me laugh.

“Yeah? And how much does he think his wolf cub is worth?”

His lips twitch. “Ten million.”

“She must be a real pain in the ass, then, if he’s going to pay me that much to take her,” I chuckle.

Not that ten million dollars is anything but pocket change for the man. Orlov may be losing the fight in New York, but the bastard is richer than sin.

Selling arms to half of the entire world will do that to a person.

“I hear she’s beautiful,” he says, trying to tempt me to not fight him.

“Then you marry her,” I shoot back, not ready to give up the argument.

“I don’t feel like it.” Fucking typical. Rhysand sighs. “You and I both know we can work this deal to our advantage, so what will make you say yes?”

He could order to me to say yes and I’d have to, but he hates enforcing that kind of authority with me.

So I think it over, make a show of lighting a new cigar. “I want Sera.”

It’s a burlesque club in New York I’ve always been a little envious of, owned by Orlov and operated by his men. I’d tried to buy it a few years back but hadn’t had enough leverage on the Russian to strongarm him into selling.

Now I do.

Rhysand--the only one who knows about my failed attempt to buy the place--nods and tells me he’ll make it happen.

“When’s all this happening, anyway?”

He looks like he might laugh. “Wedding is in a month, but she’s flying in tomorrow night.”

A quick laugh forces its way out of me. Also typical of him to give me absolutely no time to change my mind.

Well, I have a month. That’s already longer than any relationship I’ve ever had.

Sighing, I stand and shake his hand, cementing the deal before I can even lament the loss of my bachelorhood.

~Nesta~

“Chto sluchilos?”

I slide my gaze to my father, because seriously, that’s the stupidest fucking question I’ve ever heard.

What’s wrong? What’s wrong? Everything.

“Nichego,” I lie, assuring him for what feels like the tenth time as I look out the window. The plane picks up speed and lifts off, taking me towards an uncertain future, an uncertain place.

I might have told him nothing’s wrong, but inside, I’m screaming.

Three days ago, I woke up to find a marriage contract on the pillow beside me. There was a blank space where my name had been typed and a pen waiting for me to remedy that.

I still haven’t.

I’m not signing anything until I meet this... Cassian.

God, what an Italian name.

An image springs to mind, one of a slumped-over, hairy-chest beast with slicked back hair and a gold chain.

I know it’s stereotypical and hopefully incorrect, but I’ve never been to Italy and Alexei strictly forbids me watching movies that portray Italians as anything except revolting.

But looks aside, there’s one thing I don’t need to guess to know.

My future husband will be like all the other men in my life: controlling.

Men in the world I live in take what they want, don’t ask for permission, and feel like they’re entitled to anything and everything. I’ve dealt with it my entire life, so it’s more amusing than anything at this point.

I guess I’m a bit non-traditional in that sense, considering most of the women around me have no problems taking orders from their fathers or husbands. But Alexei and I figured out pretty early in life that wasn’t going to work for me.

As he frequently likes to tell me, I started telling him to fuck off when I was five.

What did he expect? All the kids I hung out with were the opposite sex and at least five years older than me, so my vocabulary and mannerisms became pretty... colorful early on.

Regardless, I’m just not looking forward to having to deal with yet another man who thinks he can control me.

“Ty vresh',” Alexei accuses, lips twitching. You’re lying.

“Konechno.” Of course.

Of course I’m upset, but I understand what’s happening. I might have found out about it three days ago, but I’ve known it was coming for far longer.

As the only child of the great Alexei Orlov, Wolf of Moscow and Pakhan of the Russian Bratva, I’ve been told my entire life that I will one day be used as a pawn to gain more power.

It would--should--piss me off, but I’ve also been told I’m to one day take my father’s place and run his company.

So by gaining more power for him, I’m also doing the same for myself.

Not that I really give a shit about that kind of thing. I started officially working for Alexei years ago, and I already have enough money saved to never have to work again.

But in the Bratva, there’s no getting out. I was put in this world by birth, and the only thing that will take me out is death.

In case it isn’t obvious, I’m not a typical business woman.

My father is an arms-dealer.

A less than legal one, if you believe the heinous lies the media spreads about him.

He sells weapons to governments, private armies, and whoever the fuck else has the money to buy.

He’s also built himself a shipping empire to haul said weapons around the globe, runs the drugs and prostitute rings in Moscow, and has enough real estate to rival most small countries.

It probably sounds like I don’t care, and that’s because I don’t.

I like what I do in the sense that I have a mind for business. I went to business school and graduated at the top of my class, and I enjoy running the clubs and hotels I have. Trained by Alexei himself, I’m ruthless in negotiations, enough so that people started calling me the Wolf Cub by the time I was twenty.

But despite being good at it, I’m not particularly fond of the aspect most people think of when they picture my career in the Bratva. I detest drugs, have never hired a prostitute, and don’t really enjoy selling arms to bad people.

The alleyway meetups, the broken bones and bullet holes, and the blown up houses are all a little tiring to me.

Sure, it sounds exciting. And for a while, it was. I used to lose myself in the chaos, used to enjoy coming home with busted knuckles. But I honestly just got tired of it.

Right now, I don’t have to deal with it as much because Alexei’s still alive. But when he dies and I officially take over the family business, I’ll have to be more involved. Even if the thought makes me want to sigh.

I pull out my laptop and look over the financial report for Sera, my newest club in New York. As predicted, everything’s running smoothly.

I turn the laptop around to show my father, grinning when he pulls out his reading glasses and leans closer.

“Starik,” I tease. Old man.

He flicks my forehead, then reads the report and nods. Then he turns to his phone, probably playing Angry Birds or some shit, and leaves me to work.

The plane ride goes by quickly, and by the time we’ve landed in Chicago, I’ve gotten ahead on my schedule for next week, slept, and changed into what I’ve chosen as the “meeting my future husband” dress.

It’s simple and sleek, the black material clinging to my curves without being obscene. It’s long enough to hide the holster on my thigh, not that I feel in any danger with four personal guards stationed near me at all times.

My heels click as I make my way down the plane stairs and across the tarmac to the waiting sedan, and once my luggage and belongings are unloaded, we head to the Italian Capo’s house.

We’re meeting here, finalizing the contract, and then Cassian and I are flying to New York.

My new home.

“Try to look happy,” Alexei tells me, his heavily accented English almost ridiculous to hear. He speaks English only when he’s in the states, and considering he hasn’t come here since I graduated B school two years ago, he’s a little out of practice.

“I’m ecstatic,” I say, intentionally using a word I know he doesn’t understand.

His eyes narrow, because it isn’t the first time I’ve used this trick, but he doesn’t call me out on it. We continue to ride in ecstatic silence, eventually pulling up in front of the Capo’s... house.

It’s almost obscene to call it that, considering it’s fucking huge. Like obnoxiously huge.

I heave a sigh, step out of the car, and take in my surroundings. The neighborhood’s quiet, likely filled with friends of the Cosa Nostra too scared to make any noise.

A butler--seriously, a butler--opens the door and welcomes us inside, and as soon as I step in, I have to repress the urge to roll my eyes.

The amount of dirty money in the air is suffocating. It drips off the vaulted ceilings, down the artwork on the walls, across the marble floors. It’s in the little details of the crystal chandeliers and the mahogany staircase.

Ridiculous.

One look at Alexei’s disgusted face says he’s thinking the same thing.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re rich. Grossly so. Alexei could have ten houses just like this, if he wanted them.

But he doesn’t. He owns property all over the world, but most of it is commercial or apartment complexes--property that makes him money, in other words. This, however, is a massive waste of capital.

The butler leads us further through the house and into an office where four men wait.

One is immediately identifiable as their lawyer, his over-priced cologne making me have to resist the urge to sneeze. The humongous man in the corner is hired muscle, if the boxy shape of the guns under his jacket is any indication.

The man behind the desk is obviously in charge, so I’m guessing he’s the Capo. Rhysand or Rhyland or something weird like that. He takes me in silently, bright eyes not seeming to miss any details.

That leaves the man leaning against the desk to be Cassian Azara.

My fiancé.

Our eyes meet, his golden gaze beautiful and wild, and I have to remember to keep my expression bored.

Because the stereotype, the horrible image I’d conjured up in my mind, couldn’t be further from the truth.

For one, he isn’t hunched-over. He stands tall, leaning a hip against his Capo’s desk with obvious confidence. But I see more than just self-assuredness in his eyes. He seems a little too rough around the edges, wild gaze almost like he’s daring someone to swing at him.

If the confidence didn’t already make him attractive, his looks sure as hell get the job done.

His hairs long and dark and curly, half of it pulled up in a rouge manner that clashes with the suit he’s filling. He has a few days’ stubble, too, like standing still long enough to shave just isn’t an option.

His shoulders are impossibly wide, narrowing down to trim hips and legs long enough to make him tower over everyone in the room.

His knuckles are tattooed and split open, and there’s a cut above his eyebrow that tells me I was correct to assume he’s a fighter by nature.

Usually, that would be a deterrent for me, but there’s something about the way he’s dressed in a dark suit jacket and crisp white shirt while also looking so untamed that has me cocking my head to study him some more.

He studies me, too, beautiful eyes taking in the long blonde hair and bright blue eyes offset by pale skin. He looks at the dress like he can see everything underneath, and I have the strangest urge to blush. Jesus, he’s toxic.

He’s attractive, is what I’m getting at.

Which is not what I had planned on, considering I’d been trying to think of a plan on how to not sleep with him, but suddenly that’s all my mind can focus on.

His lips twitch like he knows what I’m thinking, and I realize we’ve just been standing here staring at each other for a bit too long.

So I turn back to Alexei and shrug like I’ve seen what my future husband has to offer and aren’t impressed in the slightest.

I toss the marriage contract on the desk, grab the Capo’s fancy little fountain pen out of his hand, and sign my name on the blank above my name.

Cassian watches, but I ignore him entirely until the ink has dried. Then I look up at him through my lashes and wink, turn on my heel, and leave the room.

~Cassian~

I think I’m in love.

Fuck.

She hasn’t said a single goddamn word, but the way she looked at me has me feeling itchy all over, anticipation and nerves rolling through me. I feel like I feel before I fight or something exciting happens.

Like I’m primed and ready and need it to happen now.

Nesta Orlov, my bride to be, is nothing like I expected.

I was fully braced for some meek little woman, similar to most of my friends’ wives, to come in and smile and say hello.

But nope. Nesta didn’t smile; she came in like she was walking onto a battlefield.

And she didn’t smile. She looked me over, clinical blue gaze noticing too much, and left me feeling winded. God, she’s beautiful. Just looking at her made me hot.

She also didn’t say hello.

Just signed the contract and left, like this was nothing more to her than a boring business deal. I mean, that’s what it is, but... I don’t know, I expected more of a reaction.

I’ve heard from some Underbosses that their wives cried or raged when they were forced to sign, but shit if that were the case with Nesta. She honest to God looked like she didn’t care.

Alexei, on the other hand, does look a little pissed about the situation, but I couldn’t care less of the old man’s opinion. He’s signed the contract, so to me, he’s irrelevant. Regardless, he and Rhys proceed to iron out some of the details about the wedding and other shit I’m not paying attention to.

Then they shake hands, and the Russian warlord turns to leave.

He reaches the door and looks over his shoulder at me, and there’s amusement in his cold gaze as he mutters, “Udachi.” Good luck.

As soon as he’s gone, Roman and the lawyer follow, leaving me alone with Rhys.

He slides the contract to me, and I sign my name next to hers, making this shit official.

“This should be interesting,” he comments, vague as usual.

I sigh, because I have a feeling interesting isn’t going to cover it.

_____________________________________________________

NEXT CHAPTER

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#nessian #nessian fanfiction #acosf countdown #acosf #nesta archeron #cassian #acotar #acotar fanfiction #acosf fanfiction #a court of mist and fury

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thesquireofcheddar · 4 years ago

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To exalt, enthrone, establish and defend, To welcome home mankind's mysterious friend Wine, true begetter of all arts that be; Wine, privilege of the completely free; Wine the recorder; wine the sagely strong; Wine, bright avenger of sly-dealing wrong, Awake, Ausonian Muse, and sing the vineyard song!

Sing how the Charioteer from Asia came, And on his front the little dancing flame Which marked the God-head. Sing the Panther-team, The gilded Thrysus twirling, and the gleam Of cymbals through the darkness. Sing the drums. He comes; the young renewer of Hellas comes! The Seas await him. Those Aegean Seas Roll from the dawning, ponderous, ill at ease, In lifts of lead, whose cresting hardly breaks To ghostly foam, when suddenly there awakes A mountain glory inland. All the skies Are luminous; and amid the sea bird cries The mariner hears a morning breeze arise. Then goes the Pageant forward. The sea-way Silvers the feet of that august array Trailing above the waters, through the airs; And as they pass a wind before them bears The quickening word, the influence magical. The Islands have received it, marble-tall; The long shores of the mainland. Something fills The warm Euboean combes, the sacred hills Of Aulis and of Argos. Still they move Touching the City walls, the Temple grove, Till, far upon the horizon-glint, a gleam Of light, of trembling light, revealed they seem Turned to a cloud, but to a cloud that shines, And everywhere as they pass, the Vines! The Vines! The Vines, the conquering Vines! And the Vine breaths Her savour through the upland, empty heaths Of treeless wastes; the Vines have come to where The dark Pelasgian steep defends the lair Of the wolf's hiding; to the empty fields By Aufidus, the dry campaign that yields No harvest for the husbandman, but now Shall bear a nobler foison than the plough; To where, festooned along the tall elm trees, Tendrils are mirrored in Tyrrhenian seas; To where the South awaits them; even to where Stark, African informed of burning air, Upturned to Heaven the broad Hipponian plain Extends luxurious and invites the main. Guelma's a mother: barren Thaspsa breeds; And northward in the valleys, next the meads That sleep by misty river banks, the Vines Have struck to spread below the solemn pines. The Vines are on the roof-trees. All the Shrines And Homes of men are consecrate with Vines.

And now the task of that triumphant day Has reached to victory. In the reddening ray With all his train, from hard Iberian lands Fulfilled, apparent, that Creator stands Halted on Atlas. Far Beneath him, far, The strength of Ocean darkening and the star Beyond all shores. There is a silence made. It glorifies: and the gigantic shade Of Hercules adores him from the West. Dead Lucre: burnt Ambition: Wine is best.

But what are these that from the outer murk Of dense mephitic vapours creeping lurk To breathe foul airs from that corrupted well Which oozes slime along the floor of Hell? These are the stricken palsied brood of sin In whose vile veins, poor, poisonous and thin, Decoctions of embittered hatreds crawl: These are the Water-Drinkers, cursed all! On what gin-sodden Hags, what flaccid sires Bred these White Slugs from what exhaust desires? In what close prison's horror were their wiles Watched by what tyrant power with evil smiles; Or in what caverns, blocked from grace and air Received they, then, the mandates of despair? What! Must our race, our tragic race, that roam All exiled from our first, and final, home: That in one moment of temptation lost Our heritage, and now wander, hunger-tost Beyond the Gates (still speaking with our eyes For ever of remembered Paradise), Must we with every gift accepted, still, With every joy, receive attendant ill? Must some lewd evil follow all our good And muttering dog our brief beatitude?

A primal doom, inexorable, wise, Permitted, ordered, even these to rise. Even in the shadow of so bright a Lord Must swarm and propagate the filthy horde Debased, accursed I say, abhorrent and abhorred. Accursed and curse-bestowing. For whosoe'er Shall suffer their contagion, everywhere Falls from the estate of man and finds his end To the mere beverage of the beast condemned. For such as these in vain the Rhine has rolled Imperial centuries by hills of gold; For such as these the flashing Rhone shall rage In vain its lightning through the Hermitage Or level-browed divine Touraine receive The tribute of her vintages at eve. For such as these Burgundian heats in vain Swell the rich slope or load the empurpled plain. Bootless for such as these the mighty task Of bottling God the Father in a flask And leading all Creation down distilled To one small ardent sphere immensely filled. With memories empty, with experience null, With vapid eye-balls meaningless and dull They pass unblest through the unfruitful light; And when we open the bronze doors of Night, When we in high carousal, we reclined, Spur up to Heaven the still ascending mind, Pass with the all inspiring, to and fro, The torch of genius and the Muse's glow, They, lifeless, stare at vacancy alone Or plan mean traffic, or repeat their moan. We, when repose demands us, welcomed are In young white arms, like our great Exemplar Who, wearied with creation, takes his rest And sinks to sleep on Ariadne's breast. They through the darkness into darkness press Despised, abandoned and companionless. And when the course of either's sleep has run We leap to life like heralds of the sun; We from the couch in roseate mornings gay Salute as equals the exultant day While they, the unworthy, unrewarded, they The dank despisers of the Vine, arise To watch grey dawns and mourn indifferent skies.

Forget them! Form the Dionysian ring And pulse the ground, and Io, Io, sing.

Father Lenaean, to whom our strength belongs, Our loves, our wars, our laughter and our songs, Remember our inheritance, who praise Your glory in these last unhappy days When beauty sickens and a muddied robe Of baseness fouls the universal globe. Though all the Gods indignant and their train Abandon ruined man, do thou remain! By thee the vesture of our life was made, The Embattled Gate, the lordly Colonnade, The woven fabric's gracious hues, the sound Of trumpets, and the quivering fountain-round, And, indestructible, the Arch, and, high, The Shaft of Stone that stands against the sky, And, last, the guardian-genius of them, Rhyme, Come from beyond the world to conquer time: All these are thine, Lenaean.

By thee do seers the inward light discern; By thee the statue lives, the Gods return; By thee the thunder and the falling foam Of loud Acquoria's torrent call to Rome; Alba rejoices in a thousand springs, Gensano laughs, and Orvieto sings... But, Ah! With Orvieto, with that name Of dark, Eturian, subterranean flame The years dissolve. I am standing in that hour Of majesty Septembral, and the power Which swells the clusters when the nights are still With autumn stars on Orvieto hill.

Had these been mine, Ausonian Muse, to know The large contented oxen heaving slow; To count my sheaves at harvest; so to spend Perfected days in peace until the end; With every evening's dust of gold to hear The bells upon the pasture height, the clear Full horn of herdsmen gathering in the kine To ancient byres in hamlets Appenine, And crown abundant age with generous ease: Had these, Ausonian Muse, had these, had these.....

But since I would not, since I could not stay, Let me remember even in this my day How, when the ephemeral vision's lure is past All, all, must face their Passion at the last

Was there not one that did to Heaven complain How, driving through the midnight and the rain, He struck, the Atlantic seethe and surge before, Wrecked in the North along a lonely shore To make the lights of home and hear his name no more. Was there not one that from a desperate field Rode with no guerdon but a rifted shield; A name disherited; a broken sword; Wounds unrenowned; battle beneath no Lord; Strong blows, but on the void, and toil without reward.

When from the waste of such long labour done I too must leave the grape-ennobling sun And like the vineyard worker take my way Down the long shadows of declining day, Bend on the sombre plain my clouded sight And leave the mountain to the advancing night, Come to the term of all that was mine own With nothingness before me, and alone; Then to what hope of answer shall I turn? Comrade-Commander whom I dared not earn, What said You then to trembling friends and few? "A moment, and I drink it with you new: But in my Father's Kingdom." So, my Friend, Let not Your cup desert me in the end. But when the hour of mine adventure's near Just and benignant, let my youth appear Bearing a Chalice, open, golden, wide, With benediction graven on its side. So touch my dying lip: so bridge that deep: So pledge my waking from the gift of sleep, And, sacramental, raise me the Divine: Strong brother in God and last companion, Wine. Hilaire Belloc

#lit

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mygrandmathinksimsassy · 5 years ago

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Aidoneus is Hera’s first. He is everything the first should be.

It’s here: The Episode 78 one shot nobody asked for!!!

Read it on Ao3 or Read Below

Aidoneus is the first.

He is careful. Gentle.

Everything the first should be.

They come together in the darkness; their fingers intertwined as they tread this strange, new ground.

When it is done, Aidoneus breathes her name like a whisper.

The air is quiet and Hera holds him close to her breast.

The next morning, Zeus asks for her hand.

She’s surprised he bothers with asking. Zeus isn’t really the asking type.

The conquering hero. The scourge of Cronus.

Brash and brave. Everything a King should be.

But he gets on his knees for her. Tells her she is the most beautiful goddess the world has ever seen.

