Monday, June 18, 2012

Musings from Socrates in the City

"it is astonishing how almost every culture has some myth of paradise lost. Now, that doesn't mean it's true, but it does mean that it's in the collective unconscious, and to say that there's no truth in it at all is to be a snob. This is my fundamental argument against atheism, by the way.  If atheism is true, then the incredibly small minority of human beings - most of which are concentrated in our uprooted society - are the only ones who are wise, and everyone else is living their lives with a fundamental illusion at the center...  It doesn't prove anything, but at least it ought to give you a bit of pause."

- Dr. Peter Kreeft, Making Sense out of Suffering, Socrates in the City

Friday, June 1, 2012

FIRST: DO NO HARM

I remember seeing an edited version of the Hippocratic Oath on a sign posted at my family physician's office.  I was struck by the phrase, "First do no harm."  That phrase has become imbedded in my mind ever since I first read it in the doctor's office as a teenager.  I still remember where the sign was placed on the wall near the check out desk. While thinking about this phrase recently I was reminded of how closely it fits with many of Jesus' words:

"Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." 
- Matthew 10:16


"Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you."
- Matthew 7:1-2

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another."
- John 13:34

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
- John 15:12

May it be that we, who bear the name of the greatest healer, would take to heart what he said, how he loved, and how he first did no harm.