Posted by Simcha Ben Yehuda (65.93.91.59) on August 12, 2002 at 07:24:37:
The Father of the Poor Said:
Should any come to blows with you,
Seek to be friends with him;
Should any stab you to the heart,
Be ye a healing salve unto his sores;
Should any taunt and mock at you,
Meet him with love.
Should any heap his blame upon you, praise ye him;
Should he offer you a deadly poison,
Give him the choicest honey in exchange;
And should he threaten your life,
Grant him a remedy that will heal him evermore.
Should he be pain itself, be ye his medicine;
Should he be thorns, be ye his roses and sweet herbs.
Perchance such ways and words from you
Will make this dark-some world turn bright at last;
Will make this dusty earth turn heavenly,
This devilish prison place become
A royal palace of the Lord .
_______________________________________________________
And a Student of the Father of the Poor said:
Father, I have studied thy words a thousand times
And I cannot reach toward them and find their truth and glory
Each day I break so many of thy moral ways
I am unworthy to join you with a pure heart.
Mine enemies are not only those who wouldst harm me;
They are the enemies of peace, who slaughter and kill the Innocent
Throughout the world - Verily, I canst not grasp the Love of God
In an empty hand, nor when mine eyes doth see the starving children,
The murdered women, the mutilated men and all else that
Is not Love but Hate, insults to Godâs commandments -
How, then, O, Father of the Poor, can Thee or Thy disciples
Or Thy Ministers of Grace or Thy Scholars, or
Thy Universal House of Justice
Send forth a messenger or a Godly message
That would help this poor servant
Understand Godâs love and mercy?
I live each day with a passion and thirst to believe in Him,
To accept His awesome Majesty,
His Compassion, His Love, His Forgiveness,
His Friendship, His Hope and all the flowers of his Greatness,
I wouldst give my life unto Him fully and forever;
In his Service would I think and act only with Kindness,
Love, Generosity, Forgiveness, Friendship, Charity
And all else that the Almighty hath ordained.
If thou or one of Thy servants can answer me thus:
Why the famines, why the murders, why the madness,
Why the genocide, why the hatred, why the perversion,
Why the slaughter of innocents,
Why the rape and murder of children,
Why do the greedy and the criminal gain so much riches,
Why is the World which mine eyes doth see
Be in no way an expression of what has been promised
By Thy God, I would shed tears of joy, nay,
Rivers of tears of joy, and be a blessing unto all
Whom I may touch in my short life on His blessed Earth.
Thy Humble Servant,
Simcha Ben Yehudah
August 12, 2002
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