Compassion's Freedom

Under Pharaoh's oppression
The Holy One, the Almighty, the Wholly Compassionate
Saw Israel's suffering.
He sent Moses to lead them to freedom
And rejoiced to give them His law of compassion,
But they turned from it and chose an oppression of their own making.
Enslaving themselves to their law, attempting to control the Holy One
And confine His power and compassion to them alone.
*
Under Roman oppression
A child was born, full of the Holy One's compassion.
As a man, he refused to accept
The human boundaries assigned to the Holy One,
That His compassion is only for those who follow human laws
Instead of for those who suffer -
The maimed and homeless, outcasts,
Those with ragged clothes, who smell bad and are hungry,
The diseased and sexually different,
One who don't think or feel or believe what the rulemakers said
That the Holy One demanded they think or feel or believe.
*
So, under the law's oppression
They executed him, afraid of His message
Of the Holy One's all-inclusive compassion.
It threatened the rulemakers' power over the suffering,
But their power was nothing. They could kill his body
But not the Holy One's compassionate Spirit within him.
They could not oppress the Holy One.
They could not submit the Almighty to their laws.
They could not restrain His compassion, but they kept trying,
First by oppressing those who believed in His limitless compassion,
Then by convincing the believing that they needed their laws.
So, once more they enslaved themselves to a law of their own making
Instead of to the Holy One.
*
Under tribal oppression
An illiterate merchant understood what Israel and Christians had forgotten,
That the Holy One's compassion is all, is for all, is Him.
That there is no life, no freedom, except in the Holy One's compassion.
Revenge and hate, laws without compassion, only destroy and enslave.
Only the Holy One can judge and He judges with His compassion.
There is no way to live but to surrender to the Holy One and His compassion.
But the merchant's followers soon forgot, too,
And set out to oppress the world by the sword.
*
Under human oppression
We forget still and think ourselves powerful, we think hate powerful,
But it is nothing. We are nothing.
We can only destroy life, enslave life, create suffering
For ourselves and others.
We cannot control the Holy One
And He alone can create life and give freedom -
In His compassion, through His compassion, with His compassion.
*
So, under the Holy One's oppression -
His boundless, all-encompassing, utterly enveloping compassion -
Only there is freedom.
Only there suffering is not.
Only there is life.
Only there are we all embraced and comforted
And there is no fear, no hate, no shame.
So, remember - remember - and surrender.
Live out the Holy One's compassion, empowered by Him,
And be free.
*
9/14-11/9/2001
Reflections on World Trade Center/Pentagon attacks of September 11, 2001
Subsequent war in Afghanistan/violence between Israelis and Palestinians