{"id":26629,"date":"2026-03-06T09:32:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T14:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26629"},"modified":"2026-03-06T10:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T15:00:20","slug":"gods-restorative-justice-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26629","title":{"rendered":"God\u2019s Restorative Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Reckless Love \u2022 Cory Asbury \u2022 English Christian Song \u2022 Lyrics\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/egiG7d_pD2M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">An All-Embracing Love<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Friday, March 6, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Love [people] even in [their] sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth. Love all God\u2019s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God\u2019s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. <strong>If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you have perceived it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day<\/strong>. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.<br>\u2014Fyodor Dostoyevsky,\u00a0<em>The Brothers Karamazov<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Father Richard honors that we must be very clear about right and wrong, naming when injustice takes place, while maintaining our commitment to grace and love:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The full and final biblical message is restorative justice, but most of history has only been able to understand retributive justice. I<\/strong> know you\u2019re probably thinking of many passages in the Old Testament that sure sound like serious retribution. And I can\u2019t deny there are numerous black and white, vengeful scriptures, which is precisely why we must recognize that all scriptures are not equally inspired or from the same level of consciousness. <strong>Literal interpretation of Scripture is the Achilles\u2019 heel of fundamentalist Christians.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have to begin with dualistic thinking, just as we must first develop a healthy ego and frame before we can move beyond it. Jesus often made strong binary statements, for example, \u201cYou cannot serve God and money\u201d (Matthew 6:24); \u201cThe Son of Man will separate the sheep from the goats\u201d (Matthew 25:32\u201333). <strong>We<\/strong> <strong>must first be capable of some basic distinctions between good and evil before we can hold paradox. <\/strong>Without basic honesty and clarity, nondual thinking becomes very naive. <strong>We must first succeed at good dualistic thinking before we also discover its final inadequacy in terms of wisdom and compassion. <\/strong>Not surprisingly, <strong>Jesus exemplifies and teaches both dualistic clarity and then non-dual wisdom and compassion:<\/strong> \u201cMy Father\u2019s sun shines on both the good and the bad; his rain falls on both the just and the unjust\u201d (Matthew 5:45).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The ego prefers a dualistic worldview where bad people are eternally punished, and good people (like ourselves) are totally rewarded. But the soul does not need to see others punished to be happy!<\/strong> Why would anyone like the notion of somebody being tortured for all eternity? <strong>What kind of psyche or soul can condemn others to hellfire? Certainly not Divine Love.<\/strong> [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Could God\u2019s love really be that great and universal? Could it be anything less? Love is the lesson, and God\u2019s love is so great that God will finally teach it to all of us. <\/strong>Who would be able to resist it once they see it? <strong>We\u2019ll finally surrender, and God\u2014Love\u2014will finally win. God never loses<\/strong>. <strong>That is what it means to be God. That will be God\u2019s \u201cjustice,\u201d which will swallow up our lesser versions of retributive justice. [2]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>_________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>1.<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity. This Word manifests itself in every creature.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&#8211;&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hildegard_of_Bingen\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Hildegard of Bingen, Medieval German Mystic and Nun<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the mistakes kind-hearted people make is to conflate the Written Word of God with the Incarnate Word of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They are, in fact, two different things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=john%205%3A39-40&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\">John 5:39-40<\/a>\u00a0<strong>tells us that you can be so close to the Written Word of God that you fail to realize it points beyond itself to the Incarnate Word of God as the final authority.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So here, with Hildegard, she is not talking about the Written Word of God being present in everything. \u00a0<strong>Rather, she is talking about the Incarnate Word of God, the Divine Logos, Jesus the Christ, as somehow being deeply present within everything.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My guess is that Hildegard was reflecting on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Colossians%201%3A15-20&amp;version=NIV\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colossians 1:15-20<\/a>&nbsp;while writing the above&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>2.<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cA sophiological Christianity focuses on the path.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&#8211;&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Wisdom-Jesus-Transforming-Mind-Perspective\/dp\/1590305809\/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2JUWLYGNB8ZO6&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.49i8QkBumB4MGgTstJrWrqii-lfMqpuXUD_faBspa_1-UUaVPKjplyvYgs3vfXxQfcCvak90n8xMdxBZWr5CHQSQFEK6Bo4uTez1y79p-D1fJ_dwE197-0UKJtiQ0zH640ipROdeM1k2kAdg4ad5ysMZiLMVvAfWKJufWsXJ5LvaJE3C0a-iTAmCntCDq84u1NdLtspBeawnpCW7u1tvm7yaGJ9h6E22iywxq2AW8IpI35SUswvFHiwwgatynLjOf7cNvhjRv1-zBfurbS8ApRzAPrNIgAERxQM8DaODWJM.G7j14qh7hWtY50XFvyYMZ6vdM44TK6QYZgNAu0gwd4g&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=cynthia+bourgeault&amp;qid=1772737245&amp;sprefix=Cynthia+Bourgeault%2Caps%2C181&amp;sr=8-2\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Cynthia Bourgeault, Episcopal Priest<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Sophia&#8221; is the Greek word for &#8220;wisdom.