“God is love and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” (I John 4;16)
How can we bother with love today when our pocketbook is empty, our health is questionable and our world seems determined to get more and more complicated and cold? Wouldn’t we look like fools to smile at strangers or hold a door open for people who would close it in our face without a moment’s hesitation, Why isn’t the proper response to ignorance more of the same?
It says in the same first letter of John, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (I John 1;8) We are all sinners and we never know what is going on with others. The grouchy waitress could very well have a sick husband at home or may have just found out she is losing her job. It isn’t a personal attack. It is an unconscious blunder. We don’t show kindness only to good people; we show it to all without exception. Jesus did not come for the righteous. He came for the sinner (you and me and the other guy). Let’s be an example of a charitable Catholic Christian and make our side of the world a little brighter.
We are called to practice the virtue of charity, even if the recipients are not receptive. In fact, we are called to be even more loving to those alienated from righteousness. We are told not to love the world or the things of the world. Yet, we are asked to love all of God’s children. Also in I John (2;9), it says “Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in darkness.”
Jesus didn’t determine the worthy. He healed the outcasts. A good practice for us today might be to give God the gift of loving Him by being charitable to others. Then perhaps another bit of wisdom might show itself in our life. “And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.
May God be with you!
The Happy Catholic
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