The pantheon is only a half dozen strong. She knows this, but his silver tongue goes straight to her head.

Hera makes him wait for her answer

Zeus agrees even if he doesn’t understand her hesitation.

Her suitor is not a patient man

He isn’t the only one in need of a wife.

The newly crowned King of the Dead will need someone to ease his burden. Mortals are always dying. His work will never be done.

Hades, he is called Hades now, has left Olympus. To start a new life hidden beneath the soil.

Trapped in the cold and dark for all eternity.

She doesn’t need the sight to see the future that awaits her there.

A goddess of marriage sharing her husband’s tomb. A goddess of family with nobody to talk to but the shades.

Hades never asks, but there is no need.

She marries Zeus.

She chooses the sun.

It is easy to love Zeus. Her strong, handsome husband with the cosmos on a string.

The early days are sweet.

They are the guests of honor at every party, the belles of every ball. The mortals sing their praises and she is strong, getting stronger every time a candle is lit in prayer.

The nights are just as bright.

They christen every room, every corner of Olympus. He is a skilled lover, her clever husband. He conquers her just like everything else.

His silver tongue never stills and she is drunk on being his.

His wife. His lover. His queen.

They have two sons, one right after the other.

Ares. Her brave fighter.

Hephaestus. Her gentle soul.

There will be daughters too. She’s seen them in her visions.

She is happy.

The world is hers.

Her husband is unfaithful.

There is a child. A mortal child.

Her husband’s progeny tainting the shores of Crete.

She screams at him and he roars at her. He is a monster now, as cruel as he is charismatic. Worse than any titan. Gallivanting across the known world, sticking his cock in anything that moves.

The child isn’t the first, he says. Only the first mortal he forgot to hide.

He leaves her crying in the gardens and it’s like he swallowed her whole.

Hera descends to the underworld.

The ichor freezes in her veins and she remembers that all of this could have been hers.

The kingdom of the dead. A world of silence and a life unseen.

She would have died long ago if this had been the life she chose. She is too weak to be alone.

Hera knocks on the door and a beast answers, howling so loud that Olympus must hear.

It stares at her through the window.

Three pairs of eyes glowing like flames. Three sets of gnashing teeth ready to bite.

The monster lunges at her through the glass, stopped by a blue hand on the scruff of one of its necks.

“CERBERUS.”

The beast yelps.

“BAD DOG!”

That thing isn’t a dog. That thing belongs in Tartarus.

The monster scampers back into the abyss and Hades opens the front door.

His hair is shorter than before. It suits him.

“Wh..what are you doing he-”

He stammers like the old days, back when the world was new.

“-aren’t you going to invite me in?”

He steps aside and her heels clack on marble quicksand. This is dangerous ground they’re covering. It doesn’t matter that they’ve walked here before.

He is a terrible host.

She pours her own brandy and lights her own cigar, trying to force some semblance of conversation as she gathers up her nerve.

“You got a dog?”

“I guess,” he shrugs. “Technically, we’re coworkers.”

“I can get you some curtains for the kitchen,” she says. “You might have neighbors one day. Do you want them looking in?”

“If I wanted curtains, I would have curtains.”

That is all he says about it. They stand in silence and she wonders why she came.

Zeus never hides what he’s thinking. He practically monologues during sex.

But this isn’t about her husband.

This is about her.

And Hades. To a lesser extent.

He smokes a pipe like the old man he’s always been and she watches him take a drag.

He has strong hands. Thick fingers. She remembers all too well what those fingers can do.

A thrill runs through her as she takes his face between her hands. She kisses him and he tastes exactly like before.

It’s been centuries since their first embrace yet he is always Aidoneus and she is the girl who tends his wounds.

He breaks the kiss, but he doesn’t pull away. Their foreheads are pressed together, close enough to share a breath.

“What about Zeus?”

He is nineteen and terrified.

Her poor, lost Aidoneus.

“What about him?”

She leans in again. He kisses back.

There is a desperation in the way he holds her. Centuries of restraint unspooling in a crimson thread.

He takes her on the kitchen table. He still says her name when he comes.

They share a cigarette on the kitchen floor.

Her head rests on his shoulder and they must make quite the sight.

Gold and Blue. Sun and Sky.

They look good together.

For a time, she was the most beautiful goddess ever beheld by the cosmos. Still is to the most enlightened mortals. She would look good with anyone.

Hades lets the ash build up until it’s about to crumble, breathing only when he must.

She doesn’t feel … better. Better wouldn’t mean goosebumps running up and down her arms.

Better would mean Zeus never strayed.

But at least she doesn’t feel worse.

“It’s freezing down here.”

“I’ll get you a coat.” Another drag. “For your next visit.”

How dare he plan for a next time. There will never be a next time.

There will be. She’s already seen it.

She puts their cigarette out.

“We’re having a dinner party this weekend,” she says. “You should come.”

“I don’t-“

“You’re coming, Hades. You don’t have a choice.”

“I never have a choice, Bunny.”

Hera feels his sigh all the way down to her toes.

“The boys want to spend time with you.”

She brings his hand to her lips. It’s a different type of kiss than before.

It might even be a kiss that heals.

“They should know their uncle.”

She breathes easier when she’s back on Olympus.

Her bedroom is filled with jewels and Zeus is on his knees again, begging to return to the temple of her bed.

He will never betray her. He says this as he trails kisses up her thighs. He will love her, only her, for the rest of eternity.

She wants to believe him. She doesn’t, she will never believe him ever again, but she wants enough to almost make it true.

His stupid, silver tongue. He makes her want to play the fool.

Hades is the first one to show up for dinner.

He brings gifts for the children. A wooden sword for Ares. A model train for Hephaestus.

They are getting too old for toys. Ares says so over dessert, he inherited his father’s tact, but her boys aren’t babies anymore. They’re almost men.

One day, she’ll wake up and they’ll stop aging. Their bedrooms will be empty and they’ll leave her all alone.

That’s a problem for another day. She can’t fuck her way out of that.

There is a bracelet for her. Covered in emeralds and amethysts, matching the peacock feathers in her hair.

He doesn’t bring her husband anything and he sulks about it all night.

Not quite a punishment. But definitely deserved.

It becomes a thing.

Zeus fucks her.

She fucks Hades.

Never in Olympus. Always in the dark. Just like before.

It’s safe, familiar.

Hades is the blanket to shelter from her husband’s storm.

It is a bad idea. A terrible idea.

The worst.

She’s the goddess of marriage for fuck’s sake. The morals seek her guidance on how to be a perfect wife.

The perfect wife endures the bad for the sake of the good. The perfect wife doesn’t suck her brother-in-law’s cock.

There are nights where she feels guilty and nights where she is greedy and days where she feels nothing at all.

Hades deserves more than nothing.

They become friends over the years. Not friends who fuck, but friends who ask about each other’s days. Friends who learn each other’s fears.

Years turn into centuries and their visits are always full clothed.

It’s better this way.

She wants him to be happy. She needs someone to call his own.

Minthe is a terror.

A pointy-eared cretin in a too short dress, desecrating her home with tacky earrings and cloven footsteps.

Hera could forgive bad taste, but that is the least egregious of Minthe’s sins.

The nymph screams and rants at Hades like she has earned the right. Flirts with the satyrs passing out canapés and leaves Aidoneus out in the cold.

He should have someone better.

Someone who loves him the way he deserves.

Not her, of course. Definitely not her.

Someone else. Someone strong enough to love the dark the way she never could.

Minthe outstays her welcome. It hurts to bite her tongue, but that’s what Hades asked for. He asks for so little; Hera owes it to him to keep her mouth shut.

She only promised to try and like the nymph. That doesn’t mean she has to succeed.

If he is happy, she will be happy for him.

Yet his eyes still seem so sad.

Little Kore grows up beautiful.

All pink and ripe and lush. A berry ready to be plucked from the vine.

She is a lovely little thing, pretty in a provincial sort of way.

Beautiful enough to be part of the family. Not as beautiful as her.

She’s perfect.

Hephaestus is too busy managing Pomegranate to court her properly.

Ares is Ares. It’ll be another thousand years before he’s ready to settle down.

Hades, on the other hand.

Persephone stares at his portrait as though one look would breathe life into him. Like that idiot sculptor Aphrodite mentioned at brunch.

Hera might have looked at Zeus like that long, long ago. She can’t remember. Life was simpler at nineteen.

This whole chastity business has Demeter’s green thumb all over it.

Annoying, but easily remedied.

Hades would never stray, but he should have a wife that warms his bed.

—

Hera kisses Hades for the last time.

—

She knows it will be the last time, but it still stings a little when he pulls away.

He honors vows Persephone has not yet asked him to keep and the torch he carried is snuffed out for good.

He passes the test.

Persephone has chosen well.

Apollo is condemned.

Any sentence is more than she expected, but it isn’t justice. Justice would mean a sickle rending limb from purple limb apart. Justice would wipe his name from mortal memory until they forgot the monster who held the sun.

The tribunal empties into the hallway. You could cut the tension with a scythe.

Persephone stumbles over her hair, a shroud of brilliant rose. Hades catches her when she falls, cradling her with a lover’s arms.

They are a radiant pair.

Pink and Blue. Love and Sorrow.

It only lasts a moment. They break apart and go their separate ways.

One to the underworld. One to the mortal realm.

Her heart aches for them.

There is a third path to Olympus and she lets her husband take her arm.

Minthe strikes Aidoneus.

The sound echoes down the hallway and the pantheon stops and stares.

She raises her hand again and that is the last thing she does.

Hera blinks and there is a sprig of leaves where a demon used to be.

Persephone hovers in the air. Her eyes glowing red. Her hair filled with thorns.

She is ferocious. Ghastly. Everything a Queen should be.

Hades falls to his knees.

His head is bowed when Persephone returns to the soil. The thorns are gone now and there are pomelias, twinkling like stars, as she holds him in her arms. Persephone speaks to him in the old tongue, whispering his name like the holiest of prayers.

They take shelter in one another. Persephone is brave enough to weather the storm.

The next day, Hades asks for Persephone’s hand.

Demeter rants and rages, but Zeus stands firm.

Persephone is a woman grown. She is the only one who can speak to her hand.

Her husband isn’t always an idiot. He’s smart enough, at least, to do as she says.

The last of the Kings gets married.

With seven dogs dressed up in bow ties. And a smile in his eyes.

Persephone walks the aisle alone.

—

She is a perfect Queen of the Dead

Hera is the first to toast her reign.

#lore olympus #lore olympus fanfic #lore olympus fanfiction #hades #persephone #hades x persephone #hades x hera #hera #zeus #hades (lore olympus)#persephone (lore olympus)#hera (lore olympus)#sassasticmad #this comic is honestly everything and if you aren't reading it #catch up now #and get fastpass so we can talk about it

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roman-catholic-mass-readings · 4 years ago

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1st April >> Mass Readings (USA)

Maundy Thursday - Evening Mass

and

Chrism Mass.

Maundy Thursday - Evening Mass

(Liturgical Colour: White)

(Here are the readings for the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper):

First Reading

Exodus 12:1–8, 11–14

The law regarding the Passover meal.

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall stand at the head of your calendar; you shall reckon it the first month of the year. Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household. If a family is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join the nearest household in procuring one and shall share in the lamb in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it. The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present, it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight. They shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of every house in which they partake of the lamb. That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

“This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight. It is the Passover of the LORD. For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every firstborn of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD! But the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.

“This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.”

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 116:12–13, 15–16bc, 17–18

R/ Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

How shall I make a return to the LORD for all the good he has done for me? The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

R/ Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

Precious in the eyes of the LORD is the death of his faithful ones. I am your servant, the son of your handmaid; you have loosed my bonds.

R/ Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving, and I will call upon the name of the LORD. My vows to the LORD I will pay in the presence of all his people.

R/ Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

Second Reading

1 Corinthians 11:23–26

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord.

Brothers and sisters: I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Gospel Acclamation

John 13:34

I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you.

Gospel

John 13:1–15

Jesus loved them to the end.

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.” Jesus said to him, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all.” For he knew who would betray him; for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Maundy Thursday - Chrism Mass

(Liturgical Colour: White)

(Here are the readings for the morning Chrism Mass):

First Reading

Isaiah 61:1–3a, 6a, 8b–9

The Lord has anointed me and sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, and to give them oil of gladness.

The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God, to comfort all who mourn; to place on those who mourn in Zion a diadem instead of ashes, to give them oil of gladness in place of mourning, a glorious mantle instead of a listless spirit.

You yourselves shall be named priests of the LORD, ministers of our God you shall be called.

I will give them their recompense faithfully, a lasting covenant I will make with them. Their descendants shall be renowned among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them as a race the LORD has blessed.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 89:21–22, 25 and 27

R/ For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

“I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him. That my hand may always be with him; and that my arm may make him strong.”

R/ For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

“My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him; and through my name shall his horn be exalted. He shall say of me, ‘You are my father, my God, the Rock, my savior!’”

R/ For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

Second Reading

Revelation 1:5–8

Christ has made us into a Kingdom, priests for his God and Father.

[Grace to you and peace] from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his Blood, who has made us into a Kingdom, priests for his God and Father, to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

Behold, he is coming amid the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. All the peoples of the earth will lament him. Yes. Amen.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Gospel Acclamation

Isaiah 61:1 (cited in Luke 4:18)

The Spirit of the LORD is upon me; for he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor.

Gospel

Luke 4:16–21

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because of which he has anointed me.

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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ffej16 · 4 years ago

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THEinc-HIM Daily Bible Meditation - February 14 - Full Text - Celebrate St. Valentine’s Day

FEBRUARY 14

PSALMS: 14, 44, 74, 104, 134

PROVERBS: 14

OLD TESTAMENT: RUTH 2:1 - 4:22

NEW TESTAMENT: JOHN 4:43 - 54

PSALMS: 14

1 The fool has said in his heart,

"There is no God.

" They are corrupt, they have done abominable works.

There is none who does good.

2 The LORD looked down from heaven on the children of men,

To see if there were any who did understand,

Who did seek after God.

3 They have all gone aside;

they have together become corrupt.

There is none who does good, no, not one.

4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge,

Who eat up my people as they eat bread,

And don't call on the LORD?

5 There were they in great fear,

For God is in the generation of the righteous.

6 You put to shame the counsel of the poor,

Because the LORD is his refuge.

7 Oh that the yeshu`ah of Yisra'el would come out of Tziyon!

When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people,

Then Ya`akov shall rejoice, and Yisra'el shall be glad.

PSALMS: 44

1 We have heard with our ears,

God; Our fathers have told us,

What work you did in their days,

In the days of old.

2 You drove out the nations with your hand,

But you planted them.

You afflicted the peoples,

But you spread them abroad.

3 For they didn't get the land in possession by their own sword,

Neither did their own arm save them;

But your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your face,

Because you were favorable to them.

4 You are my King, God.

Command victories for Ya`akov!

5 Through you, will we push down our adversaries.

Through your name, will we tread them under who rise up against us.

6 For I will not trust in my bow,

Neither shall my sword save me.

7 But you have saved us from our adversaries,

And have put them to shame who hate us.

8 In God have we made our boast all day long,

We will give thanks to your name forever. Selah.

9 But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor,

And don't go out with our armies.

10 You make us turn back from the adversary.

Those who hate us take spoil for themselves.

11 You have made us like sheep for food,

And have scattered us among the nations.

12You sell your people for nothing,

And have gained nothing from their sale.

13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors,

A scoffing and a derision to those who are round about us.

14 You make us a byword among the nations,

A shaking of the head among the peoples.

15 All day long is my dishonor before me,

And shame covers my face,

16 At the taunt of one who reproaches and reviles,

Because of the enemy and the avenger.

17 All this has come on us,

Yet have we not forgotten you,

Neither have we been false to your covenant.

18 Our heart has not turned back,

Neither have our steps declined from your way,

19 That you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals,

And covered us with the shadow of death.

20 If we have forgotten the name of our God,

Or spread forth our hands to a strange god;

21 Won't God search this out?

For he knows the secrets of the heart.

22 Yes, for your sake are we killed all day long.

We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter.

23 Wake up!

Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise!

Don't reject us forever.

24 Why do you hide your face,

And forget our affliction and our oppression?

25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust.

Our body cleaves to the eretz.

26 Rise up to help us.

Redeem us for your loving kindness' sake.

PSALMS: 74

1 God, why have you rejected us forever?

Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?

2 Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old,

Which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance;

Mount Tziyon, in which you have lived.

3 Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins,

All the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.

4 Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your assembly.

They have set up their standards as signs.

5 They behaved like men wielding axes,

Cutting through a thicket of trees.

6 Now all its carved work

They break down with hatchet and hammers.

7 They have burned your sanctuary to the ground.

They have profaned the dwelling-place of your Name.

8 They said in their heart,

"We will crush them completely.

" They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped.

9 We see no miraculous signs.

There is no longer any prophet,

Neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.

10 How long, God, shall the adversary reproach?

Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?

11 Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand?

Take it out of your pocket and consume them!

12 Yet God is my King of old,

Working salvation in the midst of the eretz.

13 You divided the sea by your strength.

You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.

14 You broke the heads of Livyatan in pieces.

You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.

15 You opened up spring and stream.

You dried up mighty rivers.

16 The day is yours, the night is also yours.

You have prepared the light and the sun.

17 You have set all the boundaries of the eretz.

You have made summer and winter.

18 Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, LORD.

Foolish people have blasphemed your name.

19 Don't deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts.

Don't forget the life of your poor forever.

20 Honor your covenant,

For haunts of violence fill the dark places of the eretz.

21 Don't let the oppressed return ashamed.

Let the poor and needy praise your name.

22 Arise, God! Plead your own cause.

Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.

23 Don't forget the voice of your adversaries.

The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.

PSALMS: 104

1 Bless the LORD, my soul.

The LORD, my God, you are very great.

You are clothed with honor and majesty.

2 He covers himself with light as with a garment.

He stretches out the heavens like a curtain.

3 He lays the beams of his chambers in the waters.

He makes the clouds his chariot.

He walks on the wings of the wind.

4He makes his messengers winds;

His servants flames of fire.

5 He laid the foundations of the eretz,

That it should not be moved forever.

6 You covered it with the deep as with a cloak.

The waters stood above the mountains.

7 At your rebuke they fled.

At the voice of your thunder they hurried away.

8 The mountains rose,

The valleys sank down,

To the place which you had assigned to them.

9 You have set a boundary that they may not pass over;

That they don't turn again to cover the eretz.

10 He sends forth springs into the valleys.

They run among the mountains.

11 They give drink to every animal of the field.

The wild donkeys quench their thirst.

12 The birds of the sky nest by them.

They sing among the branches.

13 He waters the mountains from his chambers.

The eretz is filled with the fruit of your works.

14 He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,

And plants for man to cultivate,

That he may bring forth food out of the eretz:

15Wine that makes glad the heart of man,

Oil to make his face to shine,

And bread that strengthens man's heart.

16 The LORD's trees are well watered,

The cedars of Levanon, which he has planted;

17 Where the birds make their nests.

The stork makes its home in the fir trees.

18 The high mountains are for the wild goats.

The rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.

19 He appointed the moon for seasons.

The sun knows when to set.

20 You make darkness, and it is night,

In which all the animals of the forest prowl.

21 The young lions roar after their prey,

And seek their food from God.

22 The sun rises, and they steal away,

And lay down in their dens.

23 Man goes forth to his work,

To his labor until the evening.

24 The LORD, how many are your works!

In wisdom have you made them all.

The eretz is full of your riches.

25 There is the sea, great and wide,

In which are innumerable living things,

Both small and great animals.

26 There the ships go,

And livyatan, whom you formed to play there.

27 These all wait for you,

That you may give them their food in due season.

28 You give to them; they gather.

You open your hand; they are satisfied with good.

29 You hide your face: they are troubled;

You take away their breath: they die, and return to the dust.

30 You send forth your Spirit: they are created.

You renew the face of the ground.

31 Let the glory of the LORD endure forever.

Let the LORD rejoice in his works.

32 He looks at the eretz, and it trembles.

He touches the mountains, and they smoke.

33 I will sing to the LORD as long as I live.

I will sing praise to my God while I have any being.

34 Let your meditation be sweet to him.

I will rejoice in the LORD.

35 Let sinners be consumed out of the eretz.

Let the wicked be no more.

