{"id":3005,"date":"2023-09-21T07:25:49","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T11:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3005"},"modified":"2023-09-21T07:26:33","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T11:26:33","slug":"two-cups-of-coffee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/21\/two-cups-of-coffee\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Cups of Coffee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,<\/em> click here<\/a>
 
\u201cAn eye for and eye, and a tooth for a tooth.\u201d
 
Gandhi famously said that if we take that Old Testament dictum to its logical conclusion, the whole world will end up blind and toothless.
 
The only hope for healing in our broken world is if two wounded parties decide not to hate each other.
 
Yugoslavia dissolved in the wake of the Soviet Union\u2019s demise in the early 1990s.  The \u201ccountry\u201d itself was less than 75 years old.  From the start, it had been an artificial conglomeration of various ethnic entities \u2013 groups that cherished ancient hatreds.  The victors of World War I had drawn lines on a map that brought them all together.  Perhaps proximity would help foster trust.  It didn\u2019t. 
 
The beautiful city of Sarajevo, once a thriving blend of faiths and ethnicities, became a nightmarish killing zone.
 
Bosnian Muslims, retaliating for the massacres of their families, murdered the loved ones of their Catholic and Orthodox neighbors.  
 
That included nine members of the family of a gentle Franciscan monk named Ivo Markovic.  All were senior citizens.  Markovic\u2019s 71-year-old father was the youngest of the group.  In his book Free of Charge, <\/em>Miroslav Volf describes what happened when Father Markovic returned to his home village.
 
The house in which his brother used to live was now occupied by a fierce Muslim woman. 
 
Markovic was warned that he ought to keep his distance.  The woman owned a rifle and she was more than willing to use it.
 
Volf writes, \u201c<\/em>He went anyway.  As he approached the house, she was waiting for him, a cigarette in her mouth and her rifle cocked.  She barked: \u2018Go away or I\u2019ll shoot you.\u2019
 
\u201c\u2019No, you won\u2019t shoot me,\u2019 said Father Markovic in a gentle but firm voice, \u2018you\u2019ll make a cup of coffee for me.\u2019\u201d
 
For a few moments, she just stared at him.  Then she slowly lowered her rifle and padded into the kitchen.  She took the last bit of coffee she had, mixed in some already used grounds, and made enough coffee to fill two cups.<\/em>
 
\u201cAnd they, deadly enemies, began to talk as they partook in the ancient ritual of hospitality: drinking coffee together.\u201d
 
During the conversation that followed, she spoke to him of her loneliness.  She talked about the house she had lost.  She mourned for her son who had never returned from the battlefield.
 
Father Markovic returned a month later.  This time her greeting was different: \u201cI rejoice at seeing you as much as if my son had returned home.\u201d
 
Volf continues, \u201cDid they talk about forgiveness?  I don\u2019t know.  And in a sense, it doesn\u2019t matter.
 
\u201cHe, the victim, came to her asking for hospitality in his brother\u2019s home, which she unrightfully possessed.  And she responded.  Though she greeted him with a rifle, she gave him a gift and came to rejoice at his presence.  The humble, tenuous beginnings of a journey toward embrace were enacted through a ritual of coffee drinking.\u201d
 
He concludes, \u201cIf the journey continues, it will lead through the difficult terrain of forgiveness.\u201d
 
It\u2019s so easy to choose to hate. 
 
After all, they deserve whatever pain comes to them \u2013 whoever \u201cthey\u201d happens to be for you. 
 
Likewise, it\u2019s so hard to choose to heal. 
 
Perhaps you can hardly imagine offering the gift of hospitality if \u201cthey\u201d somehow cross your path or wind up at your front door. 
 
But against all odds, choosing the path of healing really does help heal the one who is courageous enough to offer it, as well as the one who is courageous enough to receive it.
 
It might even begin with two cups of coffee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here \u201cAn eye for and eye, and a tooth for a tooth.\u201d Gandhi famously said that if we take that Old Testament dictum to its logical conclusion, the whole world will end up blind and toothless. The only hope for healing in our broken world is if two wounded parties decide not to hate each… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[76,192],"class_list":["post-3005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-forgiveness","tag-reconciliation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3005"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3008,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3005\/revisions\/3008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}