Hello my friends. A Happy and Blessed Easter to you. At mass we heard how Jesus proclaimed liberty to captives and set them free from the bonds of sin. This is very good news indeed for those of us who lived under the thumbs of dark tetrad dictators. We're free! I've also come to understand that the bondage to sin might not be what I've always thought it was. And this is going to raise a few eyebrows for sure. Well, most of what I've been blogging about lately has flown in the face of traditional thinking so why stop now when I'm on a roll?
We have always read slavery to sin to mean our own. Or those of us with a conscience have, that is. And that is certainly what those who ignore theirs would like us to believe. Those who have enslaved us to their self-serving, exploitative, hurtful, remorseless demands would love nothing more than for us to believe their abuse is our fault. But now I think that what God has freed us, the enslaved from, are the sins of our oppressors, as much or more even than our own.
Dark tetrad (narcissistic, selfish, arrogant, manipulative, sadistic) people do not serve, they expect to be served. And we who are their children, spouses or even parents, are at their mercy. Especially we the children. We don't grow up, we grow in, to them. They enmesh with us and steal our personhood and subjugate us. They shame us into prostrating ourselves before them, serving and caring for them, pandering to their egos, making effigies to their glory, surrendering our needs, wants, aspirations to them.
They make themselves our God. We are required to break the commandment and have other gods before the God. They make us place them above God. And they are more demanding than He ever was. They scapegoat us into taking on their sins. They humiliate, mock and scorn us. They self-righteously tell us how to live our lives and enumerate all the ways we've supposedly failed God. They exult in our failure because they believe it makes them look holy by contrast.
In their unbridled greed and pride they cause us to worship them and punish us if we don't. So we break that commandment too. They burden us with their sins and shame us into thinking they are ours. They lay rules on us that they do not follow and then lie and tell us these are God's law. They tie sacks of rocks to our backs that they don't help carry. They just add more rocks.
They scourge us with their vain, haughty, disdain. They terrorize us with malicious, vicious, slanderous lies. The whip us with cruel, wicked, spiteful deeds. They dictate how we are to act when they hurt us. They allow us no recourse. We must bear it all in perfect submission. They must never be questioned, let alone confronted. They must be obeyed. They must never feel ashamed even when it is the logical consequences of their own behavior. We must take even that on ourselves as the whipped but also the whipping post.
They must always be justified. They are blameless, above reproach. It's always our fault. We sin by taking on their sins. Only God can do that. We sin by turning a blind eye to, excusing, exonerating, expunging their unrepented sins. Because they must never be called to repentance. That is their prerogative. They are the stone-throwers. They don't show mercy, but mercy must always be shown to them. Even when they are not sorry.
They hold back the floodgates of righteousness, and yet demand that it pour forth from us like an everlasting flood. They go out of their way to avoid doing good. They withhold loving kindness when it would easier to show it. They complicate the simple truths of Jesus. They twist his words to their own ends.
They make themselves stumbling blocks for others. They ensnare their victims and pressgang them into serving their own selfishness. They bunch of the rug so she falls over it. And then laugh when she gets hurt. And punish her for crying. And attack her for stepping over their trap. They ambush and attack her for NOT falling prey to them. For daring to follow God, heed his words and obey His commands.
Like shyster lawyers, they lay traps for us. They pervert the course of justice. They distort facts and bend truth to their will. They bear false witness against us. They lie and say we did the crimes they actually committed. They pass unfair judgement on us and harshly condemn us. They set us up to fail and then get mad and attack us if we don't.
Yet if they are ever accused, they claim all sorts of special dispensation. They weren't interrupting, they just thought she was done when she was still saying a word. It was a mistake, they say. Everyone makes them. They didn't mean to. It was taken the wrong way. They were misunderstood. It was just a joke, not hurtful comments. They were just lightening the mood, not dismissing someone. They were just looking at their phone not ignoring someone, making her feel invalidated. They make endless excuses for themselves because they are proud and not repentant. They do not humble themselves because they feel owed but never owing.
And yet, none of these special exemptions they claim, do they once offer when it's them on the bench. The same mercy they cry of the court they refuse to others. They pass strict sentence on the very sins they routinely commit. They expect and are granted forgiveness for mountains of debt and demand payment in full with interest of tiny or nonexistent debts they feel are owed them. They micromanage others specks and are blind to their own boards. They swallow the camel of their own transgressions and choke on the gnats of others' mistakes. They are unequally yoked with believers who are pulling towards God while the dark tetrad pulls away.
When you do something healthy, for yourself, they get angry. When you keep calm and quiet in the face of harassment, they blame you for "holding grudges." When you walk away from their unpleasantness, they accuse you of taking revenge. When you refuse to engage or allow yourself to be harmed by their toxic behavior, they pout, rage, give you the silent treatment, withhold affection and generally punish you. They do not have your best interests at heart, they just want things easy and comfortable for themselves so they don't have to change or improve.
But freedom from this captivity has been declared and it can never be taken back.
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