Bless the LORD, my soul.

Praise the LORD!

PSALMS: 134

1 Look! Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD,

Who stand by night in the LORD's house!

2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary.

Praise the LORD!

3 May the LORD bless you from Tziyon;

Even he who made heaven and eretz.

PROVERBS: 14

1 Every wise woman builds her house,

But the foolish one tears it down with her own hands.

2 He who walks in his uprightness fears the LORD,

But he who is perverse in his ways despises him.

3 The fool's talk brings a rod to his back,

But the lips of the wise protect them.

4 Where no oxen are, the crib is clean,

But much increase is by the strength of the ox.

5 A truthful witness will not lie,

But a false witness pours out lies.

6 A scoffer seeks wisdom, and doesn't find it,

But knowledge comes easily to a discerning person.

7 Stay away from a foolish man,

For you won't find knowledge on his lips.

8 The wisdom of the prudent is to think about his way,

But the folly of fools is deceit.

9 Fools mock at making atonement for sins,

But among the upright there is good will.

10 The heart knows its own bitterness and joy;

He will not share these with a stranger.

11 The house of the wicked will be overthrown,

But the tent of the upright will flourish.

12There is a way which seems right to a man,

But in the end it leads to death.

13 Even in laughter the heart may be sorrowful,

And mirth may end in heaviness.

14 The unfaithful will be repaid for his own ways;

Likewise a good man will be rewarded for his ways.

15 The simple believes everything,

But the prudent man carefully considers his ways.

16 A wise man fears, and shuns evil,

But the fool is hotheaded and reckless.

17 He who is quick to become angry will commit folly,

And a crafty man is hated.

18 The simple inherit folly,

But the prudent are crowned with knowledge.

19 The evil bow down before the good,

And the wicked, at the gates of the righteous.

20 The poor person is shunned even by his own neighbor,

But the rich person has many friends.

21 He who despises his neighbor sins,

But blessed is he who has pity on the poor.

22 Don't they go astray who plot evil?

But love and faithfulness belong to those who plan good.

23 In all hard work there is profit,

But the talk of the lips leads only to poverty.

24 The crown of the wise is their riches,

But the folly of fools crowns them with folly.

25 A truthful witness saves souls,

But a false witness is deceitful.

26 In the fear of the LORD is a secure fortress,

And he will be a refuge for his children.

27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life,

Turning people from the snares of death.

28 In the multitude of people is the king's glory,

But in the lack of people is the destruction of the prince.

29 He who is slow to anger has great understanding,

But he who has a quick temper displays folly.

30 The life of the body is a heart at shalom,

But envy rots the bones.

31 He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his Maker,

But he who is kind to the needy honors him.

32 The wicked is brought down in his calamity,

But in death, the righteous has a refuge.

33 Wisdom rests in the heart of one who has understanding,

And is even made known in the inward part of fools.

34 Righteousness exalts a nation,

But sin is a disgrace to any people.

35 The king's favor is toward a servant who deals wisely,

But his wrath is toward one who causes shame.

33 When the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

OLD TESTAMENT: RUTH 2:1 - 4:22

2:1 Na`omi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelekh, and his name was Bo`az. 2 Rut the Mo'avite said to Na`omi, Let me now go to the field, and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor. She said to her, Go, my daughter. 3 She went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Bo`az, who was of the family of Elimelekh. 4 Behold, Bo`az came from Beit-Lechem, and said to the reapers, the LORD be with you. They answered him, the LORD bless you. 5 Then said Bo`az to his servant who was set over the reapers, Whose young lady is this? 6 The servant who was set over the reapers answered, It is the Mo'avite lady who came back with Na`omi out of the country of Mo'av: 7 She said, Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. So she came, and has continued even from the morning until now, except that she stayed a little in the house. 8 Then said Bo`az to Rut, Don't you hear, my daughter? Don't go to glean in another field, neither pass from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens. 9 Let your eyes be on the field that they reap, and go after them: haven't I charged the young men that they shall not touch you? and when you are thirsty, go to the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn. 10 Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said to him, Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take knowledge of me, seeing I am a foreigner? 11 Bo`az answered her, It has fully been shown me, all that you have done to your mother-in-law since the death of your husband; and how you have left your father and your mother, and the land of your birth, and have come to a people that you didn't know before. 12 The LORD recompense your work, and a full reward be given you of the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, under whose wings you are come to take refuge. 13 Then she said, Let me find favor in your sight, my lord, because you have comforted me, and because you have spoken kindly to your handmaid, though I am not as one of your handmaidens. 14 At meal-time Bo`az said to her, Come here, and eat of the bread, and dip your morsel in the vinegar. She sat beside the reapers, and they reached her parched grain, and she ate, and was sufficed, and left of it. 15 When she was risen up to glean, Bo`az commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and don't reproach her. 16 Also pull out some for her from the bundles, and leave it, and let her glean, and don't rebuke her. 17 So she gleaned in the field until even; and she beat out that which she had gleaned, and it was about an efah of barley. 18 She took it up, and went into the city; and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned: and she brought forth and gave to her that which she had left after she was sufficed. 19 Her mother-in-law said to her, Where have you gleaned today? and where have you worked? blessed be he who did take knowledge of you. She shown her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, The man's name with whom I worked today is Bo`az. 20 Na`omi said to her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he of the LORD, who has not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. Na`omi said to her, The man is a close relative to us, one of our near kinsmen. 21 Rut the Mo'avite said, Yes, he said to me, You shall keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest.

22 Na`omi said to Rut her daughter-in-law, It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maidens, and that they not meet you in any other field. 23 So she kept fast by the maidens of Bo`az, to glean to the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and she lived with her mother-in-law.

3:1 Na`omi her mother-in-law said to her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? 2 Now isn't Bo`az our kinsman, with whose maidens you were? Behold, he winnows barley tonight in the threshing floor. 3 Wash yourself therefore, and anoint you, and put your clothing on you, and get you down to the threshing floor, but don't make yourself known to the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking. 4 It shall be, when he lies down, that you shall mark the place where he shall lie, and you shall go in, and uncover his feet, and lay you down; and he will tell you what you shall do. 5 She said to her, All that you say I will do. 6 She went down to the threshing floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law bade her.

7 When Bo`az had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain: and she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down. 8 It happened at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself; and, behold, a woman lay at his feet. 9 He said, Who are you? She answered, I am Rut your handmaid: spread therefore your skirt over your handmaid; for you are a near kinsman. 10 He said, Blessed are you by the LORD, my daughter: you have shown more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as you didn't follow young men, whether poor or rich.11 Now, my daughter, don't be afraid; I will do to you all that you say; for all the city of my people does know that you are a worthy woman. 12 Now it is true that I am a near kinsman; however there is a kinsman nearer than I. 13 Stay this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will perform to you the part of a kinsman, well; let him do the kinsman's part: but if he will not do the part of a kinsman to you, then will I do the part of a kinsman to you, as the LORD lives: lie down until the morning. 14 She lay at his feet until the morning. She rose up before one could discern another. For he said, Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor. 15 He said, Bring the mantle that is on you, and hold it; and she held it; and he measured six [measures] of barley, and laid it on her: and he went into the city.

16 When she came to her mother-in-law, she said, Who are you, my daughter? She told her all that the man had done to her. 17 She said, These six [measures] of barley gave he me; for he said, "Don't go empty to your mother-in-law." 18 Then said she, "Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will fall; for the man will not rest, until he has finished the thing this day."

4:1 Now Bo`az went up to the gate, and sat him down there: and, behold, the near kinsman of whom Bo`az spoke came by; to whom he said, Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here. He turned aside, and sat down. 2 He took ten men of the Zakenim of the city, and said, Sit you down here. They sat down. 3 He said to the near kinsman, Na`omi, who has come back out of the country of Mo'av, is selling the parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelekh's: 4 I thought to disclose it to you, saying, Buy it before those who sit here, and before the Zakenim of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it: but if you will not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know; for there is none to redeem it besides you; and I am after you. He said, I will redeem it. 5 Then said Bo`az, What day you buy the field of the hand of Na`omi, you must buy it also of Rut the Mo'avite, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance. 6 The near kinsman said, I can't redeem it for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance: take my right of redemption on you; for I can't redeem it. 7 Now this was [the custom] in former time in Yisra'el concerning redeeming and concerning exchanging, to confirm all things: a man drew off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor; and this was the [manner of] attestation in Yisra'el. 8 So the near kinsman said to Bo`az, Buy it for yourself. He drew off his shoe. 9 Bo`az said to the Zakenim, and to all the people, You are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelekh's, and all that was Kilyon's and Machlon's, of the hand of Na`omi. 10 Moreover Rut the Mo'avite, the wife of Machlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, that the name of the dead not be cut off from among his brothers, and from the gate of his place: you are witnesses this day. 11 All the people who were in the gate, and the Zakenim, said, We are witnesses. The LORD make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Le'ah, which two built the house of Yisra'el: and do you worthily in Efratah, and be famous in Beit-Lechem: 12 and let your house be like the house of Peretz, whom Tamar bore to Yehudah, of the seed which the LORD shall give you of this young woman. 13 So Bo`az took Rut, and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son. 14 The women said to Na`omi, Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a near kinsman; and let his name be famous in Yisra'el. 15 He shall be to you a restorer of life, and sustain you in your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him. 16 Na`omi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse to it. 17 The women her neighbors gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Na`omi; and they named him `Oved: he is the father of Yishai, the father of David.

18 Now this is the history of the generations of Peretz: Peretz became the father of Hetzron, 19 and Hetzron became the father of Ram, and Ram became the father of `Amminadav, 20 and `Amminadav became the father of Nachshon, and Nachshon became the father of Salmon, 21 and Salmon became the father of Bo`az, and Bo`az became the father of `Oved, 22 and `Oved became the father of Yishai, and Yishai became the father of David.

NEW TESTAMENT: JOHN 4:43 - 54

4:43 After the two days he went forth from there and went into the Galil.

44 For Yeshua himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

45 So when he came into the Galil, the Galilim received him, having seen all the things that he did in Yerushalayim at the feast, for they also went to the feast.

46 Yeshua came therefore again to Kanah of the Galil, where he made the water into wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Kafar-Nachum.

47 When he heard that Yeshua had come out of Yehudah into the Galil, he went to him, and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

48 Yeshua therefore said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe."

49 The nobleman said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies."

50 Yeshua said to him, "Go your way. Your son lives." The man believed the word that Yeshua spoke to him, and he went his way.

51 As he was now going down, his servants met him and reported, saying "Your child lives!"

52 So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him."

53 So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Yeshua said to him, "Your son lives." He believed, as did his whole house.

54 This is again the second sign that Yeshua did, having come out of Yehudah into the Galil.

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sanguinarius-archive · 5 years ago

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im not that familiar with treatsforbeats i watched like. a few videos but other than that i know nothing! but i would be glad to hear you info dump!

there is SO MUCH..... im gonna put a read more below because this turned out to be way longer than i expected. but you asked for me to infodump so here goes

okay so. treatsforbeasts, i dont know what the whole meaning behind the channel is. i cant specifically say what the goal of the channel’s content is because its all in my interpretation. but i do know that there are meanings behind each video as silly as it may seem and im just gonna list them off here (note that not all videos will be included since i may not be able to interpret every one, also this is going from earliest to most recent)

1. men with small hands carry very little treats to give to little girls with the sharpest little teethinterpretation of this video is csa/child sex trafficking. “little treats” refers to pills or some form of drug (small, makes u trip). however the “sharpest little teeth” could represent the little girl fighting back.

2. mom ordered ants for my birthdaychild abuse. mother forces son to watch and/or possibly engage in inappropriate activity with her husband.

3. i love jesusobviously a dark parody of christianity/catholicism. shows how blindly some fanatical christians/catholics will follow their beliefs, to the point where they no longer truly “follow” it as theyve warped the message to fit their own morbid desires (using christianity/the bible to excuse hatred and judgment upon others).

4. i me you love godanother dark parody of christianity/catholicism. i believe it mocks how fanatical christians/catholics focus only on the negative aspects of the bible instead of learning the true messages, as many of the words used are from the bible and are negative words.

5. behdsPROBABLY just a silly video but, i think it represents how people let negativity embed itself into their lives and complain about it even though it’s so easy to just let go of it.

6. jaffreymocking some sitcoms for how dumb and repetitive they can be.

7. kiss papa’s mustachepossibly child abuse, again.

8. storytimereferences/implies child abuse. storytime is also the name of one of treatsforbeasts’ songs on his Sanguinarius - Sin Nomine album.

9. hymns for him (1 + 2)just total parody albums of christian rock. vocals make you feel like youre dying but its actually kinda good to listen to in some parts

10. i screaming inside my headRoii (the character)’s first appearance. also probably symbolizes how depressing some kinds of music are

11. felines have nine livesnot sure but i feel like this is a warrior cats reference, in complete and total honesty (dont watch it if you dont like c/at d/eath though, its fictional but. yeah)

12. beastsreflection of society as a whole

then there’s. the two short films and sin nomine. so i’m gonna delve into that now and be warned, it’s fuckin long

treatsforbeasts is the self-titled short film and the first longest video on the treatsforbeasts channel. basically what i get from this is that treatsforbeasts, the channel itself, symbolizes an actual channel that chauncy (the child character in the short film, who is portrayed as a literal oral fleshlight with a body) watches. he consumes these concepts, such as internalizing misogyny (claw-paw skit), toxic masculinity (can i like balloons skit) and being exposed to a normalization of christianity (heaven and hell skit). there’s also a skit in which a spider binge eats and then proceeds to throw it up, which chauncy actually mimicks when his father brings him food.his father very much disapproves of these messages being shown on tv. he tells chauncy in regards to the claw-paw skit, when chauncy belittles the female character, “that’s not very nice, now is it”, and says “you can like ballons, you can love balloons if you want to”. his father goes on long tangents about how many institutions have normalized and inherited the concepts of christianity, and that it is one of the contributing factors of violence in the world. he references colonization, the holocaust, and in general mentions minorities.we learn that the father actually ended up being a father to chauncy in the first place due to (nsfw tw) masturbating in a sock to a picture of robert smith, and 9 months later chauncy was born. so technically there is no mother. the father talks about the meaning of life, and how everyone on the inside is a little bit of a freak, but there’s only two real ways you can accept that: 1) realize that your freakishness gives you a special lense through with you see the world and aid it in the ways the sane and happy ones probably cant, and 2) realize that real way number 1 is just lying to itself and that youre still a somewhat integral part of the lives of those you care for so deeply. he says that choosing which way to live really reverts back to the meaning of life, that you cannot live day by day believing there’s no reason to. “but whatever reason you give yourself to live, [...] you do it, because it is correct to live.”

sin nomine comes after the first short film, but i’ll delve into that after because really it touches on many many of the points and interpretations here.

the second short film, the beast is dead, was released just this year on valentines day! i think the main focus of the short film ranges from relationships to just once again a mockery of christianity/catholicism. once again it starts off with a father and his son. there is no mother figure present though she’s said to have left, due to the father watching too much “birdies”, a show, which i think is a metaphor for porn addiction. the father is implied to being prone to neglecting the son’s wants and not really caring for him, being disappointed in him, etc. etc..something important about the beast is dead is that it uses masks to portray those who are “followers” and those who are not. the father, interestingly enough, does not wear a mask. he seems to acknowledge what his son is saying when he goes on philosophical rants as well, but disregards them as nonsense and ends up leaving after bonking him with the stupid spike (metaphor for how parents will shut their children up by giving them a phone or toy to play with).the three other characters who don’t use masks in the beast is dead are Roii, Tom, and Doctor Zoughth (pronounced Zoth). Roii makes a comeback, finally! but this time he’s singing a song called “i love the sound of screaming babies”. it symbolizes how men will impregnate women and then run off, whether or not because they fantasize about pregnant women. it could also be a want of seeing a hurt child (hence the line “i know that all of you watching must think i’m insane, for loving when something so innocent is in so much pain”).however another interesting factor is that, the characters who don’t have masks, aside from Tom and the father, have red eyes at some point. this is a metaphor for how they’ve lost their humanity. Roii, at some point in the music video scene, only has one red eye whereas his other is normal. this hints at how part of him has lost his humanity while the other is still in tact.the other character that has red eyes is Dr Zoughth, but instead of him having only one red eye, both his eyes are red. this doesnt show until later though when he’s taken Tom away from the masked characters (followers). Dr Zoughth is very much self-aware. he is not blind, but simply has lost his humanity. Tom tries to reach out to him, to get him to think differently, that maybe resorting to coping with emotional struggles by worshipping something simple like flesh or something more higher than himself and forgetting his own mortality isn’t the healthiest way to live. but Dr Zoughth, having been long gone already, does not accept this and executes Tom.his own personal disciples grow tired of his tyranny and kill him and perform a ritual of some kind, disposing of his body (in the river i think, not sure). this entire ending of the film is basically the title, the beast is dead. but, i believe the beast is not dead, personally, because someone like Zoughth will always live on in other people, other beasts.there’s also a scene called grandma hespar and i think it implies how little people focus on sexual abuse towards men (when it’s from women).

anyways, with that being said, it’s time for sin nomine.

so now that i’ve explained pretty much all of treatsforbeasts to you, and whoever else is reading, it’s clear that the person behind this has issues with christianity (or catholicism), and child abuse. the person behind treatsforbeasts is Jordan Diniz, as he is also the person behind sanguinarius.

sin nomine is a very personal reflection of jordan’s life from what i gather. it depicts his struggles with how he views the world around him, whether that be due to personal experiences or not. at first i interpreted most of sin nomine to be the story of someone who is lgbt, but with jordan himself coming to me and telling me he is straight (POLITELY), it’s clear that is not the case.

so it most likely has to do with trauma. either religious or not, or both. it even says in the song storytime (remember i mentioned it earlier?), “fast hand, white hot trauma, reverberates inside the skull. innocence and intellect raped, reveals a view of a darker world. flesh on flesh, the bonds of affection - confused for the bonds of submission and fear. self-hatred and mistrust repel all beauty that comes near.” i don’t like to say that this solidifies a personal experience, but it’s highly possible.

a lot of sin nomine kind of goes over the same points in different ways, but it makes you think. i definitely feel like something happened to jordan at some point in his life but that is his story and it’s not my place to truly tell, since i don’t know him personally.

there’s also the other channel, adrianturcher. it has videos with seemingly no real purpose except for there being two videos with the same names of two songs on sin nomine, “nex memoria” and “a fetish for psychos”. nex memoria is just a compilation of clips that seem to symbolize the process of death (nex memoria is a latin phrase which very roughly translates to “memory’s death”). a fetish for psychos is a bunch of old clips from parties and shows that possibly jordan himself attended. they’re from 2002 judging by the date in the video. the lyrics in the song “a fetish for psychos” also seem to hint at these events, so it’s possibly that it’s like looking back on happy memories that make you feel sad instead or something. the song also might possibly reference a mother at the beginning.

sanguinarius also has its own channel simply called sanguinarius. there’s the music video for divine comedy (one of the songs on sin nomine) and a cover of because you’re young by david bowie, posted on his birthday a year after his death.

anyway, that’s. pretty much all i have to say. jordan diniz is a fuckin’ mastermind, he’s really good and cool and he’s very kind from my experience talking with him a couple times. he supports the gays as well!

sooooo, treatsforbeasts does have some very creepy/unsettling moments in its content but its EXTREMELY good and i recommend getting into it if you can. 100/10

#asks #tfb #treatsforbeasts #sanguinarius #ok 2 rb #deerlcorn

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frederickwiddowson · 4 years ago

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Exodus 23:20-33 comments: a comparison between ancient Hebrews and modern Christians

Exodus 23:20 ¶ Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. 21 Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. 22 But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. 23 For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off. 24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. 25 And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. 26 There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil. 27 I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. 28 And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. 29 I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. 30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. 31 And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. 32 Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. 33 They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.

Here is an important doctrine regarding what an angel is, a spiritual representative, the presence of someone, in this case God. God’s name is in the angel.

Isaiah 63:9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

Judges 2:1 And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.

Verse 24 reinforces God’s disgust with worshipping gods, little g, and idols. They are either figments of man’s imagination or devils.

Deuteronomy 32:17 They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.

