One of the great
lessons of early Friends, too often neglected, was that as well as
that light we often speak of, we also all have impulses and
tendencies that we should not follow. That we all have the capacity
to commit horrible deeds, and to attempt to justify them to
ourselves.
Now is perhaps the
time to return to this lesson. As Fox found “that it was needful I
should have a sense of all conditions, how else should I speak to all
conditions”, so we may find that it is needful that we understand
the drives and motivations of those who commit acts that we would
condemn, that we may speak to their conditions and know at least how
they might react to anything we might do to address their
depredations, and at best how we might teach them to love the light,
even if they may not see it as we do.
The lesson goes
beyond that, however, and this time of difficulty also provides us a
great opportunity for our own spiritual development. For how should
we defeat our darker impulses only by ignoring and denying them? We
cannot. It is only by acknowledging them we may overcome them,
accepting them as part of ourselves, and as much as any other part of
ourselves deserving of love – but not of indulgence. For if only
light can drive out darkness, certainly wilful ignorance cannot.
Written January 2017
