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Friday, September 23, 2011

He Who Lives by the Sword

Christ tells us what happens to those who live by the sword.   

I don't think Christ meant this figuratively, or in some probabilistic sense.  He's not saying, "odds are, you'll get it one day..."  As far as I can recall, Christ never tells us what might be.  He always tells us what is or what will be.

To live by the sword is to have an interior disposition of soul that is belligerent and possibly malevolent.  It is an exterior manifestation of the interior reality of a soul that is already dead or dying.

It is not simply bodily death Christ speaks of here.  It is the whole person, and the death of divine life in the soul. 

He who lives by the sword dies, not because of the sword itself -- let alone that of anyone else -- but because of the spiritual rot which is at the root of that way of life.

This is why St. Paul tells us to put away our pugilistic attitude.  It leads to death, whether we brandish a physical weapon or not.


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