Do not think that because you don’t worship Thor or Kali that you are not worshipping a false god. Any time you think, “an education will make me successful,” or, “having that man or woman will make me happy,” or, just constantly wanting something other than what you have you are creating idols, not much differently than ancient people. You are one step away from giving your dependence on education, sex, or material possessions a name, an identity to worship. Anything we place as more important than obedience to God and faithfulness to Him is an idol. We are to do right, to do our best, and to trust God only for our success and happiness. Education is a good thing, intimacy between a husband and wife is an honorable thing, and we need food and shelter but we must not depend on them rather than God.

For instance, in regard to wealth, Paul warns Christians;

1Timothy 6:6 ¶ But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

And Jesus admonished His disciples using the Syriac word for the personification of money.

Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

With regard to sex as an idol the ancients had goddesses like Ishtar, the goddess of immigrants and prostitutes, a version of which we have in the harbor of New York City also called the goddess Liberty, popular among the Enlightenment thinkers like James Madison, the so-called Father of the Constitution, along with Providence, a reference to a vague universal power but certainly not the God of the Bible. The Greeks and Romans of Paul’s time had Venus and Aphrodite, goddesses of sex, who were worshipped in temples like those of Acrocorinth in Greece with short-haired priestesses, the reason why the Corinthian Christians demanded that their women have long hair which Paul approved while stating that it was not an issue in other churches. See 1Corinthians 11.

Idolatry is and has been one of the prime sins of man against God throughout history. This has been the cause of the perverted, sexualized religion of the ancient world and the decadence of mankind. Idolatry results in sexual perversion and it is the byproduct and result of idolatry.

Romans 1:19 ¶ Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

In that passage we can see why society decays and who is responsible for its decay. God gives delusions and permits our more decadent natures to take preeminence.

Whether our idol is the flag or Constitution, which Mormon Joseph Smith convinced patriots was divinely inspired by God, or whether it is money, sex, or education idolatry is one of the prime reasons that American Christianity is so powerless to impact a dying world in any way other than providing humanistic drivel to control a congregation under the guise of fundamentalist, right-wing or liberal, left-wing preaching.

Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.

God is promising these physical, literal Hebrews coming into a physical, literal land blessings and prosperity and protection and the written words of God are a vital part of those blessings. By the way, don’t let some wicked preacher tell you that if you attend church whenever the doors are open you won’t ever get sick or have trouble in your life. We cannot apply literal, physical promises to the Jews before Christ to the Christian as they are not promises made to us under this dispensation. For all of your slavish devotion to a fundamentalist preacher’s will and whims you will have trouble in your life and you will get sick at some point and you will probably have a child that goes astray, etc. etc.

Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

While Christians were not promised an earthly country we would do well in life to honor these admonitions and warnings that God has given. Idolatry will destroy your walk with God and make you a caricature of a person of faith to the unsaved, a cartoon, a joke. You cannot uplift an idol in one hand and God in the other without looking stupid, a hypocrite, or just plain evil.

Even though Christians do not have a country on this earth the historical principle laid down in Romans, chapter one, applies to nations as we know them. Let me give you a brief religious history of America to show you how idolatry can be poison. America’s self-worship as idolatry has its roots in the country’s earliest times. The good thing, which was the belief and faith that this new land was to be a nation set apart by God for a divine purpose was a common thread preached throughout. However, a specific millennial belief, that Christ would set up a kingdom on earth without being present Himself to last for literally a thousand years or with the millennium as just representing a long time was the standard, evangelical Christian view until the 20th century. This is called Postmillennialism, with Christ returning at the end of the thousand years. With a few exceptions it was believed that Christ would rule through His church. But there was no doubt that America would be the location where this period would begin. Men like John Cotton, Ephraim Huit, Increase Mather, John Davenport, John Eliot, Samuel Sewall, Cotton Mather, and Joseph Morgan preached an imminent millennium and Eliot, combining the fervor of what was called Fifth Kingdom Monarchyism prevalent in England, was especially hopeful that the New Jerusalem of the Book of Revelation would descend upon America itself.[1] Sermons were preached before Congress that said that America was the Promised Land and that the events of Revelation would take place here before we converted the world and established Christ’s kingdom for Him.[2]

An actual, historical Kingdom of God was expected, with the millennium, a thousand years of Christ’s reign through His church, coming soon.[3] Jonathan Edwards, the Congregationalist preacher so important to the series of revivals in 1700s America called The First Great Awakening, viewed the millennium not as Christ physically returning to save a ruined world, but a gradual process where righteousness and the control of Godly men became prevalent as Christ ruled through His church.[4]

Millennial ideals were also preached during the time of and after the American Revolution pointing more and more to America’s God-chosen role in the bringing in of Christ’s Kingdom, linked to evolutionary progress. President of Yale College Ezra Stiles said;

It may have been of the Lord that Christianity is to be found in such greater purity in this church exiled into the wilderness of America, and that its purest body should be evidently advancing forward, by an augmented natural increase and spiritual edification, into a singular superiority, with the ultimate subserviency to the glory of God to converting the world.[5]

The nineteenth century was an era in secular and religious thought of a progress that was inevitable.[6] In Protestant evangelical faith, Postmillennialism, that mankind would create a millennial kingdom without Christ’s physical presence, was, “the commonly received doctrine,” of the century.[7] The documents, the speeches, the sermons are available for you to read, mostly free. Don’t take my word for it. During this period this doctrine was the intellectual compromise between the devastation of God’s judgment on the world portrayed in the book of Revelation in the Bible and the evolutionary theory of constant movement upward to better and better times, and a utopia.[8] Liberal religious thought in collusion with the growing atheism of science brought about a weakening of the hopeful, religious viewpoint of a coming golden age created by Christians dependent upon their own righteousness but it was the nightmare of the Civil War and the calamity of World War One that drove the nail into the coffin and, “it became a relic of a lost world.”[9]

But, at the time of the Civil War’s commencement most evangelical Christians in America believed that the United States was God’s Promised Land and white, Anglo-Saxon Americans His chosen people, destined to bring in a ‘golden age’ of peace, prosperity, and righteousness as Christ ruled the earth for either a literal thousand years or for just a long period of time, represented by the word millennium, through His church. Lincoln himself referred to America, not Christ, as the last best hope of earth.[10]

It was not unusual for nations with a state church to view themselves as God’s chosen people. England, Russia, and Germany were notorious for this view. German sermons during World War One even likened the German Army to the Holy Spirit moving in the world and ‘God With Us’ in German was on the belt buckles of soldiers. Glorification and even deification of the state was one prime motivator in the half-century of war.

President Woodrow Wilson’s mentor at Johns Hopkins University, Richard Ely, put the thought of the elite and great planners whose government was God’s agent on earth or His replacement even like this;

Now, it may rationally be maintained that, if there is anything divine on earth, it is the State, the product of the same God-given instincts which led to the establishment of the Church and of the Family. It was once held that kings ruled by right divine, and in any widely accepted belief, though it be afterwards discredited, there is generally found a kernel of truth. In this case it was the divine right of the state.[11]

But worshipping the state as a “Christnation,” as the Redeemer Nation of the world, was America’s undoing. With the leadership making government God’s agent on earth rather than God’s people and with the common Christian expecting that we could create a perfect world without Christ physically present we had this great religious expectation that was blatantly false.

That’s why today so many think that they are electing a pastor or a messiah when they vote for a president and then try to Christianize their candidate if elected to make him look like something he is not. It all boils down to state-worship.

World War One, the Jazz Age, the automobile, the sexual revolt of the 1920s, the triumph of evolution in science, the growing importance of the Entertainment industry all figured in to God’s judgment on the nation for its idolatry. As an example, where women who wore makeup were derided as ‘painted city women’ before the war, with strong suggestions of immorality, the demands by boys returning home that their women look like French girls has resulted in the fact that Christian women wouldn’t dare leave home without makeup on today. In addition, the lax morals produced by boys and girls being able to go off alone in a car and listening to Ragtime and Jazz watching Hollywood movies glorifying decadence was a chilling reminder that something was very wrong in America. We had the Great Depression, remember? Then, another devastating war and a so-called Cold War for 50 years pounded away at our families and our institutions. Look at today. Do you not doubt we are under God’s judgment? Look at Israel in Kings and Chronicles. Don’t you see America in every page? Ancient Israelites, like Americans, believed that they were special and by virtue of their exceptional place in God’s ordained world they deserved peace and prosperity, both of which were taken away over time for their idolatry.

Fundamentalism came about in the early 1900s because America, under God’s judgment, appeared to be descending into chaos and darkness. The King James-only movement came about in 1964 because fundamentalism had gone crazy with regard to its denial of the Bible we had in front of us. The problem, fundamentalists wrongly assumed, was non-Christians polluting God’s country. The actual problem was Christian idolatry and not venerating God’s word above our ambitions. This is how idolatry, in this case, worship of one’s country as a god on earth, can do horrible damage.

We are held to the same standard as everyone else and we have been found wanting. I refer you to the passage I quoted earlier from Romans, chapter one, again to find out why things are the way they are.

But, it must be said, unlike the Hebrews assuming control over an area of land the promise to Christians is an eternal inheritance. We don’t get a utopia here, a millennium without Christ’s physical presence, but we can get an awful mess.

It is interesting in Verse 28 how God promises to use creatures to drive out the inhabitants of the land He has promised to the Hebrews slowly. God has used many naturally occurring events as weapons. Remember the plagues of Egypt?

Compare what ancient Israel was to be with what America was to be to see a difference dispensationally. Israel was not to permit idolatry in its borders and was to drive out the idol-worshippers lest they pollute the Hebrew religion, which their existence did, as we can see by reading the Bible. America is a pluralistic nation with many different religious traditions or no religion at all. We cannot remove everyone from the land who does not believe exactly what we believe or how we believe, no matter how much you would like to do that. The Hebrews didn’t do that either, but it was their apostasy that garnered them God’s wrath.

I think it is important to realize that every Christian now is a type of the nation of Israel then, as the children of Israel then were a type of every Christian today. Our land is a spiritual land and our Canaanites are our sins. God promises us that He will drive out our sins if we obey Him as He promised the Hebrews He would drive out the wicked, child-sacrificing, bestiality practicing, temple-prostitute patronizing Canaanites if the Hebrews obeyed.

But, having said all that, I would go on to say that if Christians themselves would repent and turn from their sins and obey God in the best way they know how, believing His word, they would not be deceived by lying, gutless, and corrupt politicians and their land would not be given over to the perversion, violence, and decay that is so prevalent. God honors obedience, not obedience as defined by some fundamentalist whack-job preacher or evangelist who just wants to control them but obedience and righteousness as defined by the Bible. The problem with America is not homosexuals, left-wing demagogues, drug-dealers, or liberal judges. The problem with America is the faithlessness of Christians who regard the Bible as a type of Emily Post’s book on etiquette to be observed if convenient and who regard God as more of a concept or idea than a real, living entity who controls every aspect of reality from their living room to the edges of the universe.

[1] David E. Smith, “Millenarian Scholarship in America,” American Quarterly Vol. 17, No. 3 (Autumn, 1965), 539. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2710907. (accessed 10.28.2015), 539.

[2] Fountain E. Pitts, A Defence of Armageddon or Our Great Country Foretold in the Holy Scriptures In two discourses, Delivered in the Capitol of the United States, at the request of several members of Congress, on the anniversary of Washington's birthday, 1857, (Baltimore: J.W. Bull Publishers, 1859), 90.

[3] Ernest Lee Tuveson, Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America’s Millennial Role (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968), 29.

[4] Ibid., 30.

[5] Ezra Stiles, “The United States Elevated to Glory and Honor,” in The Pulpit of the American Revolution, or, The Political Sermons of the Period of 1776, John Wingate Thornton, ed., (Boston: D. Lothrop & Publishers, 1876), 405, 472.

[6] Tuveson, Redeemer Nation, 52.

[7] Henry Boynton Smith,”History of Opinions Respecting the Millennium,” The American Theological Review (Boston: Charles Scribner & Son, 1859), 642. https://books.google.com/books?id=hWrUAAAAMAAJ&vq=millennium&pg=PA642#v=snippet&q=millennium&f=false (accessed 11.14.2015).

[8] James H. Moorhead, “The Erosion of Postmillennialism in American Religious Thought, 1865-1925,” Church History Vol. 53, No. 1 (Mar. 1984), 61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3165956 (accessed 11.14.2015).

[9] Ibid., 77.

[10] Jean H. Baker, “Lincoln’s Narrative of American Exceptionalism,” in We Cannot Escape History: Lincoln and the Last Best Hope of Earth, James McPherson, ed., (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1995), 42.

[11] Gary M. Pequet and Clifford M. Thies, “The Shaping of a Future President’s Economic Thought: Richard T. Ely and Woodrow Wilson at “The Hopkins,” The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy 15, no. 2 (Fall 2010): 262, 266.

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pamphletstoinspire · 5 years ago

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Today is Passion Sunday

(by Fr. Prosper Gueranger 1870)

Today, if ye shall hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.

The Holy Church begins her Night Office of this Sunday with these impressive words of the Royal Prophet. Formerly, the faithful considered it their duty to assist at the Night Office, at least on Sundays and Feasts; they would have grieved to have lost the grand teachings given by the Liturgy. Such fervour has long since died out; the assiduity at the Offices of the Church, which was the joy of our Catholic forefathers, has now become a thing of the past; and, even in countries which have not apostatised from the faith, the clergy have ceased to celebrate publicly Offices at which no one assisted. Excepting in Cathedral Churches and in Monasteries, the grand harmonious system of the Divine Praise has been abandoned, and the marvellous power of the Liturgy has no longer its full influence upon the Faithful.

This is our reason for drawing the attention of our readers to certain beauties of the Divine Office, which would otherwise be totally ignored. Thus, what can be more impressive than this solemn Invitatory of today's Matins, which the Church takes from one of the psalms, and which she repeats on every Feria between this and Maundy Thursday?

She says: Today, if ye shall hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts! The sweet voice of your suffering Jesus now speaks to you, poor sinners! be not your own enemies by indifference and hardness of heart. The Son of God is about to give you the last and greatest proof of the love that brought him down from heaven; his Death is nigh at hand: men are preparing the wood for the immolation of the new Isaac: enter into yourselves, and let not your hearts, after being touched with grace, return to their former obduracy, for nothing could be more dangerous. The great anniversaries we are to celebrate have a renovating power for those souls that faithfully correspond with the grace which is offered them; but they increase insensibility in those who let them pass without working their conversion. Today, therefore, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts!

During the preceding four weeks, we have noticed how the malice of Jesus' enemies has been gradually increasing. His very presence irritates them; and it is evident, that any little circumstance will suffice to bring the deep and long nurtured hatred to a head. The kind and gentle manners of Jesus are drawing to Him all hearts that are simple and upright; at the same time, the humble life he leads, and the stern purity of his doctrines, are perpetual sources of vexation and anger, both to the proud Jew that looks forward to the Messias being a mighty conqueror, and to the Pharisee, who corrupts the Law of God, that he may make it the instrument of his own base passions. Still, Jesus goes on working miracles; His discourses are more than ever energetic; His prophecies foretell the fall of Jerusalem, and such a destruction of its famous Temple, that not a stone is to be left on stone. The doctors of the Law should, at least, reflect upon what they hear; they should examine these wonderful works, which render such strong testimony in favour of the Son of David, and they should consult those divine prophecies which, up to the present time, have been so literally fulfilled in His person. Alas! they themselves are about to carry them out to the very last iota. There is not a single outrage or suffering foretold by David and Isaias, as having to be put upon the Messias, which these blind men are not scheming to verify.

In them, therefore, was fulfilled that terrible saying: He that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come (St. Matth. xii. 32.). The Synagogue is nigh to a curse. Obstinate in her error, she refuses to see or to hear; she has deliberately perverted her judgment: she has extinguished within herself the light of the Holy Spirit; she will go deeper and deeper into evil, and at length fall into the abyss. This same lamentable conduct is but too often witnessed now-adays, in those sinners, who, by habitual resistance to the light, end by finding their happiness in sin. Neither should it surprise us, that we find in people of our own generation a resemblance to the murderers of our Jesus: the history of His Passion will reveal to us many sad secrets of the human heart and its perverse inclinations; for what happened in Jerusalem, happens also in every sinner's heart. His heart, according to the saying of St. Paul, is a Calvary, where Jesus is crucified. There is the same ingratitude, the same blindness, the same wild madness, with this difference, that the sinner who is enlightened by faith, knows Him Whom he crucifies; whereas the Jews, as the same Apostle tells us, knew not the Lord of Glory (I. Cor. ii. 8.). Whilst, therefore, we listen to the Gospel, which relates the history of the Passion, let us turn the indignation we feel for the Jews against ourselves and our own sins: let us weep over the sufferings of our Victim, for our sins caused Him to suffer and die.

Everything around us urges us to mourn. The images of the Saints, the very crucifix on our Altar, are veiled from our sight. The Church is oppressed with grief. During the first four weeks of Lent, she compassionated her Jesus fasting in the desert; his coming Sufferings and Crucifixion and Death are what now fill her with anguish. We read in today's Gospel, that the Jews threaten to stone the Son of God as a blasphemer: but his hour is not yet come. He is obliged to flee and hide himself. It is to express this deep humiliation, that the Church veils the Cross. A God hiding Himself, that he may evade the anger of men, what a mystery! Is it weakness? Is it, that he fears death? No, we shall soon see Him going out to meet His enemies: but, at present, He hides Himself from them, because all that had been prophesied regarding Him has not been fulfilled. Besides, His death is not to be by stoning; He is to die upon a Cross, the tree of malediction, which, from that time forward, is to be the Tree of Life. Let us humble ourselves, as we see the Creator of heaven and earth thus obliged to hide Himself from men, who are bent on His destruction! Let us go back, in thought, to the sad day of the first sin, when Adam and Eve hid themselves because a guilty conscience told them they were naked. Jesus is come to assure us of our being pardoned! and lo! He hides Himself, not because He is naked, He that is to the Saints the garb of holiness and immortality, but because He made Himself weak, that He might make us strong. Our First Parents sought to hide themselves from the sight of God; Jesus hides himself from the eye of men; but it will not be thus for ever. The day will come, when sinners, from whose anger He now flees, will pray to the mountains that they fall on them to shield them from His gaze; but their prayer will not be granted, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with much power and majesty (St. Matth. xxiv. 30).

This Sunday is called Passion Sunday, because the Church begins, on this day, to make the Sufferings of our Redeemer her chief thought. It is called also, Judica, from the first word of the Introit of the Mass; and again, Neomania, that is, the Sunday of the new (or, the Easter) moon, because it always falls after the new moon which regulates the Feast of Easter Day.

Lesson of Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews. Ch. IX.

Brethren: Christ being come, an High Priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, neither by the blood of goats or of the calves, but by His own Blood, entered once into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption. For, if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh; how much more shall the Blood of Christ (Who by the Holy Ghost offered Himself unspotted unto God), cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And, therefore, He is the mediator of the New Testament; that by means of His death, for the redemption of those transgressions which were under the former testament, they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

It is by Blood alone that man is to be redeemed. He has offended God. This God cannot be appeased by anything short of the extermination of His rebellious creature, who, by shedding his blood, will give an earnest of his repentance and his entire submission to the Creator, against Whom he dared to rebel. Otherwise, the justice of God must be satisfied by the sinner's suffering eternal punishment. This truth was understood by all the people of the ancient world, and all confessed it by shedding the blood of victims, as in the sacrifices of Abel, at the very commencement of the world; in the hecatombs of Greece; in the countless immolations whereby Solomon dedicated the Temple. And yet, God thus speaks to His people: Hear, O my people, and I will speak: O Israel, and I will testify to thee: I am God thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, and thy burnt-offerings are always in my sight. I will not take calves out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy flocks. I need them not: for all the beasts of the woods are mine. If I should be hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Shall I eat the flesh of bullocks? or shall I drink the blood of goats (Ps. xlix. 7-13.)? Thus, God commands the blood of victims to be offered to Him, and, at the same time, declares that neither it nor they are precious in His sight. Is this a contradiction? No: God would hereby have man understand, that it is only by Blood that He can be redeemed, but that the blood of brute animals cannot effect this redemption. Can the blood of man himself bring him his own redemption, and appease God's justice? No, not even man's blood, for it is defiled; and even were it undefiled, it is powerless to compensate for the outrage done to God by sin. For this, there was needed the Blood of a God; that was the Blood of Jesus, and He has come that He may shed it for our redemption.

