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What is "Christian Spirit"?
Where to look to "see God Everywhere"?
Interview with Frithjof Schuon - on Spirituality
What is Sacred Art?
What are the "Foundations of Christian Art?"
Paul Goble's World: Native Americans' relationship to all created beings
Books about Buddhism
Every Branch In Me: Who are we as "human" beings?
Books on Hinduism
The Sermon of All Creation: Christians on Nature
Slideshows
  The Fullness of God: Frithjof Schuon on Christianity Back to the List of Slideshows
    
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If Salvation is accomplished by the Incarnation of Christ, the impetus for the Incarnation is Divine Mercy, which is manifested as Love: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son…” (John 3:16). Reciprocally, what God asks of us is Love—hence the Great Commandment—rather than obedience, although Love is necessarily manifested in obedience: “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16).
…Christianity is a “way of Grace” or “a way of Love” (the bhakti-mârga of the Hindus)…The most pronounced difference between the New Covenant and the Old is that in the latter the divine aspect of Rigor predominated, whereas in the former it is on the contrary the aspect of Mercy which prevails. Now the way of Mercy is in a certain sense easier than the way of Rigor because, while corresponding to a more profound reality, it also benefits from a special Grace: this is the “justification by Faith”, whose “yoke is easy and burden light”.… (from “The Particular Nature and Universality of the Christian Tradition”, pp. 18-20)
If God demands our Love it is for our sake not His: while we are utterly dependent upon Him, He is in no way contingent upon us. God’s Love, or Mercy, outweighs the demands of Rigour (the principle of Justice) and overcomes human disobedience—as is demonstrated by the conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus. This must be the case, for human beings by their fallen and contingent nature cannot but betray God; thus Peter, who denied Christ, is the foundation of the Church.
In methods like these…the distinction between an outer and an inner aspect is attenuated and sometimes even ignored, in the sense that ‘Grace’, which is initiatic in its kernel or essence, tends to bestow itself in the largest measure possible.… (from “The Particular Nature and Universality of the Christian Tradition”, p. 15)
Mercy and Rigour, Love and Justice are inseparable. Mercy without Rigour is not Mercy and Justice is not Justice without Love.
Christ the Good Shepherd,
mosaic in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia,
Ravenna, 5th c. (C.E.)

"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing." (Luke, 15:3-5)
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