A person to forgive
(revised and expanded after the tv documentary her mun watched last night)
I need to forgive the Romans. I've been able to move past most deeply engrained ethnic prejudices but have a -a- block on the subject of Romans. They pushed their way into every country, and made nothing the same ever again. The Romans turned us into a "race of conquered warriors" and let me tell you, I don't think we recovered until this previous century. They bullied, and took advantage, and always reminded us that we still existed only because they felt generous.
They used our own leaders, secular and religious, to oppress us. They gave favors to priests willing to fall in line. When we fought back in small groups, the Romans took the ringleaders and ritually executed them alongside their entire families. Then the rebels took over the city of Jerusalem and everyone was shut inside. Houses belonging to suspected collaborators were burned, rebels terrorized both Romans and Jews! I was not there, and I thank the lord for that but I understand it was like Hell.
30, 000 people died in a riot after a Roman soldier exposed himself in the Temple. I think it was then that the Romans realized how to break us. They forced their way into the Temple to dismantle and smash and burn. They drove thousands of us from our land, beginning the great Diaspora. Have you been to Masada? You should go. The men who hid there killed themselves and their own families to avoid being taken alive.
When you cannot choose whether to live or die, you can still choose how to die.
There were several attempts to fight back and all ultimately failed. The Romans would not give in, and the Jews would not give in. Hadrian tried to build a pagan temple on the site of our most holy place.
I wondered if it might get better when the Roman Emperor accepted the message of Christ. But Romans distorted everything they touch- see what they did to the Greek ways. Soon the Roman Christians were saying that the Jews had conspired as a nation to kill Yeshua out of hatred for his new ideas! They said Jews kidnapped Christian babies and ate them, Jews were in league with the Devil!
*Mary bites her lip and looks away as if trying to regain her composure*
Why couldn't they just leave us alone? Why was our little country such a threat to them? We never wanted to be bothered, we had no ambitions to conquer the world, we just wanted to live our lives!
And I woke up to find myself bound to the Romans forever as one of their saints, and one used to justify abusing women especially ( I vomited when I learned what the "Magdalene Sisters" were).
But without Rome, perhaps no one would have heard the message at all. The power of Rome is finally fading as I believe everything is turning back to the way it should be.
So it's time to learn to forgive.
I need to forgive the Romans. I've been able to move past most deeply engrained ethnic prejudices but have a -a- block on the subject of Romans. They pushed their way into every country, and made nothing the same ever again. The Romans turned us into a "race of conquered warriors" and let me tell you, I don't think we recovered until this previous century. They bullied, and took advantage, and always reminded us that we still existed only because they felt generous.
They used our own leaders, secular and religious, to oppress us. They gave favors to priests willing to fall in line. When we fought back in small groups, the Romans took the ringleaders and ritually executed them alongside their entire families. Then the rebels took over the city of Jerusalem and everyone was shut inside. Houses belonging to suspected collaborators were burned, rebels terrorized both Romans and Jews! I was not there, and I thank the lord for that but I understand it was like Hell.
30, 000 people died in a riot after a Roman soldier exposed himself in the Temple. I think it was then that the Romans realized how to break us. They forced their way into the Temple to dismantle and smash and burn. They drove thousands of us from our land, beginning the great Diaspora. Have you been to Masada? You should go. The men who hid there killed themselves and their own families to avoid being taken alive.
When you cannot choose whether to live or die, you can still choose how to die.
There were several attempts to fight back and all ultimately failed. The Romans would not give in, and the Jews would not give in. Hadrian tried to build a pagan temple on the site of our most holy place.
I wondered if it might get better when the Roman Emperor accepted the message of Christ. But Romans distorted everything they touch- see what they did to the Greek ways. Soon the Roman Christians were saying that the Jews had conspired as a nation to kill Yeshua out of hatred for his new ideas! They said Jews kidnapped Christian babies and ate them, Jews were in league with the Devil!
*Mary bites her lip and looks away as if trying to regain her composure*
Why couldn't they just leave us alone? Why was our little country such a threat to them? We never wanted to be bothered, we had no ambitions to conquer the world, we just wanted to live our lives!
And I woke up to find myself bound to the Romans forever as one of their saints, and one used to justify abusing women especially ( I vomited when I learned what the "Magdalene Sisters" were).
But without Rome, perhaps no one would have heard the message at all. The power of Rome is finally fading as I believe everything is turning back to the way it should be.
So it's time to learn to forgive.