In him is fulfilled the most sacred of the figures of the Old Law. Once each year, the High-Priest entered into the Holy of Holies, there to make intercession for the people. He went within the Veil, even to the Ark of the Covenant; but he was not allowed to enjoy this great privilege, unless he entered the holy place carrying in his hands the blood of a newlyoffered victim. The Son of God, the true HighPriest, is now about to enter heaven, and we are to follow Him thither; but unto this, He must have an offering of blood, and that Blood can be none other than His own. We are going to assist at this His compliance with the divine ordinance. Let us open our hearts, that this precious Blood may, as the Apostle says in to-day's Epistle, cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

The Gospel according to John Ch. VIII

At that time: Jesus said to the multitude of the Jews: Which of you shall convice me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe me? He that is of God, heareth the words of God. Therefore, you hear them not, because you are not of God. The Jews, therefore, answered and said to him: Do not we say well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered: I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and you have dishonoured me. But I seek not my own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. Amen, amen, I say to you: If any man keep my word, he shall not see death for ever. The Jews therefore said: Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest: If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death for ever. Art thou greater than our Father Abraham, who is dead! And the prophets are dead. Whom dost thou make thyself? Jesus answered: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifieth me, of Whom you say that He is your God; and you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I should say that I know Him not, I should be like to you, a liar. But I do know Him, and do keep His word. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it, and was glad. The Jews then said to him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say unto you, before Abraham was made, I am. They took up stones therefore to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.

The fury of the Jews is evidently at its height, and Jesus is obliged to hide Himself from them. But He is to fall into their hands before many days are over; then will they triumph and put Him to death. They triumph, and Jesus is their victim; but how different is to be His lot from theirs! In obedience to the decrees of His heavenly Father, and out of love for men, He will deliver himself into the hands of His enemies, and they will put him to death; but he will rise victorious from the tomb, He will ascend into heaven, He will be throned on the right hand of His Father. His enemies, on the contrary, after having vented all their rage, will live on without remorse, until the terrible day come for their chastisement. That day is not far off, for observe the severity wherewith our Lord speaks to them: You hear not the words of God, because you are not of God. Yet there was a time, when they were of God, for the Lord gives his grace to all men; but they have rendered this grace useless; they are now in darkness, and the light they have rejected will not return.

You say, that my Father is your God, and you have not known Him; but I know Him. Their obstinacy in refusing to acknowledge Jesus as the Messias, has led these men to ignore that very God, Whom they boast of honouring; for if they knew the Father, they would not reject His Son. Moses, and the Psalms, and the Prophets, are all a dead letter to them; these sacred Books are soon to pass into the hands of the Gentiles, who will both read and understand them. If, continues Jesus, I should say that I know Him not, I should be like to you, a liar. This strong language is that of the angry Judge Who is to come down, at the last day, to destroy sinners. Jerusalem has not known the time of her visitation: the Son of God has visited her, He is with her, and she dares to say to Him: Thou hast a devil! She says to the Eternal Word, Who proves Himself to be God by the most astounding miracles, that Abraham and the Prophets are greater than He! Strange blindness, that comes from pride and hardness of heart! The Feast of the Pasch is at hand: these men are going to eat, and with much parade of religion, the flesh of the figurative lamb; they know full well, that this lamb is a symbol, or a figure, which is to have its fulfilment. The true Lamb is to be sacrificed by their hands, and they will not know Him. He will shed his Blood for them, and it will not save them. How this reminds us of those sinners, for whom this Easter promises to be as fruitless as those of the past years! Let us redouble our prayers for them, and beseech our Lord to soften their hearts, lest trampling the Blood of Jesus under their feet, they should have it to cry vengeance against them before the throne of the Heavenly Father.

by Bishop Ehrler, 1891

God, in creating us to His own image and likeness, has given us an immeasurable, almost infinite, scope for the cultivation and development of our souls. Our will, especially, possesses capabilities that can elevate us to the highest degree of perfection, and debase us into the most profound abyss of vice. By the assistance of God's grace, it is ours to decide so firmly and unalterably on the side of virtue that we rarely falter in its practice; but we may also wander so far away from God, and lose ourselves in sin, that we appear to be irredeemably lost to Him and to His holy kingdom.

Today's Gospel refers to this latter state–obduracy in sin. “Which of you shall convince me of sin?” said our Lord Jesus to the Jews, a short time before His crucifixion: “I seek not my own glory, but, of my Father. It is my Father that glorifieth me, of whom you say that He is your God.” They could not answer Him; and again he said to them: “Abraham, your father, rejoiced that he might see my day; He saw it and was glad. Amen, Amen, I say unto you, before Abraham was made, I am.” But the unbelieving descendants of Abraham took up stones to cast at Him. And “Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” The downfall of the Jewish nation was sealed by their hardness of heart.

Of obdurate sinners, the Inspired Writer declares: “They leave the right way, and walk by dark ways: they are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things.” (Prov. 2: 13, 14.) In all ages, there have been such men, who never arose after they once fell. All the admonitions and reproaches of their conscience are in vain; all the exhortations of the Church to penance, and amendment of life are fruitless; all God's threats fall ineffectually upon hearts enclosed, as it were, in a coat of mail. The happiness the Lord sends them, in order to touch them by His benefits, makes them frivolous and misfortunes, instead of converting, embitter them. Without prayer, or contrition for their crimes, without the fear of God or the use of the holy Sacraments, they go through life like beasts, given up entirely to the lusts of the flesh.

That you may not be as these abandoned sinners, that you may not imitate the hard-hearted Jews, but listen with fruit to the admonitions of holy Church calling you at this solemn time to fasting and repentance, I will explain to you today,

I. The causes of obduracy in sin; and II. The lessons we should draw from it for our own instruction.

I. To sin is easy. Numberless are the dangers and attractions to evil, which surround us on all sides. We carry the inflammable material of the passions constantly within our bosoms, and it needs, at times, but a tiny spark of temptation, to cause them to blaze up into a raging and destructive fire. At first, however, sin, especially sensual sin, creates a loathing and abhorrence in a hitherto innocent soul. At the opening of a vicious life, there arises in the sinner a longing to be freed from the gross and leprous weight of increasing sin. He is ready to cry out with the royal penitent of old: “My iniquities are gone over my head: and as a heavy burden are become heavy upon me. I am become miserable, and am bowed down even to the end.” (Ps. 37 : 4, 6.) But if he goes on groveling in habitual sin, if he continues turning a deaf ear to the holy inspirations of divine grace, he grows accustomed, by degrees, to his terrible state; and, sinking lower and lower in crime, he ends by becoming utterly obdurate and callous in evil; insensible, deaf, and dead to the motions of the better part of his soul. That which one sin is unable to accomplish, is effected by a longer chain of evil, and a continued habit of wrong-doing.

1. Look into your own hearts, my brethren, and realize there the sad truth of my words! When we were little innocent children, how disturbed we were over the most trifling sin! A rash jest, an unbecoming word, the mere sight of evil terrified us then! Would, alas! that our delicacy of conscience, our prudent tenderness and anxiety of soul had increased with our years! Oft repeated sins have made us familiar with evil, and consequently indifferent to it! “The wicked man when he is come into the depths of sin, contemneth; but ignominy and reproach follow him.” (Prov. 18 : 3.) “Thy heart shall utter perverse things; and thou shalt be as one sleeping in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot fast asleep when the stern is lost.” (Prov. 23: 34.) It is on this account that St. Chrysostom says: “The evil of sin is two-fold:–first, the injury it inflicts on the soul; and secondly, the tendency it engenders to always become worse.” Habitual sin, like the octopus, grasps its victim firmly with its myriad arms, and rarely releases him until he has breathed his last.

Understand me, my dear Christians, God is not wanting to the sinner. Divine grace surrounds, and presses even the most hardened to repentance. At one time, it speaks to the unjust man in soft, mild words; again, it warns and threatens him by sufferings and severe afflictions.

2. But the struggle against evil demands labor and energy. Even the most faithful servants of God need to combat continually the insidious and powerful enemy of their souls. For the habitual sinner, therefore, the warfare is doubly desperate. Darling inclinations must be renounced; evil habits stripped off, which cling as close as the fabled shirt of fire. That which has been passionately loved and desired, must be thoroughly detested and abandoned; sinful companions must be given up, after the intimate intercourse of many years; restitution must be made of ill-gotten goods; lies and calumnies against one's neighbor must be contradicted; and long-standing feuds and enmities brought to a happy end. All this involves self-sacrifice, self-denial, humiliation, and a thousand bitter battles with proud, corrupt nature. One's whole way of life must be completely changed. And this is why our Lord tells us that the Angels of heaven rejoice more over the conversion of one sinner than of ninety-nine just who need not penance.

The struggle for conversion is such a long and tremendous one. The pleasures of sin are ever ready to allure the man whom divine grace moves to escape the toils. Satan whispers with pleading tenderness in his ear: “How can you ever renounce that charming companion? How can you restore that money, those precious goods, that valuable property, to their rightful owner? You will leave yourself and your family poor and dishonored. And as to reconciling yourself to that hateful enemy, or taking back the lies you have uttered against so-and-so,–such humiliations are not to be thought of!” If the sinner consent to these suggestions of the evil one, all hope of a change for the better usually dies out. He goes on heaping sin upon sin, scoffing at every admonition of God and of His grace. He sinks rapidly from one abyss of vice into another, until he falls at last into the bottomless pit of obduracy, impenitence, and eternal perdition. In vain, at the hour of death, the priest has been summoned–in vain, the consolations of our holy religion have been offered to the dying sinner. By stratagem or gentle force, the good friends and relatives have sought to secure the holy Sacraments for the departing soul–but, to the bitter end, the obdurate man rejects the grace of God. As Holy Writ declares: “The sinner hath been caught in the works of his own hands; the wicked shall be turned into hell, all the nations that forget God.” (Ps. 9: 18.) “The pride of them that hate thee ascends continually.” (Ps. 73: 23.) “Thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than a rock, and they have refused to return.” (Jer. 5: 3.)

3. It is the doctrine of our holy Church that, without the grace of God, we can do nothing good. “Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God.” (2 Cor. 3:5.) “God worketh in you both to will and to accomplish according to His good-will.” (Phil. 2 : 13.) You know also that the ordinary grace of God, humanly speaking, does not suffice for the overcoming of very great temptations or powerful obstacles. At such moments, we need a stronger and more efficacious grace. What the sun is to the life of the earth, that the grace of God is to the soul. The blessed beams of heaven are the strength of our lives; penetrating our hearts; they rouse therein every good impulse, and nourish and ripen them to maturity. Grace is a free gift of God. It is given according to His good pleasure, as St. Paul says; and that stronger and more powerful grace which God owes in no way to man, is simply the effect of his pre-eminent love and special predilection.

4. But will Almighty God continue to offer this extraordinary grace to the man who despises even ordinary inspirations? No: He will either, as a punishment, withdraw His grace completely from him; or give him merely that insufficient grace by which he can not overcome greater temptations and dangers. Finally, that condition of soul will set in, of which the holy Scripture says: “God Himself will harden the heart of a man.” He takes from his reason the light of knowledge, so that he can no longer see nor understand anything conducive to salvation, and He deprives his will of the power of discerning correctly the good, and striving to do it. In His wrath, he tears asunder the bonds which unite Him to that man, and lets him live on undisturbed in the depths of his sins. “They have mouths and speak not; they have eyes and see not; they have ears and hear not.” (Ps. 113: 5, 6.) “God,” says St. Augustine, ” does not harden the sinner as to malice, but He justly refuses to grant him mercy.”

Look at King Pharaoh, in whom this unhappy condition was realized. In his pride, he opposed God's will and would not allow the people of Israel to go forth. Desiring to soften his hard heart, God permitted wonderful and hitherto unheard-of miracles to happen in his presence. But Pharaoh would not yield to grace. “Who is the Lord,” he asked of Moses, “that I should hear his voice and let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” Thereupon, the Lord said to Moses, “I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servant.” (10 : 1.) Pharaoh remained deaf to all the divine admonitions, and sank with his hosts into the Red sea. The magician Elymas withstood the grace of God which was offered him in the sermons and discourses of St. Paul, and he endeavored to hinder the governor of Paphos from believing. Then St. Paul said to him, “O, thou, full of all guile and of all deceit, son of the devil, enemy of all justice, thou dost not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord. And now, behold the hand of the Lord upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness, and going about, he sought some one to lead him by the hand.” (Acts 13 : 10, 11.) Corporeal blindness was the visible sign of that wretched man's interior or spiritual darkness. “He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts: that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted and I should heal them.” (John 12 : 40.)

II. What lessons should we draw from these considerations upon the obdurate sinner? We shall find them fraught with certain holy admonitions for our own personal instruction.

1. The first is, to fly from the first approach of sin; and if you have already sinned, to hasten with all possible speed to reconcile yourself with the Lord your God, so that no sinful habit may take root within you!

Never dally with evil; it is dangerous sport to play with fire or with deadly weapons. You may be maimed or disfigured for life, even if you are not instantly killed. Would you make a pet of a rattlesnake, or carry a tarantula around in your bosom? Act toward the soul as you do toward the body. Do not wait until the fire has scorched you or the revolver has been discharged. Do not suffer the snake to crawl around your feet. “Flee from sin as from the face of a serpent.” (Ecclus. 21 : 2.) Remedies taken in the beginning are always the best and most salutary. One sin begets another. The brood of Satan is a prolific one. As in a chain, link is joined to link, so the fetters of hell, sin by sin, bind the unhappy sinner a captive for all eternity! St. Augustine says: “As, when a stone is thrown upon the mirror-like surface of the sea, at first only one circle appears, then two; the second forms a third and so on, up to the very brim of the water, in like manner, will each sin become the occasion of a greater one to the hardened sinner; he falls from one sin into another, until, at length, it is almost impossible for him to cease sinning.”

2. He who does not tremble at the first step on the road to vice, and does not at once make efforts to return to his outraged Lord and God, by means of the Sacrament of Penance, will soon sink more and more hopelessly into the abyss of vice and crime. Behold the avalanche of the Alps rolling menacingly and destructively down into the smiling valleys! The most trifling movement, the dropping of a little stone, yes, often merely the gentle flight of a bird are sufficient to cause the downfall of that massive weight of ice. In the beginning, it was only a handful of snow; but little by little, the ice and snow began to accumulate and grow in volume, until at last, the avalanche, rushing from its dizzy height, breaks down trees like straws, and sweeping along, like a torrent, overturns into the abyss houses and entire villages. A single flake of snow is the cause of all this ruin and widespread destruction! In like manner a single wrong step often suffices to ruin the soul of a man eternally. The theft of a few pennies has aroused the cupidity of the highway robber. A thought of revenge not subdued and overcome in the outset, has produced murder. An impure desire not promptly banished has plunged its victim into the slough of licentiousness. Is not Judas, the traitor, a sorrowful example of this terrible truth ?” He loved money,” says the Evangelist. From the love of money originated avarice and covetousness; from these, robbery, then betrayal of his Lord and Master, which ended in suicide and his eternal reprobation!

Do we imagine it impossible for us to fall so low? Do we think that we never could sink as others have done, into such an abyss of ruin? Alas! like our neighbors, whose fall we lament or censure, perhaps–we bear within us, weak, unsteady, and naturally corrupt hearts. The same dreadful abyss is at our feet, its gloomy depths only veiled from us by the screen of the divine permission. The same spiritual dangers beset us that have ship-wrecked others. The same fire of lust rages within our veins. We are not holier than King David, wiser than Solomon, nor stronger than St. Peter. We are not as fervent as thousands of uncanonized saints and servants of God who have fallen into sin and vice through their imprudence and self-confidence. Nothing but vigilance and flight, prompt conversion and amendment of life after the first fall, will save us and keep us from the abyss of ruin, as St. Paul says:–” Let him that thinketh himself to stand, take heed lest he fall.” (1 Cor. 10: 12.) “Watch ye and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit, indeed, is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matt. 26: 41.)

3. It certainly requires a hard struggle for one who has been a slave to sin for a long time to free himself from the wicked bondage of bad habits, and become reconciled with his Lord and God. Great labor and much moral courage are demanded, after a long period of impenitence, to descend into the depths of one's conscience, and scrutinize and unravel the sins of years or of a life-time. It is a great tax on a proud man not only to confess his hidden secret sins and vices in the holy tribunal, but, furthermore, to extinguish by years of penance and satisfaction the evil consequences of those sins. It is a battle so difficult and fierce that none but an heroic soul, a heart filled with the love of God and supported by His grace, can come forth victorious from the struggle. But the combat is necessary, nay, most indispensable. Does not everything that is good in this life cost us labor and pain? Has not our Lord said: “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away?” (Matt. 11: 12.) And if the battle is fierce and long-continued, we have no one to blame for it but ourselves. Whoever has feasted upon the pleasures of sin, who has drunk in iniquity like water, must do penance for it, by the pains of the conflict, and he who has committed an injustice during his life must make good his error, with all his might; or he will never obtain pardon here, or eternal bliss hereafter. Even if the sinner continue in his evil courses, his sins will cause him woe and suffering to which the warfare in the cause of virtue can not be compared. The latter is child's play contrasted with that which vice necessarily begets in man's heart. Outwardly, the sinner may appear prosperous, happy, and peaceful; but if you could penetrate to the interior of that guilty soul, and there behold the stings of conscience which scourge it like cruel lashes;–if you could hear the interior groans of despair which issue therefrom in moments of peril or suffering, or in the quiet watches of a sleepless night, you could cheerfully embrace all the pains and labors of the penitential warfare, sooner than live in sin and endure the agonizing torments of Satan's bondage. Penance has its sweetness and its consolation, no matter how bitter the work of self-denial may appear at first to the newly-converted soul. The grace of God softens all austerities, and graciously conducts us to the grandest and most glorious victory. But the struggles of the vicious man will become hourly more horrible and will be but the commencement of eternal misery.

4. To these admonitions, I will add another; do not oppose a single inspiration of grace, for thereby you withstand your Lord and God, and incite him to pour forth upon you the vials of his wrath. Dallying with sin and evil is dangerous sport; but to trifle with God and His grace, His love, and His justice, would be a sacrilege, that must invariably end in ruin. Grace is offered to us according to a certain measure, and that measure none save our Lord Himself can determine. “Lo! I stand at the door and knock,” He says of Himself; repulsed and despised, He repeats again and again His calls to salvation. He goes out like the householder of the Gospel, up to the eleventh hour, inviting laborers into His vineyard. But a day will come when he will cease to call, cease to knock at the door of our hearts. These words of mine, to-day, dear brethren, may be your last chance of grace. Will you thrust from you this golden opportunity of salvation? Shall we reply to him who calls us, perhaps, for the last time: “Come again, and then, possibly, I may listen to you?” God's love to us is great, infinitely great, but His wrath is infinite as well, and He who despises and contemns His love, will certainly feel His anger!

Free-will may be to man either a wonderful blessing or a terrible curse. Bound by the fetters of an unchangeable and urgent necessity all lesser creatures obey the will of God; man alone can say to this all-powerful Sovereign of heaven and earth: “Non serviam–I will not serve Thee!” He alone can oppose His commands. To him, it is given of his own free choice either, like a brilliant heavenly star to revolve forever around its true center, the eternal Sun of Justice, or to leave the appointed orbit, and like a fiery comet rush afar off from its Creator into eternal destruction. God has given us this capability of exercising free-will for His greater glory and our own great reward, making us thereby as kings resembling Himself. And do we dare as His chosen children, as the sons of a heavenly Lord and Master, to do what the meanest slave in our household would not undertake to do? The love of God, His gratuitous, undeserved love, would be, in that case, our utter reprobation and ruin, inevitably precipitating us a thousand fathoms deep into the abyss of hell! But if we follow joyfully the calls of grace with our free-will, then we shall mount the celestial ladder to the infinite heights of eternal glory.

In these holy days, when in the world of nature, Spring struggles with winter; and, in the world of grace, thousands of the faithful battle with the powers of sin and evil in their own hearts, let us, if we have hitherto been insensible and dead to God and His kingdom, begin this warfare for the salvation of our souls. Let us drive out all sin from our hearts by a worthy reception of the Sacrament of Penance, that Jesus may not hide Himself or flee away from us. May the sunlight of His mercy shine forth warmly and benignly in the depths of our souls, and there awaken by true penance and amendment of life, the germs, blossoms, and fruits of all the Christian virtues! Amen.

