LET’S always
remember that even in our best intentions and
efforts, we can still be and do wrong. This can be
illustrated in that
gospel episode where an apostle told Christ that they
forbade someone
who was driving out demons in Christ’s name because that
someone did
not follow them, the apostles. (cfr Mk 9,38)
Christ
immediately corrected him. “Do not prevent him,” he
said. “There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my
name who can
at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not
against us is for
us.” (Mk 9,39-40)
of our wounded human condition. We tend to judge things
using merely
human or worldly standards. Our idea of unity and
perfection often
does not coincide with what God has meant for these
ideals. We often
mistake uniformity with unity and perfectionism with the
perfection
that comes from God and that is proper to us.
Besides, we
also tend to stereotype people, to box them
in, practically straitjacketing him as if that person
cannot change
for the better. We seldom give others second chances. We
end up being
stricter than God who always blends his strictness with
mercy.
And again, we
also tend to dogmatize what simply are
matters of opinion and personal and class preferences.
And so we end
up being unnecessarily divisive among ourselves. This is
not to
mention that we often compare ourselves with others, and
end up
falling into petty envies, etc.
We need to
broaden our mind and perspective, and to be
generous, magnanimous and accommodating in our ways.
There are things
that we just have to look past, without getting entangled
with them.
Christ himself wants us to love our enemies to the extent
that we
offer the other cheek once we get slapped in one cheek.
We should
remember that we all belong to the one family of
God, the one people of God. We are all brothers and
sisters. We are
obliged to love one another, and we should do it freely,
without
feeling forced.
We may have
different roles to play, occupy different
positions in society and have different conditions in
life, but we all
belong to the one family of God. We ought to do what our
circumstances
in life would dictate us, but that should not prevent us
from
respecting the others who may be different from us.
In fact, when
we are faced with the unavoidable
differences and apparent conflicts among ourselves, we
should
immediately try to find ways of how we can relate to the
others. Our
immediate thought and reaction should be that these
differences are
meant to enrich our life, to broaden our world and to
bring us to the
dynamic of complementation and supplementation among
ourselves.
affair. This does not mean that there will be neither
difficulties nor
errors that can be committed. That would be naïve to
think that way.
We just have to be discerning and consider things again
in the
presence of God who is the ultimate arbiter of what right
and wrong,
fair and unfair in our concerns.
But whatever it
is, we should fight any trace of being
exclusivistic. This is especially relevant to those who
are privileged
to have special vocations, charisms and spiritualities in
life. Let’s
remember that these privileges are meant for the
edification of the
whole Church. They are for the good of all, even if they
engage in
some specializations.
These specializations,
which should be respected and
promoted, should not blind us from our duty to know how
the others are
so that we would know how to work always in tandem with
them. Every
trace of exclusivity, no matter how slight, should be
removed from our
system.
No comments:
Post a Comment