WE are supposed to love everyone.
We are supposed to have
a universal heart, meant to be concerned
for all people, irrespective
of how they are in themselves and how
they are toward us. Yes, we have
to love everyone, in spite of our
unavoidable differences and
conflicts.
concerned only for ourselves and for our
own kind. While it’s true and
commonsensical that we should take care
of ourselves, those close to
us and those who are like us, we should
also see to it that we are not
trapped in that world alone. We have to
find a way of how we can at
least be thoughtful of everybody else.
We obviously have our own
respective niches in the world,
our own specialization, our own focus,
but we should never forget that
we are not meant to be detached from
everybody else. Our
individuality, our uniqueness should not
be an obstacle to the
communion with everybody else that is
meant for us.
Given our human condition that has
certain limitations, we
no doubt have to establish a certain
order of priorities. But we
should see to it that this sense of
priorities does not tie us down
and get us too attached to any level of
collective life, starting with
the family, but rather should facilitate
our having a universal
concern for everyone.
Our individuality and uniqueness
should play a subsidiary
role to the sense of solidarity that we
all should have in pursuit of
the common goal. These are the basic
social principles that we all
should live as best that we can.
Otherwise, we would fall into the
disorders of
individualism, elitism, tribalism,
parochialism, sectarianism,
political partisanship, familiosis and
the other forms of
exclusivistic particularism. We have to
remember that we have a strong
tendency to fall into these anomalies
since they can be
self-reinforcing.
If we believe that we are patterned
after God who wants us
to be his image and likeness, then we
cannot fail to realize that we
are meant to be with everybody else. The
intimate Trinitarian life of
God should somehow be reflected in the
lives of all of us. We are
meant to enter into a relation of
knowing and loving among ourselves.
This, of course, will require some
training, since we need
to develop the proper attitudes, skills,
practices, habits and virtues
to attain this ideal of living in
communion with God and with
everybody else.
We have to examine ourselves,
especially our thoughts and
attitudes, to see if our affiliation to
any grouping, starting with
the family, hinders or fosters the
universal outlook that we should
have.
We cannot deny that there are many
problems, issues and
difficulties that can stand in the way
of our having a universal
outlook. We have our personal
preferences and pet peeves, our
different and even conflicting views and
opinions, etc. Do we know how
to handle these situations with the view
of avoiding the danger of
elitism, tribalism, etc.?
We certainly have to make the
effort to develop the
attitude of actively reaching out to
others especially if they are
different from us or if they have
positions in conflict with ours. We
need to be understanding, compassionate,
friendly with everyone,
always avoiding rash judgments, the bad
habit of finding fault in
others, comparing ourselves with them,
etc.
In fact, St. Paul recommended that
we regard others better
than ourselves. “Do nothing out of
selfish ambition or empty pride,”
he said. “But in humility consider
others more important than
yourselves. Each of you should look not
only to your own interests,
but also to the interests of others.”
(Phil 2,3-4)
This will definitely require a lot
of effort and nothing
less than the grace of God. Are we
trying to meet these requirements?
Broderick Pabillo
January 16, 2020
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