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araitsume · 5 years ago

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The Desire of Ages, pp. 432-442: Chapter (48) Who Is the Greatest?

This chapter is based on Matthew 17:22-27; Matthew 18:1-20; Mark 9:30-50; Luke 9:46-48.

On returning to Capernaum, Jesus did not repair to the well-known resorts where He had taught the people, but with His disciples quietly sought the house that was to be His temporary home. During the remainder of His stay in Galilee it was His object to instruct the disciples rather than to labor for the multitudes.

On the journey through Galilee, Christ had again tried to prepare the minds of His disciples for the scenes before Him. He told them that He was to go up to Jerusalem to be put to death and to rise again. And He added the strange and solemn announcement that He was to be betrayed into the hands of His enemies. The disciples did not even now comprehend His words. Although the shadow of a great sorrow fell upon them, a spirit of rivalry found a place in their hearts. They disputed among themselves which should be accounted greatest in the kingdom. This strife they thought to conceal from Jesus, and they did not, as usual, press close to His side, but loitered behind, so that He was in advance of them as they entered Capernaum. Jesus read their thoughts, and He longed to counsel and instruct them. But for this He awaited a quiet hour, when their hearts should be open to receive His words.

Soon after they reached the town, the collector of the temple revenue came to Peter with the question, “Doth not your Master pay tribute?” This tribute was not a civil tax, but a religious contribution, which every Jew was required to pay annually for the support of the temple. A refusal to pay the tribute would be regarded as disloyalty to the temple,—in the estimation of the rabbis a most grievous sin. The Saviour's attitude toward the rabbinical laws, and His plain reproofs to the defenders of tradition, afforded a pretext for the charge that He was seeking to overthrow the temple service. Now His enemies saw an opportunity of casting discredit upon Him. In the collector of the tribute they found a ready ally.

Peter saw in the collector's question an insinuation touching Christ's loyalty to the temple. Zealous for his Master's honor, he hastily answered, without consulting Him, that Jesus would pay the tribute.

But Peter only partially comprehended the purpose of his questioner. There were some classes who were held to be exempt from the payment of the tribute. In the time of Moses, when the Levites were set apart for the service of the sanctuary, they were given no inheritance among the people. The Lord said, “Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance.” Deuteronomy 10:9. In the days of Christ the priests and Levites were still regarded as especially devoted to the temple, and were not required to make the annual contribution for its support. Prophets also were exempted from this payment. In requiring the tribute from Jesus, the rabbis were setting aside His claim as a prophet or teacher, and were dealing with Him as with any commonplace person. A refusal on His part to pay the tribute would be represented as disloyalty to the temple; while, on the other hand, the payment of it would be taken as justifying their rejection of Him as a prophet.

Only a little before, Peter had acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God; but he now missed an opportunity of setting forth the character of his Master. By his answer to the collector, that Jesus would pay the tribute, he had virtually sanctioned the false conception of Him to which the priests and rulers were trying to give currency.

When Peter entered the house, the Saviour made no reference to what had taken place, but inquired, “What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?” Peter answered, “Of strangers.” And Jesus said, “Then are the children free.” While the people of a country are taxed for the maintenance of their king, the monarch's own children are exempt. So Israel, the professed people of God, were required to maintain His service; but Jesus, the Son of God, was under no such obligation. If priests and Levites were exempt because of their connection with the temple, how much more He to whom the temple was His Father's house.

If Jesus had paid the tribute without a protest, He would virtually have acknowledged the justice of the claim, and would thus have denied His divinity. But while He saw good to meet the demand, He denied the claim upon which it was based. In providing for the payment of the tribute He gave evidence of His divine character. It was made manifest that He was one with God, and therefore was not under tribute as a mere subject of the kingdom.

“Go thou to the sea,” He directed Peter, “and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for Me and thee.”

Though He had clothed His divinity with humanity, in this miracle He revealed His glory. It was evident that this was He who through David had declared, “Every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof.” Psalm 50:10-12.

While Jesus made it plain that He was under no obligation to pay the tribute, He entered into no controversy with the Jews in regard to the matter; for they would have misinterpreted His words, and turned them against Him. Lest He should give offense by withholding the tribute, He did that which He could not justly be required to do. This lesson would be of great value to His disciples. Marked changes were soon to take place in their relation to the temple service, and Christ taught them not to place themselves needlessly in antagonism to established order. So far as possible, they were to avoid giving occasion for misinterpretation of their faith. While Christians are not to sacrifice one principle of truth, they should avoid controversy whenever it is possible to do so.

When Christ and the disciples were alone in the house, while Peter was gone to the sea, Jesus called the others to Him, and asked, “What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?” The presence of Jesus, and His question, put the matter in an entirely different light from that in which it had appeared to them while they were contending by the way. Shame and self-condemnation kept them silent. Jesus had told them that He was to die for their sake, and their selfish ambition was in painful contrast to His unselfish love.

When Jesus told them that He was to be put to death and to rise again, He was trying to draw them into conversation in regard to the great test of their faith. Had they been ready to receive what He desired to make known to them, they would have been saved bitter anguish and despair. His words would have brought consolation in the hour of bereavement and disappointment. But although He had spoken so plainly of what awaited Him, His mention of the fact that He was soon to go to Jerusalem again kindled their hope that the kingdom was about to be set up. This had led to questioning as to who should fill the highest offices. On Peter's return from the sea, the disciples told him of the Saviour's question, and at last one ventured to ask Jesus, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

The Saviour gathered His disciples about Him, and said to them, “If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.” There was in these words a solemnity and impressiveness which the disciples were far from comprehending. That which Christ discerned they could not see. They did not understand the nature of Christ's kingdom, and this ignorance was the apparent cause of their contention. But the real cause lay deeper. By explaining the nature of the kingdom, Christ might for the time have quelled their strife; but this would not have touched the underlying cause. Even after they had received the fullest knowledge, any question of precedence might have renewed the trouble. Thus disaster would have been brought to the church after Christ's departure. The strife for the highest place was the outworking of that same spirit which was the beginning of the great controversy in the worlds above, and which had brought Christ from heaven to die. There rose up before Him a vision of Lucifer, the “son of the morning,” in glory surpassing all the angels that surround the throne, and united in closest ties to the Son of God. Lucifer had said, “I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:12, 14); and the desire for self-exaltation had brought strife into the heavenly courts, and had banished a multitude of the hosts of God. Had Lucifer really desired to be like the Most High, he would never have deserted his appointed place in heaven; for the spirit of the Most High is manifested in unselfish ministry. Lucifer desired God's power, but not His character. He sought for himself the highest place, and every being who is actuated by his spirit will do the same. Thus alienation, discord, and strife will be inevitable. Dominion becomes the prize of the strongest. The kingdom of Satan is a kingdom of force; every individual regards every other as an obstacle in the way of his own advancement, or a steppingstone on which he himself may climb to a higher place.

While Lucifer counted it a thing to be grasped to be equal with God, Christ, the Exalted One, “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:7, 8. Now the cross was just before Him; and His own disciples were so filled with self-seeking—the very principle of Satan's kingdom—that they could not enter into sympathy with their Lord, or even understand Him as He spoke of His humiliation for them.

Very tenderly, yet with solemn emphasis, Jesus tried to correct the evil. He showed what is the principle that bears sway in the kingdom of heaven, and in what true greatness consists, as estimated by the standard of the courts above. Those who were actuated by pride and love of distinction were thinking of themselves, and of the rewards they were to have, rather than how they were to render back to God the gifts they had received. They would have no place in the kingdom of heaven, for they were identified with the ranks of Satan.

Before honor is humility. To fill a high place before men, Heaven chooses the worker who, like John the Baptist, takes a lowly place before God. The most childlike disciple is the most efficient in labor for God. The heavenly intelligences can co-operate with him who is seeking, not to exalt self, but to save souls. He who feels most deeply his need of divine aid will plead for it; and the Holy Spirit will give unto him glimpses of Jesus that will strengthen and uplift the soul. From communion with Christ he will go forth to work for those who are perishing in their sins. He is anointed for his mission; and he succeeds where many of the learned and intellectually wise would fail.

But when men exalt themselves, feeling that they are a necessity for the success of God's great plan, the Lord causes them to be set aside. It is made evident that the Lord is not dependent upon them. The work does not stop because of their removal from it, but goes forward with greater power.

It was not enough for the disciples of Jesus to be instructed as to the nature of His kingdom. What they needed was a change of heart that would bring them into harmony with its principles. Calling a little child to Him, Jesus set him in the midst of them; then tenderly folding the little one in His arms He said, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The simplicity, the self-forgetfulness, and the confiding love of a little child are the attributes that Heaven values. These are the characteristics of real greatness.

Again Jesus explained to the disciples that His kingdom is not characterized by earthly dignity and display. At the feet of Jesus all these distinctions are forgotten. The rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant, meet together, with no thought of caste or worldly preeminence. All meet as blood-bought souls, alike dependent upon One who has redeemed them to God.

The sincere, contrite soul is precious in the sight of God. He places His own signet upon men, not by their rank, not by their wealth, not by their intellectual greatness, but by their oneness with Christ. The Lord of glory is satisfied with those who are meek and lowly in heart. “Thou hast also given me,” said David, “the shield of Thy salvation: ... and Thy gentleness”—as an element in the human character—“hath made me great.” Psalm 18:35.

“Whosoever shall receive one of such children in My name,” said Jesus, “receiveth Me: and whosoever shall receive Me, receiveth not Me, but Him that sent Me.” “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: ... but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word.” Isaiah 66:1, 2.

The Saviour's words awakened in the disciples a feeling of self-distrust. No one had been specially pointed out in the reply; but John was led to question whether in one case his action had been right. With the spirit of a child he laid the matter before Jesus. “Master,” he said, “we saw one casting out devils in Thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbade him, because he followeth not us.”

James and John had thought that in checking this man they had had in view their Lord's honor; they began to see that they were jealous for their own. They acknowledged their error, and accepted the reproof of Jesus, “Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in My name, that can lightly speak evil of Me.” None who showed themselves in any way friendly to Christ were to be repulsed. There were many who had been deeply moved by the character and the work of Christ, and whose hearts were opening to Him in faith; and the disciples, who could not read motives, must be careful not to discourage these souls. When Jesus was no longer personally among them, and the work was left in their hands, they must not indulge a narrow, exclusive spirit, but manifest the same far-reaching sympathy which they had seen in their Master.

The fact that one does not in all things conform to our personal ideas or opinions will not justify us in forbidding him to labor for God. Christ is the Great Teacher; we are not to judge or to command, but in humility each is to sit at the feet of Jesus, and learn of Him. Every soul whom God has made willing is a channel through which Christ will reveal His pardoning love. How careful we should be lest we discourage one of God's light bearers, and thus intercept the rays that He would have shine to the world!

Harshness or coldness shown by a disciple toward one whom Christ was drawing—such an act as that of John in forbidding one to work miracles in Christ's name—might result in turning the feet into the path of the enemy, and causing the loss of a soul. Rather than for one to do this, said Jesus, “it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.” And He added, “If thy hand cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having thy two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire. And if thy foot cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life halt, rather than having thy two feet to be cast into hell.” Mark 9:43-45, R. V.

Why this earnest language, than which none can be stronger? Because “the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.” Shall His disciples show less regard for the souls of their fellow men than the Majesty of heaven has shown? Every soul has cost an infinite price, and how terrible is the sin of turning one soul away from Christ, so that for him the Saviour's love and humiliation and agony shall have been in vain.

“Woe unto the world because of occasions of stumbling! for it must needs be that the occasions come.” Matthew 18:7, R. V. The world, inspired by Satan, will surely oppose the followers of Christ, and seek to destroy their faith; but woe to him who has taken Christ's name, and yet is found doing this work. Our Lord is put to shame by those who claim to serve Him, but who misrepresent His character; and multitudes are deceived, and led into false paths.

Any habit or practice that would lead into sin, and bring dishonor upon Christ, would better be put away, whatever the sacrifice. That which dishonors God cannot benefit the soul. The blessing of heaven cannot attend any man in violating the eternal principles of right. And one sin cherished is sufficient to work the degradation of the character, and to mislead others. If the foot or the hand would be cut off, or even the eye would be plucked out, to save the body from death, how much more earnest should we be to put away sin, that brings death to the soul!

In the ritual service, salt was added to every sacrifice. This, like the offering of incense, signified that only the righteousness of Christ could make the service acceptable to God. Referring to this practice, Jesus said, “Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” “Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.” All who would present themselves “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” (Romans 12:1), must receive the saving salt, the righteousness of our Saviour. Then they become “the salt of the earth,” restraining evil among men, as salt preserves from corruption. Matthew 5:13. But if the salt has lost its savor; if there is only a profession of godliness, without the love of Christ, there is no power for good. The life can exert no saving influence upon the world. Your energy and efficiency in the upbuilding of My kingdom, Jesus says, depend upon your receiving of My Spirit. You must be partakers of My grace, in order to be a savor of life unto life. Then there will be no rivalry, no self-seeking, no desire for the highest place. You will have that love which seeks not her own, but another's wealth.

Let the repenting sinner fix his eyes upon “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29); and by beholding, he becomes changed. His fear is turned to joy, his doubts to hope. Gratitude springs up. The stony heart is broken. A tide of love sweeps into the soul. Christ is in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. When we see Jesus, a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, working to save the lost, slighted, scorned, derided, driven from city to city till His mission was accomplished; when we behold Him in Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood, and on the cross dying in agony,—when we see this, self will no longer clamor to be recognized. Looking unto Jesus, we shall be ashamed of our coldness, our lethargy, our self-seeking. We shall be willing to be anything or nothing, so that we may do heart service for the Master. We shall rejoice to bear the cross after Jesus, to endure trial, shame, or persecution for His dear sake.

“We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” Romans 15:1. No soul who believes in Christ, though his faith may be weak, and his steps wavering as those of a little child, is to be lightly esteemed. By all that has given us advantage over another,—be it education and refinement, nobility of character, Christian training, religious experience,—we are in debt to those less favored; and, so far as lies in our power, we are to minister unto them. If we are strong, we are to stay up the hands of the weak. Angels of glory, that do always behold the face of the Father in heaven, joy in ministering to His little ones. Trembling souls, who have many objectionable traits of character, are their special charge. Angels are ever present where they are most needed, with those who have the hardest battle with self to fight, and whose surroundings are the most discouraging. And in this ministry Christ's true followers will co-operate.

If one of these little ones shall be overcome, and commit a wrong against you, then it is your work to seek his restoration. Do not wait for him to make the first effort for reconciliation. “How think ye?” said Jesus; “if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.”

In the spirit of meekness, “considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted,” (Galatians 6:1), go to the erring one, and “tell him his fault between thee and him alone.” Do not put him to shame by exposing his fault to others, nor bring dishonor upon Christ by making public the sin or error of one who bears His name. Often the truth must be plainly spoken to the erring; he must be led to see his error, that he may reform. But you are not to judge or to condemn. Make no attempt at self-justification. Let all your effort be for his recovery. In treating the wounds of the soul, there is need of the most delicate touch, the finest sensibility. Only the love that flows from the Suffering One of Calvary can avail here. With pitying tenderness, let brother deal with brother, knowing that if you succeed, you will “save a soul from death,” and “hide a multitude of sins.” James 5:20.

But even this effort may be unavailing. Then, said Jesus, “take with thee one or two more.” It may be that their united influence will prevail where that of the first was unsuccessful. Not being parties to the trouble, they will be more likely to act impartially, and this fact will give their counsel greater weight with the erring one.

If he will not hear them, then, and not till then, the matter is to be brought before the whole body of believers. Let the members of the church, as the representatives of Christ, unite in prayer and loving entreaty that the offender may be restored. The Holy Spirit will speak through His servants, pleading with the wanderer to return to God. Paul the apostle, speaking by inspiration, says, “As though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20. He who rejects this united overture has broken the tie that binds him to Christ, and thus has severed himself from the fellowship of the church. Henceforth, said Jesus, “let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.” But he is not to be regarded as cut off from the mercy of God. Let him not be despised or neglected by his former brethren, but be treated with tenderness and compassion, as one of the lost sheep that Christ is still seeking to bring to His fold.

Christ's instruction as to the treatment of the erring repeats in more specific form the teaching given to Israel through Moses: “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in anywise rebuke thy neighbor, that thou bear not sin for him.” Leviticus 19:17, margin. That is, if one neglects the duty Christ has enjoined, of trying to restore those who are in error and sin, he becomes a partaker in the sin. For evils that we might have checked, we are just as responsible as if we were guilty of the acts ourselves.

But it is to the wrongdoer himself that we are to present the wrong. We are not to make it a matter of comment and criticism among ourselves; nor even after it is told to the church, are we at liberty to repeat it to others. A knowledge of the faults of Christians will be only a cause of stumbling to the unbelieving world; and by dwelling upon these things, we ourselves can receive only harm; for it is by beholding that we become changed. While we seek to correct the errors of a brother, the Spirit of Christ will lead us to shield him, as far as possible, from the criticism of even his own brethren, and how much more from the censure of the unbelieving world. We ourselves are erring, and need Christ's pity and forgiveness, and just as we wish Him to deal with us, He bids us deal with one another.

“Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” You are acting as the ambassadors of heaven, and the issues of your work are for eternity.

But we are not to bear this great responsibility alone. Wherever His word is obeyed with a sincere heart, there Christ abides. Not only is He present in the assemblies of the church, but wherever disciples, however few, meet in His name, there also He will be. And He says, “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven.”

Jesus says, “My Father which is in heaven,” as reminding His disciples that while by His humanity He is linked with them, a sharer in their trials, and sympathizing with them in their sufferings, by His divinity He is connected with the throne of the Infinite. Wonderful assurance! The heavenly intelligences unite with men in sympathy and labor for the saving of that which was lost. And all the power of heaven is brought to combine with human ability in drawing souls to Christ.

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starcunning · 5 years ago

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21. Crunch

Your other sister and my other soul

For @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast’s FFXIVWrite 2019. [Title] [AO3 mirror]

Even the canopy of the Greatwood could not entirely shield its denizens from the seething sky that shone above. Shafts of light pierced the trees, falling uncaring upon Slitherbough. It seemed brighter still for the darkness from which X’shasi had just emerged. A funeral, of sorts—one of the very few that X’shasi had been allowed to attend, in this violent life she led. Y’shtola would not be long put off from her task, but there were things to be seen to first.

Minfilia’s eyes were turned skyward, a gentler light dappling her cheeks. She should be playing somewhere, X’shasi thought. Then again, by the time Shasi had seen her fourteenth summer herself, the time for play had been behind her.

Still, Shasi had heard more than a little and a bit about the cell—comfortable, but a cell nevertheless—where Minfilia had lived for a decade, never enjoying the simple pleasures of leaves crunching underfoot or delighting in the way a rain puddle reflected the world above in ghostly echo. She should have been carefree; a happy child, and she never really had.

But there were no carefree children on the First. Amh Araeng had taught her that harsh lesson.

“Minfilia,” she said softly. Those eyes—the selfsame blue as Shasi’s own, though far more radiant—turned toward her. “What is it?” she said. “Can I help?” “I’d like a word before we join the others, if you have a moment.” “Of course,” Minfilia said, and Shasi had to restrain herself from the impulse to offer her her hand. Instead they found a quiet niche, its shade softened somewhat by the light of blue candles, and Shasi perched upon a seat, tapping her fingers nervously against the lip. “You’re not her,” Shasi said softly. “Thancred knows that, as do the others.” “I wonder if you do,” Shasi said. “Am I not doing a good job?” Minfilia wondered, her brow wrinkled and lip trembling. “I can train harder—I won’t get hurt next time—” “You are a child,” Shasi said softly. “I was older than you are now before I became an adventurer, and it was later still that anyone thought to call me a hero. Even the woman they want you to be was only a girl at fourteen.” “But there isn’t time to wait,” Minfilia said. “I know I was only ever a poor substitute for you, but I—” “You’re not!” Shasi said, with a force that surprised even herself. She could see the wide-eyed shock on the girl’s face, and she sighed. “You’re not.” It came out more gently the second time. “Forgive me,” Shasi said. Her eyes closed a moment. “I was in your position once,” she admitted. “The first time I met one of the heroes of Carteneau, he got the impression I resented him. And perhaps I did. Certainly I felt like the world might have preferred him to me. I was not wearing my inherited mantle well then.” She opened her eyes. “I am not his shadow, and you are not mine.”

