Wisdom attend!
Second reading
1 John 3:18-24
My children,
our love is not to be just words or mere talk,
but something real and active;
only by this can we be certain
that we are children of the truth
and be able to quieten our conscience in his presence,
whatever accusations it may raise against us,
because God is greater than our conscience and he knows everything.
My dear people,
if we cannot be condemned by our own conscience,
we need not be afraid in God’s presence,
and whatever we ask him,
we shall receive,
because we keep his commandments
and live the kind of life that he wants.
His commandments are these:
that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ
and that we love one another
as he told us to.
Whoever keeps his commandments
lives in God and God lives in him.
We know that he lives in us
by the Spirit that he has given us.
(-- from Readings at Mass, 3May15
Violence doesn't work. It might effect harm. But it doesn't work. It punishes. But it doesn't work.
"God is greater than our conscience and he knows everything." God knows what we do not know. And what is that? God knows that we don't know, and yet, still, the ground of love is underfoot and spread wide around us.
So, "if we cannot be condemned by our own conscience, we need not be afraid in God’s presence" -- suggests non-dual absence of other. Our conscience clear, presence of God. Conscience not clear, we are not there where God is.
"We know that he lives in us." God the unknown is the knowing that unknowing is essential to life as knowing is useful to building and repairing the structures necessary to permit life to continue to express itself.
"We know that he lives in us
by the Spirit that he has given us."
Spirit sees.
And seeing, forgives what is allowed by humans in the world of knowing obduracy.
Du mußt dein Leben ändern! (Rilke)