Practice random acts of kindness and see the face of God
Practice random acts of kindness and see the face of God
God does not value our guilt as he compares himself with others; God is not a college professor who ranks "on the curve".
In recent years, I have been very critical of some members of the Church hierarchy. To be sure, some prelates have practiced terrible cruelty to the innocent, accompanied by an inhuman lack of compassion and readiness to cover up anything that could accuse them or embarrass the Church. The monstrous crimes of these men have made Catholic evangelization almost impossible.
Their sins caused another largely unaddressed problem, which is that - in comparison - our minor sins against others seem bizarre and extravagant. We might justify our actions by thinking, “What if I said something inexpressible to a family member or deceived a stranger? Big deal! Look what that bishop did! “It is easy to see how that mental process can take place; after all, we live in a society that encourages us to compare ourselves with others. But God does not evaluate our guilt insofar as he compares himself with others; God is not a college professor who ranks "on the curve".
Our failures to love others - our random acts of malice - can have a lasting negative effect on others. If we refuse to practice empathy, compassion, understanding and kindness towards those around us, can we honestly call ourselves Christians in any meaningful sense? Are we evangelizing or are we pushing people out of the Church instead? We could congratulate ourselves on our knowledge of the faith and dogma, but we should consider the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians:
If I speak in the languages of men and angels, but I have no love, I am a noisy gong or a noisy dish. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all the mysteries and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove the mountains, but I have no love, I am nothing.
We have it on the authority of Scripture: faith without love is nothing but an empty cacophony of sadness. It looks very similar to our world today.
Almost every nation on earth is besieged by problems and various forms of unrest that seem to get worse every day, but they all seem to originate from a common cause: we have failed to love. We did not love God; therefore, we were rude to the neighbor. Perhaps we have forgotten that love of neighbor - and love of oneself, for that matter - extends from the love of God. But the inevitable truth is that love of God and love of neighbor are forever connected.
Since it is easy to lose sight of this fact, we must restore our vision of who our neighbor is.
We have a choice. We can see others as existing only for our pleasure and utility, which is the basis of the question: what can it do for me? In our current pornographic culture, there is no doubt that we are invaded by this utilitarian vision. This view is the launching pad for random malice.
But, true to the message of Romans 12:21, we can overcome wickedness with kindness. We must choose to see each person as God's unique and wonderful work that he is. We Christians are called to look at others, in the words of Frank Sheed, "not for what we can get out of, but for what God has put in them, not for what they can do for us, but for what is real in them. ". Sheed explains that loving others "is rooted in loving God for who he is."
Accompanied by grace, this is the recipe for restoring charity and kindness - seeing each person as God's unique creation. Each person around us is a being of inestimable value that God has loved from all eternity. As Saint Alphonsus Liguori reminds us, “Children of men, says the Lord, remember that first of all I loved you. You weren't born yet, the world itself didn't exist and even then I loved you. "
Regardless of every mistake you have ever made in your life, God has loved you from all eternity. In a world suffering from terrible wickedness, this is the encouraging message we must pass on - to friends, family, strangers. And who knows? In twenty years, maybe someone will come to you and let you know what kind of powerful impact you have had on their life.
Paolo Tessione