Talk less, love more.

      It is with almost certainty that when I hear the President of the United States accuse someone of something these days I believe it is more likely that he is truly speaking more about himself.  Whatever guilt or lie he embraces about others, it is more likely a projection of himself. Hard to believe I would ever type something like that but it is true. Sometimes I think our very own faults or shortcomings are precisely what we project onto others. Not very imaginative but quite often true.

       The chief Priests and Pharisees are quite adept at this too. In their own conniving and desire for power and control they can see how the followers of Jesus might try to manipulate the whole scenario of Jesus' death into one to their own advantage. The suggestion gives us a look into the mind of those religious leaders doesn't it?

      It is quite easy for us all to go off half cocked as it were, worrying about everyone else and giving little thought to the words and accusations we spew. What is always more difficult, more challenging for sure, is ( first ) keeping our mouths closed, and ( second ), giving some reflection to why we are thinking, projecting perhaps and saying the things we might otherwise do.  Some things we do not not know and it is far beyond our means to climb inside someone else's head to say why 'they' do what they do and say what they say.  The challenge is on us and it is at once more knowable and more appropriate. Why do I do what I do and say what I say?

       There goes that great option for us, introspection, self reflection and thought. In the play Hamilton, the advice is given to "talk less, smile more".  I am not so much for empty, hypocritical smiles but am sure a proponent of a 'talk less' movement.

      Talk less, love more is perhaps the best advice.

Matthew 27:55-66

 Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, “After three days I will rise again.” Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, “He has been raised from the dead”, and the last deception would be worse than the first.’ Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.’ So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.