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St. Mary Roman Catholic Church
New Britain, Connecticut |
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My first comment was – “It’s good you feel angry. What happened was wrong and evil – If it did not make you mad, there would be something wrong with you. You anger should give you energy to do something positive. Just to take out your anger on some Arab Americans or Middle Eastern people you don’t even know, will only make things worse. You need to ask," What can I do to make things better?” Then we talked about people who don’t care, or the issue of indifference, which is a big problem today. The Gospel about the rich man and Lazarus, a poor beggar, helps us see what a serious problem it is.
Does the rich man love Lazarus? No. He doesn’t even give him the crumbs that fall from his table. Scraps that he would never miss. Does he hate Lazarus? No. The Gospel does not tell us that he cursed Lazarus or kicked him or otherwise mistreated him. The rich man’s sin is his indifference. He ignores Lazarus, he steps right around the ragged figure laying at his doorstep and continues on his way. As far as he’s concerned, it is as if Lazarus were not even there. It’s because of his indifference to Lazarus that the rich man is later condemned to a place of torment from which there is no escape. Indifference is dangerous because it does not look bad to us, but it actually is very close to hatred. Hatred says “I can’t stand you. I detest you. I wish I could smash you and wipe you out.” Indifference is hatred without the energy. Indifference says “As far as I am concerned, you are already dead. For me, it is as if you did not exist. I don’t care about you one way or the other. It is as if you were not there.” Indifference can be a polite, civilized way of hating. It’s hating without the energy, hating without getting your hands dirty. That’s why it doesn’t look so bad. In fact, I have heard people talk about their indifference as if it were a virtue, as if it were some kind of universal love. What they say goes something like this: “Listen, I don’t bother with anyone. And all I ask is that they don’t bother with me. I’m good person. I don’t fight or kill or steal. I love the whole world. I just want to be left alone. Is that too much to ask?” That’s an example of very confused thinking: The person who feels that way has retired from the human race. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with anyone. And at the same time he thinks he loves the whole human race. He doesn’t care about anybody in particular and so has convinced himself he loves everyone in general. Talk about self-deception! What about this ideal of loving everyone, loving humanity, or the whole human race? Isn’t that what our religion tells us to do? No. Jesus Christ never said “Love humanity, love the whole world, love the human race.” Why not? Because humanity is an abstraction, a generalization, a concept, an idea. It would be easy for me to convince myself that I love humanity, I love the whole world., because that does not require anything of me. It is too general, to vague, and means nothing. Christ on the other hand is specific and concrete. Christ says “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does not exist in general. It’s not floating around in the air someplace. Love only exists in the concrete encounter you have with another person. When Christ says “Love your neighbor as yourself” he is telling us “Love whoever comes your way. Love whomever God puts in your path. That person at that moment is the neighbor you should love.’ That ‘s specific concrete, and very demanding. Love people one by one. But I don’t really know this person who comes my way during the day, this person in the elevator, or next to me on the bus, or in line at the post office. So how can I love this person? Good question. You can only love what you know. If you do not know someone you cannot love that person. So how can Christ tell me to love whoever comes my way? I don’t know the person, so I have no feeling toward him. To love the stranger in my path is not a matter of feelings, but of faith. My faith tells me that this person I do not know is someone that Jesus Christ loves. My faith tells me that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for him or her. My faith says this is a human being made to the image and likeness of God. My faith tells me that God the Father looks on this person as his son or daughter. My faith moves me to be well disposed to the person, to be open to the person, to be willing to assist or help the person if need be. That’s what it means for me to love whoever comes my way. To care about that person, to treat them with respect and friendliness, to help in whatever way I can. That’s what Christ means when he tells me to love my neighbor as myself. It’s a far cry from the attitude of “You don’t bother me and I won’t bother you. You pretend I don’t exist, and I’ll pretend you don’t exist. Love of neighbor is impossible to equate with indifference. How should we react to the terrorist atrocity at the World Trading Center? What do we do with feelings of fear, anger, hate? Not by dumping feelings of mistrust, fear, and hate on people we don’t know, on people who look different, who might be Arab Americans or maybe come from the Middle East. Our best response is to see each person who comes our way through the eyes of faith, and treat each one with respect and care. That’s what Christ expects of us – love people one by one. That’s how we do our little bit in making the world into a better place. Love your neighbor as yourself. Top
Mail to: franceswei@saintmarynb.org with questions and commands |
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