We must choose to put aside what appears as the justification of vengeance and outcasting by not allowing the judging and condemnation that precedes it. The most important response is the willingness to reach out, to touch those we are inclined to repel and castigate. We must love and forgive those who like Judas have done what must be done by the law of past actions. I kneel down beside them in their time of need, bringing my embrace and comfort close to their greatest pain. For love and forgiveness are what come in the name of grace to raise the dead and heal the sick and fulfill the law so it has no need for return. Let us all pray to the better angels of mercy that whisper to us past the outcries and show us a better way, illumined by the hand of God. What we are doing together is based upon Spirit and none of that is locked in stone or the past or what was said and done.-John Morton, DSS
