Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)
Christ Has No Body
Christ has no body but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks Compassion on this world, Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good, Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
A Poster He Or I wrote, similarly :
the closing sentence of U.S. President John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address: "With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."
I have
not nearly finished reading the Silmarillion. I note what Poster says about the Valars' providential help. I wonder if this is another, perhaps RC, idea, which perhaps is that natural forces are always good because they are God's creation as are humans before they become prey to Melkor.But I argue against this because I like to think of Eru/Illuvatar and its Valar as neither good nor bad, but necessary as the facts of natura naturans are necessary.
-- Updated Fri Jun 22, 2012 5:14 am to add the following --
In Chapter 8 of The Silmarillion Tolkien wrote:
So the great darkness fell upon Valinor.---------------------------------------------The Light failed: but the Darkness that followed was more than loss of light, In that hour was made a Darkness that seemed not a lack but a thing with being ofts own : for it was indeed made by malice out of Light-------
Tolkien is saying that evil is not a necessary part of creation but is a substance separate from creation. Although this point of view may inspire and encourage us to fight evil, it cannot be the case because evil is what is against life. Death is an evil, destructive natural events are evils. An evil man is evil because antisocial, he fails to harmonise with life which, practically speaking,involves man in societies.
Tolkien's use of 'malice' is interesting because it implies that Tolkien views malice as able to exist without an object of malice; except insofar as malice sets itself against the Light, i.e. the creation. Since the Valar and the rest of Eru's creation are good apart from Melkor the evil one, Melkor is against the creation and , to allow a point, the Creator . This scenario cannot come about without some narrative such as Genesis or The Silmarillion to explain it. But Genesis and The Silmarillion are fictions which explain the birth of evil. So Tolkien has made a circular argument for the independent existence of evil.