“What would you have me be, then?” Minfilia asked, lifting a hand to tuck back a lock of golden hair. “It isn’t my decision to make,” Shasi said softly. “It would be so much easier if I could just … be her,” Minfilia said. “I wish she were here instead of me, and Thancred does, too.” “He doesn’t—” “He does! There’s no sense in lying. You’re not very good at it, and I have the advantage in sniffing you out. You wish she were here, too.” “All else being equal, yes,” Shasi admitted. “If I could have her here, I would, at least for his sake. But not at the cost of another. She feels the same way.” “How can you know that?” “The Echo does more than render us immune to the corruption of sin eaters and false gods,” Shasi said softly. “It allows us to see the past, and the secrets that lie in the hearts of men. Among other things, it would seem.” “Then you know what he will not tell me.” “He wants to, I think,” Shasi said softly, “but has not the words. That is the way of things, sometimes. Who could say if I would fare better, were I to come across someone in this place that I loved as he loved her?” “What was she to him?” Minfilia asked. “He has told me of her deeds, but …”

Shasi sighed, and watched the way the candles rippled a moment. “She was a girl of ten when her father died,” Shasi said. “I was there, though I knew it not. There was a parade, and one of the beasts meant for the coliseum got loose. Her father was among the casualties, and Thancred blamed himself—perhaps blames himself still; it would not surprise me—for failing to fell the beast before it killed him. He was … sixteen, perhaps, barely a man himself in most parts of our world. It was another bard, F’lhammin, who assumed the role of mother. Thancred, I think, was more an elder brother to her, and her staunchest supporter.” “I’ve never had a brother,” Minfilia said. “Me either,” Shasi admitted. “When I was young I thought I had, and I hated my mother for taking me away from them, but as it turns out perhaps I have always been an only child, and I understand the reasons why she left. Besides, I suppose his role has changed now.” “It does not rest easily with him.”

Shasi looked at the way Minfilia folded her hands in her lap, and some foreign pain surged in her chest. She bit it back, allowed it no outlet; let it cycle through her until it commingled with the abyss that dwelt in her heart—black and red; love and pain.

“Why wouldn’t he just leave me with Urianger?” Minfilia asked, a note of pleading in her voice. “He could just send me the ammunition, or … or something; I know he wanted me ready for the war upon the sin eaters, but he doesn’t want me and I can’t help him.” Those words lanced through Shasi as though physical things; it was a difference of kind and not degree, she could see at once, but the hurt was the same. Perhaps the answer was, too. “He would never forgive himself,” Shasi said softly. “Should anything befall you that he could have forestalled by his presence … much like the goobue at the parade, he would take that burden of responsibility unto himself. Still, better him than you; he is a man grown, in the end.” “What cause has he for such guilt?” “None, so far as I know,” Shasi said. “He is given to such self-recrimination, but there are few people I consider to be as good a person as Thancred, and … most of them are here.” “Have you ever told him so?” Minfilia asked. “I … have not the words,” Shasi said softly. “Nor do I think he would believe me, even were I sure it was my place to speak them.”

Minfilia only looked at her for a long while, and Shasi turned her head rather than face those crystal-blue eyes.

“You must love him very much, to know him so well,” Minfilia said. “Perhaps I did once,” Shasi murmured, and lapsed into silence a moment. She cleared her throat. “So now you know what drives him,” she said. “As best I can tell it to you.” “And what drives you?” Minfilia wondered. “How did you become such a hero?” “I never wanted to be—” Shasi began, and could not help but think of Ardbert. “… to be a Warrior of Light, much less of Darkness. I wanted to help people; to protect the weak and work for the common good, but … until I met Thancred, I never thought I would do great things. Just good ones, where I could. And now …” “And now?”

Shasi leveled her gaze at the girl’s once more. “I don’t know how to speak to you about this,” Shasi said. “I want to protect you, as the child you ought to be allowed to be, but … I wish also to do you the dignity of addressing you as a peer.” “I have little innocence left to spare,” Minfilia said. “Few do here, I’m finding.” Shasi sighed. “The truth is, I barely want this life. Were it given to me to do it all over again … I would, but not because this was my ambition or my desire. There is a part of me—more real than you can know—that wishes to run away from all this. And much of me resents being here.” “But Urianger’s vision—” “Is but one of many futures, or there would be no point to our actions here. Were fate so undeniable, we would not fight so fiercely. I yet believe there would have been another way. We would have known enough to thwart the catalyst of their calamity. Someone … an ally … was working toward that purpose already, ere the Exarch ever called us hence. That sin I will not forgive so easily,” Shasi said, quiet but vehement. “What sin?” “He robbed me,” Shasi said, “not only of those whom I fought so hard to protect, but of my choice. That is unforgivable to me,” Shasi said, “as it would be unforgivable to me should the Minfilia of the Source take your body from you perforce. As it would be to me were you to join this war under duress.” “I don’t understand,” Minfilia said softly. “It is a choice I make, over and over,” Shasi said, “to be their Warrior of Light. Perhaps I could have refused the Exarch, and bid him find another Warrior of Darkness … but I see now who that burden would have fallen to, and I cannot permit that. It must be me, for the same reasons as ever.” “Because you choose it?” Minfilia said. “Because if I choose it,” Shasi said, “no one else has to. Least of all you.”

#ff14 #FFXIVWrite2019 #x'shasi #ryne #original content #starcunning writes

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savedfromsalvation · 6 years ago

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Compiled by Jim Walker

The Biblical view of women

The God of the Bible decrees that woman must submit to the dominance of man.

"The social and legal position of an Israelite wife was inferior to the position a wife occupied in the great countries round about... all the texts show that Israelites wanted mainly sons to perpetuate the family line and fortune, and to preserve the ancestral inheritance... A husband could divorce his wife; women on the other hand could not ask for divorce... the wife called her husband Ba'al or master; she also called him adon or lord; she addressed him, in fact, as a slave addressed his master or subject, his king. The Decalogue includes a man's wife among his possessions... all her life she remains a minor. The wife does not inherit from her husband, nor daughters from their father, except when there is no male heir. A vow made by a girl or married woman needs, to be valid, the consent of the father or husband and if this consent is withheld, the vow is null and void. A man had a right to sell his daughter. Women were excluded from the succession."

-Roland de Vaux, archaeologist and priest

Blue words represent Bible quotes

Burn The Daughter!

"And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire." (Leviticus 21:9)

Comment

A priest's daughter, if found to have lost her virginity without marriage, can receive the death penalty, but in the form of incineration.

How many fundamentalist priests who so easily condemn others would carry out the burning of their daughters if they found them "whoring"?

(See also Genesis 38:24)

Cut Off Her Hand!

"When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her." (Deuteronomy 25:11-12)

Comment

A wife would naturally wish to come to the aid of her husband in any way she could if he desperately struggled with an opponent, but the Hebrew law specifically forbade a wife to help her husband in distress if that support consisted of her grabbing the enemy's genitals in an effort to stifle his onslaught. The penalty? Amputation of the hand that fondled the genitals!

Only in an overly obsessive male dominated culture could men create such atrocious laws. As such, the penis ranked sacrosanct in the minds of men (as it still stands today). If a male lost his penis for any reason, he would lose the right to enter a congregation of God. (See Deuteronomy 23:1)

Female Births Get Penalty

"Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean." (Leviticus 12:2)

"But if she bear a maid child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her separation: and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying threescore and six days." (Leviticus 12:5)

Comment

A woman who gives birth to a child must undergo a purification ritual lest her "uncleanness" contaminate others. This not only entails her isolation, but also payments to priests for the ritual acts. Thus the male dominators had even made birth dirty.

Notice here that if a woman bears a female child, her isolation must last twice as long as that if she gives birth to a male child!

(See also Psalms 51:3-5)

"The Bible and the church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of woman's emancipation."

--Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Female Inferiority

"But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." (I Corinthians 11:3)

"For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man." (I Corinthians 11:8-9)

Comment

The Bible's decree of male supremacy has kept woman inferior to men for centuries. For the religious, it comes as a sad fact that a human must have a penis to receive any respect or power within the Church.

All woman should realize that such phrases in the Bible has justified for many Christian men, not only their supremacy but a reason to sexually abuse women.

(See also I Cor. 14:34-36, I Timothy 2:8-15, I Peter 3:1-7, Ephesians 5:22-24, Col. 3:18-19)

Jesus Will Kill Children

"Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works." (Revelation 2:22-23)

Comment

If anyone thinks Jesus represents only a peaceful loving soul, then think again. For an act of adultery, Jesus would kill innocent children for the adultery of others; hardly fair justice, love, or the concern for human beings.

Some apologists claim that "children" refers to the followers of a cult of Jezebel and not to children birthed from Jezebel. However, if this proved the case, the situation would appear even more horrific, for a cult of believers could number in the dozens, hundreds, thousands, or more. The deaths of these multitude of cult believers (which would include children within its membership) would only make the moralistic problem far more atrocious.

"It's interesting to speculate how it developed that in two of the most anti-feminist institutions, the church and the law court, the men are wearing the dresses."

--Flo Kennedy

Kill The Witches!

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Whoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death. He that sacrificeth unto any god, save to the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed." (Exodus 22:18-20)

Comment

These verses attest to the power of belief as they led to the slaughter of thousands of defenseless people throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

Understand that these verses not only authorize the executions but they explicitly command them.

Verse 18 justified the burning of women in Europe judged as witches. In early America, the Salem witch trials resulted in the deaths of women and men.

Verse 19 refers to bestiality, a sin considered worthy of death. Christians used verse 20 to justify religious wars, Crusades and the slaughter of unbelievers throughout Europe. And the condemnation of heretics still goes on.

Rape My Daughter

"Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing. But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go." (Judges 19:24-25)

Comment

Judges 19 describe a father who offers his virgin daughter to a drunken mob. When the father says "unto this man do not so vile a thing," he makes clear that sexual abuse should never befall a man (meaning him), yet a woman, even his own flesh and blood, or a concubine belonging to a perfect stranger, can receive punishment from men to do what they wish. This attitude against women still persists to this day and we have the Bible, in large part, to thank for this attitude against women.

Verse 25 describes the hours long gang rape of the poor concubine. The Bible gives not one hint of compassion or concern for the raped girl. Considering that many people believe that every word in the Bible comes from God, it should not surprise anyone why people still use these verses to justify such atrocities.

Silence The Woman!

"Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." (I Timothy 2:11-14)

Comment

Another case where the Bible makes it quite clear that women live for man and must submit to them.

"Man enjoys the great advantage of having a god endorse the code he writes; and since man exercises a sovereign authority over women it is especially fortunate that this authority has been vested in him by the Supreme Being. For the Jews, Mohammedans and Christians among others, man is master by divine right; the fear of God will therefore repress any impulse towards revolt in the downtrodden female."

--Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex 1949

(See also I Cor. 11:3-12, I Cor. 14:34-36, I Peter 3:1-7, Ephesians 5:22-24, Col. 3:18-19.)

Stone The Woman!

"If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;" (Deuteronomy 22:22)

"Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you." (Deuteronomy 22:24)

Comment

(Read also Deuteronomy 22:13-21)

The discovery of a bride lying with another man can yield disastrous results.

If the wife's parents can produce tokens of the damsel's virginity and spread the cloth before the elders of the city, the husband has to pay the bride's father one hundred silver shekels and he may not send his wife back to her parents as long as she lives. But if the bride's virginity does not satisfy the requirements, the husband can get rid of her by letting the men of the city stone her to death.

From a practical level, these designed laws regulating women's virginity protected economic transactions between men rather than for the sake of morality. (See Virgin's Worth below)

"Virgin" Mistranslation

"Therefore the LORD himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." (Isaiah 7:14)

Comment

Perhaps the most famous mistranslation of the Bible, the word virgin here comes from a mistranslated Greek word for virgin.

The original Hebrew version uses the word "almah" which means "young woman" which may or may not refer to a virgin. Of course the context of the original Hebrew Isaiah does not refer to a virgin at all, as scholars the world over agree, but only refers to a young woman.

Later, the author of Matthew 1:22-23, quoted from the mistranslated Isaiah version, and thus the error turned into a world-wide belief.

Today a few of the modern bibles such as the Revised Standard Version, have corrected this mistranslation and have replaced the word virgin with "young woman." (Isaiah 7:14, RSV)

Apparently either God makes errors or the Bible does not come from god, but rather from fallible men.

Virgin's Worth

"If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silvers, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days." (Deuteronomy 22:28-29)

Comment

The belief some get about the Biblical law leads them to think that it represented a great advancement in morality. However, if we look at this law in the social and economic context, it becomes evident that it did not come from any moral ground, but rather to protect men's property rights of their wives and daughters.

This law says that since an unmarried girl, a non-virgin, no longer serves as an economically valuable asset, her father must receive compensation. As for the legal requirement of the man that caused the economic problem, his marriage in that society gave him practically unlimited power over their wives. Such forced marriage can hardly serve as a concern for the poor girl's welfare.

Wives, Submit Yourselves!

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." (Ephesians 5:22-24)

Comment

These words of Paul describe another instance for the calling of the submission of women to their husbands. Note that the all inclusive "everything" could allow husbands to submit their wives to anything, including rape, beatings, slavery, etc.

(See also I Cor. 11:3-12, I Cor. 14:34-36, I Timothy 2:8-15, I Peter 3:1-7, Col. 3:18-19.)

Women Shall Not Speak

"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." (I Corinthians 14:34-35)

Comment

If one ever wishes to find an explanation of woman's inferiority to men, one only has to look in the Bible. Paul makes clear and delineates the importance of woman recognizing her place, "ad nauseam."

(See also I Cor. 11:3-12, I Timothy 2:8-15, I Peter 3:1-7, Ephesians 5:22-24, Col. 3:18-19.)

"The bible teaches that women brought sin and death into the world, that she precipitated the fall of the race, that she was arraigned before the judgment seat of Heaven, tried, condemned and sentenced. Marriage for her was to be a condition of bondage, maternity a period suffering and anguish, and in silence and subjection, she was to play the role of a dependent on man's bounty for all her material wants, and for all the information she might desire... Here is the Bible position of woman briefly summed up."

--Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Women's Sorrow

"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." (Genesis 3:16)

Comment

Not only does the Woman get blamed for the Fall, but God decides to multiply her sorrow, plus, she must submit to her husband like a slave.

Religionists have used this verse as justification and "reason" for the pain and punishment (sin) of childbirth and the sin of mankind. And to this day many Christians, Jews and Islamics place women lower then men in the ranking of Godly order. If ever there existed a more cruel justification against women, it could not have done as much damage as from belief in Genesis 3:16. Because of the belief in the Fall, countless Christians have branded the entire human race as depraved.

Before the advent of male dominated religions, cultures around the world respected women and worshipped goddesses. The Old Testament records the brutal slaughter of surrounding cultures and slowly throughout the centuries, the goddess religions faded away in place of the belief-system of a jealous, scatological, male war god.

"Christianity teaches that the human race is depraved, fallen, and sinful." --D. James Kennedy (Why I Believe, World Publishing, 1980)

Rip Up Pregnant Women

"Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up." (Hosea 13:16)

Comment

Throughout the Bible, God smites those who do not believe in him or those who do not follow his commands. Here we have the grotesque description of infants dashed to pieces and pregnant women ripped up. Whatever rebellious nature an infant's father or mother may have had, it bears no justice to an innocent child or to an unborn fetus who could not possibly have rebelled against God, much less understood him.

Anyone who claims to love such a God, must accept infanticide as one of God's ugly revenges.

(See also Psalms 137:9)

The Wicked Woman

"Give me any plague, but the plague of the heart: and any wickedness, but the wickedness of a woman." (Eccles. 25:13)

"Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die." (Eccles. 25:22)

"If she go not as thou wouldest have her, cut her off from thy flesh, and give her a bill of divorce, and let her go." (Eccles. 25: 26)

"The whoredom of a woman may be known in her haughty looks and eyelids. If thy daughter be shameless, keep her in straitly, lest she abuse herself through overmuch liberty." (Eccles. 26:9-10)

"A silent and loving woman is a gift of the Lord: and there is nothing so much worth as a mind well instructed. A shamefaced and faithful woman is a double grace, and her continent mind cannot be valued." (Eccles. 26:14-15)

"A shameless woman shall be counted as a dog; but she that is shamefaced will fear the Lord." (Eccles.26:25)

"For from garments cometh a moth, and from women wickedness. Better is the churlishness of a man than a courteous woman, a woman, I say, which bringeth shame and reproach." (Eccles. 42:13-14)

Comment

Ecclesiasticus of the Apocrypha does not appear in most Bibles. However, in Catholic Bibles, the inferiority of woman still appears in the verses of Ecclesiasticus. These verses give only a sampling from this book that lowers the status of women.

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lotornomiko · 5 years ago

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Triumph’s Tribulations Chapter Four (Mostly work safe?)

It’s work safe, except Lezard still has a vibe there that might be troublesome or triggering to some. Still no sign of anything sexual outright happening to ANY of the characters. :p

It was insanity at it’s worst, that flimsy grasp for reassurance not able to bury the thinly veiled menace of his words. The intention that was both a threat and a promise, that warped feeling not so much love OR lust, but instead this overpowering desire to dominate. That twisted need inside him, it was to Creation’s misfortune that there was only one heart that this man sought to possess. That it beat with unease within her was an unfortunate fact, Lenneth feeling those flickers of fear turn to outright panic, the woman unable to stop, heedless of the way those thick vines bit into her very skin, the Goddess desperate to free herself.

“No….No….” It was a cadence meant to be soothing, the expressed concern something that could not reach through to her. Lenneth fought against her restraints, that blind panic resulting in bruises, more of her cracked armor fracturing apart, to reveal the plain white dress worn beneath it. She was being stripped of all her defenses in the moment, her sword already lost gone, her strength in it’s last faded reserves and the gear that had shielded her, bit by bit eroded away by this world. By its efforts to deliver her to him.

Trussed up all tight and secure, the Goddess could only bite back a whimper, this world’s attempts neither subtle nor kind. This mindless entity that was Lezard’s attempt at Creation, was a beast that could not be reasoned with, no matter what Lenneth tried. She couldn’t understand it, not this world, and not her own lack of ability, this tired deity unable to reach within for a power that should have been there. A Creator in her own right, combating this place and its maker shouldn’t have been that difficult, and certainly not to this extreme!

Bruised and battered by this world, by its attempts to subdue her, the tired Goddess had been challenged in a way she hadn’t thought possible. Had it been HER arrogance that had led to such overconfidence? Had she let it blind her to the point she had not only misjudged the situation but Lezard, of just what he was capable of, the man not only grasping hold of the power of God, but fast understanding just how to use and manipulate it against her?

It was insane all the same, Lenneth understanding that even with Odin’s stolen power inside him, Lezard at best should have been her equal, and not her better.

“How...” Her pride made her bite her tongue, Lenneth unable to admit to the weakness, nor to acknowledge out loud to him the confusion it caused her. Why couldn’t she make this place heel, why did even these vines, thick though they were, refuse to give way, this world and it’s oddities, refusing to acknowledge the power inherited inside her?

She hadn’t a clue, her frustrations added to the panic experienced. That wild fear, and her lack of true knowledge, made Lenneth feel more and more like the sixth level Goddess she had once been, and not the Ruler of Creation that she had in fact become.

Vision full of the man, the usurper before her, Lenneth tried to mask the shaking that her body was doing, with those continued efforts to break free.

“You are HURTING yourself with that effort.” He was frowning at her, the chiding tsk of his voice much like an exasperated parent to a child. “Lenneth...”

“The only one hurting me is YOU!” She shot back, and the trembles vibrated through her, making the vines rattle in response. “Damn you, stop this!”

“This world is only reinstating a simple but undeniable fact.” He was drifting within reach of her, an already wary Goddess on high alert for another of the God’s attempt to steal from her. What form would it take this time? A touch of her hair, her cheek? Or would his daring make him bolder, a kiss or worse forced on her?

“You are MINE.” There was a finality to that statement, a knowing grimness that birth forth new dread within the pit of her stomach. “Now and forever.” added Lezard, reaching an eager hand towards her. The vines tightened even further, trying to hold Lenneth absolutely still for their master, and it was either give in or be hurt, and already she was finding it difficult to breathe.

