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 E
CATHOLICS ARE OFTEN CONFUSED about what it is we are
supposed to do. We participate in the Eucharist, in parish
and family life, and work hard in our daily lives. Then
what? There are a variety of lay organizations that we can
belong to but, worthy as these groups are, we might still
have the nagging sense that all is not as it should be. How
do we address the problem of living as Christians in the
modern world? How do we translate the teachings of our faith
into our everyday lives?
 Jesus
provides a very simple answer. We are to love one another as
he loves us. Jesus is very aware of our sinfulness, more
than we are. He sees its deliberate and wilful nature. Yet
he looks beyond the sin to the creature the Father has
created. Several years ago I attended Charlie Osborne's
School of Evangelization in Pensacola, Florida. One of the
primary focuses of the week was our identity, who and what
we are. We were taught a saying:
"You
are a special, unique, one-of-kind masterpiece; a
manifestation of the most high God created in his own
image."
Although
we often fail and are prone to error, we are also the
crowning act of creation, made in the very image of God
himself, brought into being by a spark of his own life. And
Jesus loves us. By his death on the cross he has gained for
us the free and unearned gift of salvation, of eternity with
him. We can be certain of this.
This
certainty is a place of great security for us. It completely
changes how we look at the world around us. We are all
created in the image of God. If we find difficulty loving
another person, we can be confident that we have identified
sin in our own life, and repentance is called for. We can
relax in the certainty that God gives us the grace to be
pleasing to him. Christian growth comes with our eager
desire to get closer to God. It is entering into the heart
of true freedom.
Jesus
wants us to experience this freedom. If we are not living in
freedom yet, we can be confident that Jesus will create it
in our lives, as we seek him with all our hearts.
When
I carry within myself the knowledge that I am a masterpiece
of God, much of the pressures and opinions of the world
diminish in their ability to affect me. They still exist,
but my attitude to them has changed. Take for example our
entertainment media, particularly television. While I can
recognize my almost perverse attraction to being passively
entertained, I usually find T.V. boring. Over time it has
become unimportant, because I have found something much
better. This is despite the fact that some programming, such
as the specialty channels, has greatly improved over the
years. (Some, of course, has gotten much worse.) However,
because I almost never watch it, television has little
opportunity to shape my attitudes towards life.
Similarly,
when I believe that everyone I meet is a masterpiece of God,
my attitudes towards them change. Sin in their lives becomes
an opportunity for love in my own. Let me give an example
from my own life. I am presently working in the field of
sales, which I really enjoy. I recognize, however, that the
pressures of selling can tempt sales reps to manipulate
their customers, which I find unacceptable. I can face the
same temptation, particularly when things are not going
well! It would be very easy to give in, 'just this once'.
Soon though, manipulation becomes a normal sales technique.
Such a situation now exists with one of my co-workers. How
do I deal with it? Well, this individual and I have had some
conversations that a diplomat would call 'frank'. We do
things differently and we both know it. We both know there
are certain things that I will not do, or accept having
done, to my customers. To his credit, this individual has
generally respected my wishes. At first my temptation was to
treat him with anger and resentment. But he is a masterpiece
that God created; he just does not know it. Reacting to the
situation with sin cannot help, it will only make matters
worse. So I do not. What I have found is that over time I
have seen that he has many good qualities to go with those I
disagree with. I am able to relax and love him. Will he
change? I do not know. I do know God loves him just as much
as he loves me, and is calling him to himself, as he is
calling me. That is all I need to know.
There
is no rule of behaviour that governs all situations. Each
situation in our daily lives demands its own answers. Love
provides its own answer. The freedom of Christ is a
wonderful thing.
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