Saturday, December 25, 2010

The Prince of Peace in Baghdad

New York Times
QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"Be careful not to hate the ones killing us because they know not what they are doing. God forgive them."
THE REV. MEYASSR AL-QASPOTROS, at a Chaldean Catholic church in Baghdad

NYTimes.com

2 comments:

iknowhim said...

Great Words with Not so great actions

I am Iraqi and I personally know this priest. He is not as loving as what his words are. His quotes, publised by his Baghdad-based NY Times journalist friend, are so wonderful that I agree we should follow, but not to follow him as a person and definitely not to call him a prince of peace.

Jim Hancock said...

Thank you for the notes. iknowhim, I appreciate that you don't discount the message because you distrust the messenger. To be clear, I was not referring to the priest as the Prince of Peace, The date of the story being Christmas on my spiritual calendar, I was recalling the prophet Isaiah (chapter 9, verse 6 in the TNIV Bible):

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Many in my tribe embrace a 'Newspeak' vision of what that means for humankind in general and each of us in particular; I do not. I join Jesus in praying, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."