“Never.” She managed to gasp it out, even with the vines squeezing her in place. “I’ll never be yours!”

“You’ve not fallen enough if you can still cling to that belief.” Lezard was calm as he answered, those fingers of his caressing over the vines rather than touch on Lenneth directly. That thick green foliage practically rippled in response, the world itself pleased by its’ Lord’s attention. It made Lenneth shake with revulsion, those ripples that weren’t outright unpleasant, the vines heeding some unspoken command to loosen its strangle hold upon her.

“It does beg the question though...” Continued Lezard in that calm tone. “What will be that final push, that breaking point, that gets you to accept the inevitable...”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” spat Lenneth. “So long as that inevitable’s outcome is an eternity spent with YOU.”

“You say that now...” cautioned Lezard. “When your strength has not yet been completely exhausted. You’ll sing a different tune when it and all your hope, your delusions of escape have been abandoned.”

“YOU are the delusional one!” Lenneth shook her head no, the vines quivering as though in warning. “Always and forever, you are MAD, that sickness inside you trying to warp everything around you.” She felt the fierceness of her words, of her belief, translate into the expression of her face, Lenneth’s eyes flashing with a glare, her lips twisted with that snarl. “Love itself is not a sin, but what you do in the name of it IS! You blasphemy against that emotion as much as you do against God!”

“Then let my soul be blackened with the sin of loving you.” His hand lifted up from the vine, the leather texture of his glove suddenly on her cheek. She tried to throw it off, but the vine’s reaction was immediate, tightening to the point she could no longer move. It couldn’t stop her from glaring, anymore than she could keep him from emitting that crazed sounding laughter.

“Lenneth, ah Lenneth...” Again that chiding tone, amusement glinting in those dark eyes of his. “What exactly is the objection? The thought of being dominated so thoroughly by the one who has always been the most devoted to you? Or is it the fact that I was once the man, the being, you thought so beneath you?” He leaned into her, breathed in deeply of that scent and fear, while wearing that odd smile on his face. “You thought me lower than a snake...not worth the time nor the effort to put down. A mistake yes, but not the worst you’ve ever made.”

“What do you mean by THAT?”

A casual shrug of his shoulders, the laughter in his eyes giving way to a barely suppressed anger. “I’m not the first human to sin in the name of loving you.”

She almost said the name then, almost cried out in protest, thoughts of Lucian filling her head. Of the earnest blue of his eyes, the lopsided grin, a love inside him that had never died, that had followed him to the grave and beyond. Such a love that had wrought its own heartache and devastation, a world destroyed, and still she had forgiven him.

“He acted without true knowledge.”

“His ignorance is no excuse. He let himself be used, manipulated, for his own selfish desires.” Lezard drew an exaggerated breath.”Ah but you mean to tell me that it is somehow different? When both outcomes are the same? In that we are no different...”

“You are nothing like him!” protested Lenneth.

“I’m BETTER.” Lezard countered with a smirk. “In every sense of it, and do you know why? Hmm, Lenneth? Can you possibly guess? It is because, when I act out of love, it is for the woman before me, and not the memory of a love, a life lost.”

“He didn’t see you for you...Lenneth, he didn’t love you, but instead loved the person he thought he could make you be! That child, that one life in a string of hosts that housed you for a good millennia.” His lip curled then. “Did it make you happy to be called by her name? To be the ghost given flesh for his desires?”

Her hesitation in answering was telling to them both, Lezard the voice that spoke of the uncertainties that had only whispered faintly inside her. It had never sat well with her, the name and Lucian’s insistence, and yet Lenneth had tried to look past that stubborn cleaving that they had both done to the child. A girl name Platina, who had lived and died a tragic life, whose chance for more had been stolen the moment Odin had had need of the Goddess who had slumbered within her.

They weren’t the same. Lenneth knew that, she and Platina both their own separate entities. But the feelings were there, the memories of that 14 year short life, and all of the other hosts before it, every last one that Lenneth had slumbered through helping to shape the Goddess’ humanity. Her kindness and caring, her sympathy and her empathy, those very feelings that the Gods had tried to seal away, Odin himself having deemed it too dangerous for any of the three who governed over fate to retain. He hadn’t been able to outright destroy those memories, but the God had been able to make them forget. Both Lenneth and Hrist, and Odin would have done the same to Silmeria had the youngest of the Valkyries remained in his control.

Those slivers of human empathy had been seen as a curse, a poison infesting those Odin would have remained his loyal dogs. Judge, jury, and executioner, Odin had twisted the express purpose of the three Goddesses whose right it was to govern over fate in order to seize a ruthless, total control over Creation. The God Odin had abused all, every last law and sanction, manipulating souls, pitting entire realms against one another, all for his own warped amusement.

He had been a tyrant left unchecked, a pitiless God who had cared only for more and more power, and the means to wield it. Lezard wasn’t much better, his concern not for the world and its people, but for what his own selfish heart desired. It made Lenneth all the more desperate, not for herself, but for Creation, for the many who existed within it’s nine realms. Both the present and the future, Lezard’s actions of the past in danger of destroying it all, lives lost to the chaos of a God who cared even less than Odin had.

There wasn’t time enough to argue with him in full, nor did Lenneth have any true desire to, her desperation and despair making her ignore his taunts. His insipid mockery, his blunt insinuations that what she had had with Lucian wasn’t in any way real. The Goddess had turned inward, trying to gather the power that drifted just out of her reach, as she again gave an impressive heave of her arms and that of her legs.

Her restraints immediately went to tighten, those vines an extension of this worlds’ whims, and though Lenneth could reason with neither, she could however make her point. In a fit that was more than just desperate, it was determined, Lenneth feeling the protesting whine of the world as the green shackling her to the column gave way.

As she bodily tore free of it, Lenneth’s fist found its way to Lezard’s jaw. Its’ violent impact had his face turning, a breath blowing out of him, the man made momentarily staggered by the attack. She wanted to follow it up with more violence, but there was a stronger instinct screaming inside her, that need pushing her legs to run from and not to her tormentor.

With every step away from him that she took, the ground itself rumbled, the marble of this place’s floor turning jagged and ripping apart. It was his world at work again, and it was a Creation that was made angry by Lenneth’s insolence.

Every step was made to be a struggle, things grabbing at her, the marble beneath her running feet crumbling apart. Lezard himself had taken to the air, laughing wildly as he floated about, yet another verbal jab offered her in the most silken of tones.

“The truth hurts, doesn’t it, Lenneth…?!” A downright euphoric sound from him, the man purring. “Just keep on trying to delude yourself about Lucian and his true feelings for you for as long as you can. It won’t make the pain any less, none of YOUR lies will!”

Those words pierced their way inside her to find and strike at her heart, Lenneth’s foot then slipping, casting her down into the cavernous hole that the world had torn open before her. It was darker than anything she had ever before born witness to, Lenneth free falling through an inky blackness that had filtered away all light and warmth and even that of sound. Not even Lezard’s mad laughter could reach her here, though the memory of his words, that taunting insinuation stayed with her.

The Heavens continued its’ upheaval, violated by the ever worsening tremors and the darkening blight upon its skies. They had been without sun for days, a cold frost in the air that had helped to freeze and destroy all of the floral and fauna that had lent Asgard its’ unparalleled beauty. It was still a sight to behold, but not for any of the famed shining magnificence it had once retained, this realm dying a slow, torturous death. Not even the Gods as they were had the power to stop it, Yggsdrasil in too steady a decline, carrying with it the nine realms utter destruction upon it’s withering limbs and roots.

She could only stare out in helpless fury, watching as the decay continued it’s spread. Would Asgard be the first of the nine realms to fall? Would anything, anyone, stand a chance of surviving then? Freya had no answers, just more and more questions and that desperate feeling.

She didn’t like that panic inside her. That unwanted feeling had no right to the familiarity with which it assaulted her with, that terror alight in her blood, and it still didn’t outdo the overwhelming despair that had plagued her since Odin had first been taken. The Goddess, the first lady of the Heavens, refused to so much as think the thought that would consider her Lord and her lover dead. Her heart wouldn’t survive otherwise, Freya hanging on to that slim hope that the rightful ruling God of Creation could still be recovered. Downright stubborn with that unsubstantiated claim, Freya prayed for Yggdrasil as much as she did for Odin.

She couldn’t stave off it’s ruin indefinitely. Not even as the Goddess supreme of all things fertile, Freya trying to use the power inherent within her to keep some part of the great world tree alive and blooming. It resulted in a few pathetic looking shrubs with a warped limbs and sparse sprouts, but the blonde haired Goddess chose to believe that any sign of life no matter how shriveled, was still one of hope.

“Any news?” At least her voice maintained the illusion of her once indomitable strength. The ripple of divine energy behind her had signaled the God’s arrival.

“Nothing promising.” Came the deep rumble of disgust. It sounded like the storm itself, that voice holding thunder to it. Freya knew if she was to turn to glance the God’s way, she’d see the equally powerful sight of a lightning ablaze in the storm God’s eyes.

“The einherjar continue their search.” He continued. “More than half have been lost, some killed in duty’s line, but even more infected by the madness running rampant through the world.”

“So not even our einherjar are entirely protected from that sickness.” Freya murmured, then shook her head no.

“If they had a more direct hand guiding them...If a Valkyrie…”

“Thor, NO!” Freya blazed with her anger. “That option is no longer for us.”

“Why?” challenged the bearded storm God, Thor. “Because Silmeria and Hrist both betrayed us? There is no guarantee that Lenneth will do the same.”

“I’ll not give her that chance.” A stubborn Freya retorted. “Not with these odds...not when already two of the three Goddesses who are meant to govern over fate chose to align themselves with those inferior races.” She was the golden Goddess, meant to be the ultimate in sculpted beauty, but that scowl on her face lessened Freya’s appeal.

“But Lenneth….”

“You think the most sympathetic of the three will chose any different?” interrupted Freya with a mean scoff. “When the coldest of the three, when Hrist herself sided with our enemies?”

“Then what do you propose we do!?” demanded Thor, one hand on his hip, while the other waved about with his fervent agitation. “Freya, we are LOSING here. Not just our home, but soon our very lives. This world won’t survive without an action taken.”

“One Valkyrie will not change the fate of an entire world. Only the Lord Creator can.”

“Then awaken Lenneth to FIND him!” Thor roared with his frustration. “This world...WE need Lord Odin. We need him, or we need that of the one who inherited his power.”

“Don’t!” The snarl was so unlike her, Freya anything but the calm and gentle lady of the realm. “Don’t you even dare imply that Lord Odin is anything but…”

He was surprisingly subdued in the face of her anger. “We’ve no word for too long.” Thor took a step closer to the Goddess and laid a gentle hand on her shoulder in show of solidarity. “Freya, I want our King back as much as you. We ALL do. But the signs all point more and more that that is not to be. We can’t wallow in grief, we can’t let sadness and despair consume us...So long as we still live, we stand a chance, small though it may be, of saving the world that HE created.”

She was tempted to shrug free of that hand, Freya hardly taking any comfort from what Thor was saying. Her heart already so broken was having it’s pieces shattered ever more at the thought that perhaps all that was left of Odin, was the Creation that he had ruled over.

“I...” A shaky breath escaped her, a moment of genuine weakness expressed. “I’m not ready to let him go...”

“Not many are.” Came the rumble of agreement. “But neither are they ready to follow our Lord and his world into destruction. Freya please...reconsider...Lenneth...”

She needed a time that they did not have, this world and it’s many realms ever closer to ruin. Even a single hour might prove costly, Freya not able to take the luxury of even a true minute to consider closely what must be done.

“Have the einherjar continue their search for the two remaining divine treasures...” She hesitated a beat. “Summon Frei...we’ll need my sister’s power if we are going to awaken Lenneth.”

“Yes, my lady.” Thor gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, but already the divine energy that was his power rippled over her, the God of Thunder shifting between here and there with his ether. Freya was left to stand alone at the base of the withering World Tree, her own doubts and insecurities making the Goddess second guess things still where the Valkyrie Lenneth was concerned.

The dawn of the new day had ushered in an overcast kind of atmosphere, that of the bleakness of a Creation whose days were still numbered matched well by the darkened gray skies, and the sudden chill born in the air. It was too cold for it to be natural, not in this region of Midgard, these nameless woods a forest that bordered the edge of a total of three different nations. As much as things had changed over time, some things had still remained the same, Gerabellum, Villnore and Artolia retaining their names if not all of their sovereign superiority.

They and their long storied history was just one of the many, so much there that he didn’t yet know, and a great deal more that must be learned in so short a time. The Lord of the Undead chafed at the constraints place upon him, every minute—nay every second, a precious commodity he could not afford to waste. None of them could, every being from the mortal humans, to the ageless undead, and even to that of the seemingly eternal, the Gods themselves, all faced this crisis. This world that was ending, Creation dying a slow, struggling death, and not even the fabled Ragnarok had been lauded as being as final as what was happening NOW.

This world and its people all doomed, there would be no rebirth found in this ruin. Not without the proper power in place, and as much as it chafed Brahms to admit to it, Odin had served a purpose. Tyrant though he may have been, cruel and cold, and ever so self serving, that God had kept the world from falling into this complete a chaos.

Though Odin was no more, the power that he had wielded was still out there. That an unworthy hand had laid claim to it, didn’t much bother the vampire king. That foolish mortal who had named himself God, could be supplanted, the control of Creation pried free of his uncaring hands. They just needed the tools to seize it, along with the right means to host it.

He cast a surreptitious glance at one of his companions, the archer who did his best to underplay the most unusual of his features. He kept his ears hidden, but there was no mistaking what he was, that green colored hair a blatant giveaway to the elven blood within him. What was less obvious, was the side of him that was human, Rufus this rare mix of breed, that was so decidedly special. His gender made him doubly so, the only male of his kind to have been born to the elves in centuries. In a race that was predominantly female, and ones that shunned contact of any kind with those not of their village, Rufus birth was in of itself a planned anomaly.

Created with the sole intention of being Odin’s spare, Rufus had had a great many freedoms stripped of him. His life hadn’t been his, his body meant as a back up for a day that might never have come. His soul had existed as only the battery in which to fuel and keep the body alive, the half elf’s mind, his very sense of being, had been seen as just a this disposable nuisance, treated no better than that of an animal.

That very existence that the elf had so many reasons to hate, would have served well as a host to Brahms’ plan. If he hadn’t already died, Rufus now a soul manifested through the remnants of Silmeria’s faded power. There was no changing what been done, the lone vessel suited to inheriting Odin’s power lost to them all. It might have been enough of a deterrent to lose all hope for the world, but Brahms had seized upon an idea, the chance borne on the wings of a Goddess, Lenneth, who had inadvertently paved the way for a revelation or two. One part of the three who governed over fate, it made a kind of wicked sense that the Valkyries might hold the possibility of containing the power of Creation within them.

The notion now alive in his head, it didn’t much matter that Brahms did not understand the hows and the whys of such a possibility. The vampire was confident he would soon figure it out, together with the help of the Valkyrie he intended to seat upon Creation’s throne. The Lord of the Undead couldn’t imagine a more fitting Goddess to rule, Silmeria this kind and compassionate a being, and one who had always been ever so eager towards righting Odin’s many wrongs.

Of course to do that, she had to be found, Silmeria and her sister, Hrist, caught up in a sovereign’s rite that had been so carelessly cast. Lezard hadn’t much cared about the outcome, anymore than he had for any other part of this world, content to lead the realms into an upheaval with or without the Valkyries. But the three couldn’t be destroyed that easily, the very essence of the Goddesses sent out out into the nameless ether that was this Creation’s heart and its’ soul. Although as to what shape and situation they both were in, even Brahms could not say, no true guess hazard. He could barely divine their location, the faint energy that seemed to be flitting around two distinct locations.

One roughly north of the forest that he now currently tread through, it was still a matter of time and distance before Brahms and his companions could close in one the first of the two missing Valkyries. He burned with impatience all the same, so much needing to be done, and so much wanting to be said, the woman, the Goddess one Brahms has owed so much to. There was a loyalty pledged to one another, a life sheltered within a soul’s embrace, Silmeria having SAVED Brahms and he her. There was a thanks to be given, and deeper feelings to explore, none of it yet having had the true chance the vampire King awakening just at the Valkyrie had been abducted for the FIRST time.

The rage that taking had inspired had paled in comparison to the startling desperation that had also birthed inside him. Made vulnerable by it in more ways than one, Brahms had soon fallen prey to to the very power that he had tried to protect Silmeria from. Caught up in that enchantment, the vampire, the rightful Lord of all the Undead, had been reduced to nothing more than a power source exploited by the Aesir, by Odin’s own ruthless hand.

Awake and aware and left to do nothing more than bear silent witness to Odin’s foul misdeeds, Brahms had come too close to spending out eternity locked inside that crystal. If not for Alicia, if not for her bold trespass into the heavens, Brahms might have still been trapped at this very second and wouldn’t that have been ironic, that he, one who had spent a millennia fighting against the Gods, against their uncaring ways and downright selfish antics, would have then been that which saved those cruel beings from this world’s ruin.

That he was powerful was fact, Brahms bearing a strength that had been steadily built upon through out the course of Creation’s history. Such was the magnificence of the Lord of the Undead that the vampire King was deemed to be on par with any one of the four divine treasures. It wasn’t a strength strong enough to save the entire world, but then the Gods would have gladly sacrificed the other eight realms of people, so as to save their own blasted hides. That was the difference between them, Brahms a monster, but one that would see law and order and above all fair justice mete out. The people deserved no less, Creation a place meant for all.

Silmeria had shared in his ideals, the Valkyrie the one Goddess who had actively took note of the wrongness of Odin’s rule. Of the wars incited in his name, the souls killed and culled for his amusement, whole realms manipulated, just about everything and everyone a chess piece on a board which had followed only Odin’s own whims, the God had been downright fanatical in HIS quest to rule forever. He had been a tyrant, but more than that, Odin had been a coward, the fabled Ragnarok the end he had sought to avoid at all costs.

To keep his own life extended, Odin had violated the many laws of nature, had broke with the forbidden taboos, and yet still he had died. Murdered for the very power within him, the God had met a pitiable end at the hands of a human no less. That mage had both done the world a great favor and damned it all to destruction, this Lezard just one more villain in need of being put down. Then and only then, might the world not only be saved, but seen to prosper under a truly benevolent hand’s rule.

Silmeria was that hand, Brahms was sure of it. The one being deemed worthy, it was this reason that destiny had thrown them all in together, Alicia, Rufus, and even Hrist, all having a part to play. The path before them just waiting for the one to forge it, the pieces all coming together under the vampire’s guidance.

Determined to see Silmeria made the new Lord God of all Creation, Brahms would be her sword and her shield, his very life offered up in servitude to her. It was the least he could do, a great many favors owed, Brahms owing a gratitude to her that might never be able to be repaid in full. He’d spend eternity trying, and if that gave him the excuse needed to linger in her presence even a bit longer, than so be it.

To Be Continued…

This chapter is so short compared to the others. @_@ Ah well, at least we finally got the first Brahms narrative, and we checked in on the Gods in Asgard a bit!

I can’t remember if I mentioned pacing worries yet in any of my author’s notes...Basically the Lezard Lenneth side is supposed to be more slow going than that of the rest of the cast. But I an endlessly worrying that the rest of the characters will reach a certain spot long before the LezaLenne side is ready...ERG.

I was looking at a map of the game’s Midgard, so I hope I gave them enough of a believable distance to traverse to find the first of the Valkyrie sisters…:o

I feel like I had more to say but it has already slipped my mind….I want to try and write a little every day, so that I can update my various stories more often. Get back into the discipline I had for writing, before pain derailed me so badly. Fingers crossed for luck in that regard!

Okay, like four hours later, and I am glad I didn’t post before proofreading. I ended up going over the Brahms POV (Which had a lot of typos and random missing words) and realized I must have been either really tired and or rushed to finish before leaving for my appointment. I’ve since not only proof read, but fleshed out the Brahms segment, so it ended up being a lot longer. The word count went up by around a thousand more words!

Michelle

#valkyrie profile #lenneth valkyrie #lezard valeth #Triumph's Tribulations #brahms #silmeria valkyrie #Freya #fanfiction #fanfic

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