“But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind)
which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence, which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament
itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.” ~ The Weight of Glory
This quote, I feel, captures the ultimate test of our faith as Christians. Our ultimate calling. To accept one another for the God created creatures we are. It is so easy with the differences that divide us, different languages, denominations, countries, to forget that we are all striving for the same goal; salvation through Christ. While these differences cannot be ignored, as each difference is a beautiful facet of God’s world, they should not be used to reduce that person’s right to be saved.
Being a good neighbor is even more difficult a battle than the skirmishes being fought around our world today. I feel that the on-going battle with our own human selfishness and need for individual vindication. We cannot banish selfishness from our make up as a fallen people, but we can, by humbly baring our back to our neighbors in and not in Chirst, show that we are capable of more than our own selfishness existence, and seek the light that God gifts us with should we choose Him
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I agree that we can not banish selfishness completely- we live in a fallen world. However, changing the world starts with one's own self; we can ask Christ for help with our self-centered natures. And we know that whatever we ask in the Father's name, He will do it (Matthew 7:8).
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I like the title of this reflection. Other than that I love what you said in your middle paragraph. I too think it is of the utmost importance to recognize that "we're all in this together," (as high school musical says (note to reader: I am not a HSM fan)) and nobody gets to the father except through Christ. That proves that we cannot do it on our own.
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