&#8221; &nbsp;This means that &#8220;Sophiological&#8221; is the study of wisdom, or words about wisdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cynthia is the first person to introduce me to the term &#8220;Sophiological Christianity.&#8221; \u00a0For the majority of my life, I understood Christianity through a &#8220;Soteriological&#8221; lens that focused on salvation or being saved. \u00a0However, complementing that understanding with a &#8220;Sophiological&#8221; one was incredibly helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In all honesty, it made whole books of the Bible make more sense. \u00a0<strong>When your only framework for <\/strong>r<strong>eading the Scriptures is figuring out how to be &#8220;saved,&#8221; you are left with an odd interpretive mode and must shoehorn every passage into being about salvation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, I now believe that a good amount of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Greek New Testament is full of &#8220;sophiological content\/wisdom.&#8221; &nbsp;And, one does not even have to believe in order to appreciate the wisdom of the Scriptures. &nbsp;In fact, in my work with college students, emphasizing the wisdom of the Scriptures catches almost all of their attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I think we are at a point in Christian history when it is time to reclaim Christianity through a Sophiological lens.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>3.<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cIf you do not learn to deny yourself, you can make no progress in perfection.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&#8211;&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_of_the_Cross\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>St. John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite Reformer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Impulse control is absolutely one of the first skill sets to develop if anyone wants to be a spiritually<\/strong> <strong>mature person, let alone a mature person at all.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is when we are utterly impulsive toward the vices that we dip into the lower\/earlier\/less mature versions of ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I think this is part of the sadness of addiction. \u00a0Those of us with addictive personalities are dominated by the tyranny of the impulse, and it takes careful diligence and concerted effort to stay sober and well.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>St. John of the Cross, without even realizing it, often did valuable psychological work in his writings!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>4.<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cWhere men live huddled together without true communication, there seems to be greater sharing, and a more genuine communion. But this is not communion, only immersion in the general meaninglessness of countless slogans and clich\u00e9s repeated over and over again so that in the end one listens without hearing and responds without thinking. The constant din of empty words and machine noises, the endless booming of loudspeakers end by making true communication and true communion almost impossible. Each individual in the mass is insulated by thick layers of insensibility. He doesn\u2019t care, he doesn\u2019t hear, he doesn\u2019t think. He does not act, he is pushed. He does not talk, he produces conventional sounds when stimulated by the appropriate noises. He does not think, he secretes clich\u00e9s.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&#8211;&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/New-Seeds-Contemplation-Thomas-Merton\/dp\/0811217248\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=33TM58YHGS2XO&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.feV1hY4MGehw9I5wId77rGC3YZ0hRgchuG2vHBMT6MQufypoTOqMvH-RsqqrNYjup1QxXgffDjOKGq3FO0pb8BmAIh8-GexPmdYSeI39Pgv9EaZoxzGG2zcDAOrYkgNSCYIvJzJCmVaMnNqWIClgN5R57lMoGCgnaHHXABq1DZ0vYNeSM60fs-fc-3AjkaVtHB_E-WZ9Dm8c5BNV-1nxa_Iom8YcoR-TbY-ZnobgF9g.5MFV__cECFBLVvDW45kFwugOhaTs_I9BEG7TCFSAx2o&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=new+seeds+of+contemplation+by+thomas+merton&amp;qid=1772737282&amp;sprefix=new+seeds%2Caps%2C173&amp;sr=8-1\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Thomas Merton in New Seeds of Contemplation<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, this is a long quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This past Tuesday was the monthly gathering of the Philly Chapter of the International Thomas Merton Society. &nbsp;We are few in number but mighty in conversation. &nbsp;(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.johnchaffee.com\/itms-philly\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">You can join for free here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are going through New Seeds of Contemplation just one chapter at a time, and this most recent chapter (ch. 8) hit rather hard on the topics of crowds, community, and Christ&#8217;s odd holiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The quote above, which is taking &#8220;crowds&#8221; to task, reminded me much of Soren Kierkegaard. &nbsp;Both figures seemed to have an entirely negative understanding of the crowd, of groupthink, of swaths of people in which no one is known personally, and no one is held personally accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I invite you to reread this quote slowly; it packs quite a punch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>5.<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201c<\/strong><strong>The day will come when, after harnessing the winds, the tides and graviation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. &nbsp;And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.<\/strong><strong>&#8220;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&#8211;&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French Jesuit Priest<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pierre sure was poetic, wasn&#8217;t he?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a theologian and a scientist, he believed Love is an actual force sustaining the cosmos. &nbsp;He believed that Love was as elemental a force as the winds, the tides, and gravity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An All-Embracing Love Friday, March 6, 2026 Love [people] even in [their] sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth. Love all God\u2019s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God\u2019s light. Love the animals, love the plants, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26629"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26629"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26632,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26629\/revisions\/26632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}