No ordinary people, no mere mortals!
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities… that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” - C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
My dear friend Bert Ghezzi quoted this section of C.S. Lewis’ sermon in one of his books and it has had a profound and lasting impact on with me. In fact I carry a copy of it in my wallet and another inside the cover of my prayer journal. I do that to remind myself daily of the reality of what happens in my interactions with others and especially to re-read at times when I am tempted to be less than loving with others. I am called to relate in the love of Christ towards all I encounter. To relate to others as if Jesus were living my life and relating to them through me.
This can mean exercising patience at times, say with a grumpy customer service representative. Or being a truth teller with a friend who is veering into sin in her sharing about a mutual friend. In all our interactions with others it calls us to bear in mind the truth that I cannot be neutral in attitude towards anyone. No “ordinary” people. No mere mortals. Everyone is on the way to heaven or hell – no exceptions. Everything that I say or do can help or hinder them.
That is a real reason for seeing all that we do as evangelizing others to the love of God.
“Father, open our eyes to see people as you do and as they really are, created for eternity. Through Christ our Lord we pray, Amen! “
Labels: Christ, encounter, evangelism, evangelization, Father's love, Following Christ, good news, Jesus the Son of God, laity, new evangelization, witnesses
posted by Dave Nodar @ 12:33 PM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
Dear Dave,
Just this very am I asked the Lord to help me and mine see with Jesus eyes..What a wonderful affirmation when I see my prayer written in your words on the same day...God is good...Love you cuz...Micki
This is, indeed, a very difficult thing to keep in mind. Especially in such an egocentric culture as ours. It would entail focusing on someone else besides ourselves. It comes down to who really is the center of our lives. Is it me? Or is it Jesus? Is there something destructive that has our focus?
Do we want to be the center of everybody's world? (What do you mean I'm not the center of your world? I'm wooooondeeeerful!... in my opinion, thank you very much! But, then again, that is in my own little world.)
What is our motivation for how we treat people? How do we treat our own family and friends? Do we allow ourselves to take hurts from one place and apply it in other places? Do we know the reason for others' mistreatment of us? Is it easier to be angry at a stranger rather than understanding? I'm never going to see you again, what does it matter...
It does matter... very, very much. What does not matter is whether we are dealing with family, friends, or strangers. It is extremely hard at times but focus... not on you, not on the situation but on Jesus and then all of a sudden, everything will come into focus and we can help the "immortals" be "everlasting splendors".
Let me leave you with the Gospel reading from yesterday(03/10). I thought it went really well with this idea.
Luke 6:36-38:
36"Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
37"Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.
38"Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure--pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."
humbly yours,
t
Love the thought..."No ordinary people, no mere mortals!" Along the path of our days how many times do we catch in the glance of an eye, a person to whom we are compelled to wave, smile and greet, only to realize after our kind gesture that they indeed were looking right past us into the gaze of another. How it makes me feel odd that I could easily misinterpret the intent of that persons own gesture. Awkwardly I move to minimize the embarrassment I feel when I realize that it is through my own ego and self important posture that this happened. They must be seeing me. I am wonderful… as Anonymous said.
I try to remember that “I am an ordinary person, I am a mere mortal!” I know this because of these types of eye to eye contact confusions. They can make it harder to seek out and participate in those opportunities for engaging in and sharing Christ centered words. You are right that we all need to re-read things “at times when I am tempted to be less than loving with others.” We also need to do this when we feel shy and when we retract from conversations and eye contact just because someone looks passed us to something or someone that may seem at that moment to be more appealing or more interesting. This should not stop us mere mortals.
However, I must say that this situation has never happened to me with the Eucharist. Not once has the Lord looked past me. Not once have I felt that his gesture and offer of grace wasn’t truly intended for me,(as well as the person passed me, behind me or beside me). Never have I felt awkward or embarrassed even while knowing how unworthy I am to look Him in the eye.
So, my real comment is, “Yes ordinary people, yes mere mortals!” but with the greatest gift of all. The ability to join with God at any moment, blessed in the forever fruits of the imperishable, indestructible Jesus Christ. The Lord grants us the ability to become his worldly Saints to evangelize and profess the good news to everyone we meet in gesture, in smile, in word and most importantly in deed.
I agree: “Father, open our eyes to see people as you do and as they really are, created for eternity. Through Christ our Lord we pray, Amen!”
But also: “Father, open my eyes to see myself as you do and as I really am, created for eternity. Through Christ our Lord I pray, Amen!”
In gentleness,
mark
I dreamed last night that the government was after me because I was so out spoken today about the recent decision on our President to destroy human lives for the sake of research. I think we may have someone that also wants to be worshiped. I mean he does quote scripture.
My soul is utterly desturbed because the tricks of Satan are getting stronger.
A friend of mine that is very involved in our faith who voted for the president told me that "it is science and it is complicated."
So Dave please help me on this one. How do we look at this situation both from the view of our leader and that of my friend?
I am trying to forgive and love but all I feel is compelled to judge. Part of forgiveness is to rid the soul of poisen. Another aspect is to understand that God loves them just as much as he loves us. So what is our responsibility in these types of interactions?
This email could not have come at a more critical time. I had a very
stressful day, dealing with some issues at work. I'm a caseworker and took this job to be an advocate for this population of people. Somewhere along
the way, I had lost my compassion, my heart for helping, and it became
just a job. I honestly cannot express the impact that your words and those of C.S. Lewis have had on me. When I look back at the events of the day, and the people I encountered, through different eyes - as if looking
through Christ's eyes - it puts things in an entirely different
perspective.
Thank you very much for adding me to your email list, and especially for this blog.
I am very much a work in progress, and would appreciate your prayers to help me along this journey.
Stephen,
I appreciate your comments. If we don't feel "anger" about some of the recent decisions against life, maybe there is something wrong with us. At the same time the "anger of man" doesn't achieve the "righteousness of God" as the Bible tells us.
Just this morning, my friend Joe, sent me an email with an article called 'Caesar is not God,' you can read it by pasting http://www.lewrockwell.com/mcmaken/mcmaken128.html in your broswer.
There is certainly a cross-section between the main issue of this blog- evangelization and acting for justice - vis-a-vis the early Roman martyrs who in defiance of the Roman emperor didn't worship him and as a result they were thrown to the lions.
My friend Joe, who sent me the article introduced it by saying:
"Seriously, recent legislation really begs the question of what our response as Christians should be. How long can we consent to continue to be coerced to fund grievous immorality? Please pass this along and let me know what you think should be our Christian response to the State funding things that are wrong (and our tax money paying for it)! I really want to hear your thoughts."
Then he responded later with some of his own thoughts-
"I do think that it requires 1) prayer and 2) non-violent resistance"
What is the cross-section between evangelizing others and acting prophetically and with justice against laws that destroy human lives?
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