Perfect Love – Principles Day 7

Unclean! The angry cry rings down the years

wrenched from some primal instinct of disgust. 

Our bodies need to learn which foods to trust

and which to shun, but somehow healthy fears

of germs and toxins warp to hateful sneers

against outsiders, and we deem it just

to spurn the unclean other; feel we must

stay safe and pure, protect the Church frontiers. 

When Francis felt his gorge rise at the sight

of lepers begging, what he learned was this:

no child of God’s unclean. And with a kiss

what once was bitter turned to sweet delight. 

The Gospel message that we need to hear

with him is: Perfect love casts out all fear. 

I would like to acknowledge that I got the idea of the disgust instinct leading to an irrational fear of outsiders from Richard Beck’s book, ‘Unclean: meditations on purity, hospitality and morality’ (Cascade Books 2011) which I heartily recommend. 

Day Seven — The Second Aim
: To spread the spirit of love and harmony. 

The Order sets out, in the name of Christ, to break down barriers between people and to seek equality for all. We accept as our second aim the spreading of a spirit of love and harmony among all people. We are pledged to fight against the ignorance, pride, and prejudice that breed injustice or partiality of any kind.