What Would Christ Do? - October 21, 2020 Wednesday

 

 

A question I repeatedly have to ask myself each day as I rise from slumber, upon being assailed by many unrelenting challenges that test one’s person and nature.

Though man intends well as a species, as a’  Kempis affirms, his flawed nature and his concupiscence have need to constantly be examined and reminded.

A most apt and most often confronted issue has been how we address those that do not agree with us or who we just loathe or hate for what they stand for.

We know how we treat and entreat our loved ones, with the most diligent attention and most glowing words of praise and kindness.  As much and even beyond what and where our God-given natural affections could lead us.  And no doubt it is one relatively easy task, not only because it comes naturally but also because the object of our praises reflect our very persons and perceived virtues.  And how many of us do not love our own selves?  And thus all the superlatives rush out from our innermost core.

But what of those who though not necessarily at direct enmity, but simply those we disagree with whether personally, socially, or politically?

One looks around and sees the following.  The harshest and unkindest pejoratives of words and sentences are uttered and heaped upon others without much reservations or circumspection.  Likened to addressing the vilest, the most abominable of creatures.  Like one is the evil incarnate. Though even Christ would say, no man is.  After all, Christ showed us how.  With the admirable ways he addressed and treated the very people who defamed him, those who conspired against his very person, and even those revered magistrates who unjustly sentenced him to a most horrible end.

And mind you, this is coming not just from the ordinary man on the street, the coarse and uncouth creatures congregating in ghettoes or hovels of the world.  This coming also from those most educated, most accomplished in the many noble and commendable fields of endeavor chosen by upright and right-thinking persons.  People in polite society would call friends, acquaintances, or their loved ones.

But why?  Why, in this respect otherwise sainted men could suddenly turn to such an extreme?

What Would Christ Do?