Posted on 06/22/2019 4:59:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
Do you ever take a look around when you're commuting or running errands? So often, our busy routine can leave us overwhelmed, annoyed, frustrated and rushed. Perhaps you feel a combination of all of these. Or maybe you're simply amazed. A few weeks back, I was part of a conversation about gratitude in which one man noted that when he took a step back on the way to the event and took a good look at the people passing him by, he noticed "how there are no minor characters." Everyone is important to someone.
The U.S. Catholic bishops had a big meeting this month, and voted on some measures that to me seem insufficient for dealing with the abuse scandal that has rocked the Church. But the most important thing they did this month is publish a book called "Rebuking the Devil." It's a collection of many of the things that Pope Francis has said about spiritual warfare, the distractions that divide us and the importance of clear-sighted unity and forgiveness since coming onto the international scene.
I've long thought that the June Friday on which Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict consecrated Vatican grounds to St. Michael and St. Joseph was probably the most important day of his papacy. Francis was pointing to some of the most challenging obstacles before the Church and society: problems of evil and responsibility. We are caught up in the confusion, and instead of helping each other see more clearly and encouraging each other along the way, we are dividing and hating. A spate of recent books has tried to halt this phenomenon, trying to find a solution that wouldn't whitewash our differences, but make for a meeting ground where needs are acknowledged and gifts are recognized. When Pope Francis talks about division, this is what he's getting at: recognizing the common humanity that should bind us all together.
Do you ever take a look around when you're commuting or running errands? So often, our busy routine can leave us overwhelmed, annoyed, frustrated and rushed. Perhaps you feel a combination of all of these. Or maybe you're simply amazed. A few weeks back, I was part of a conversation about gratitude in which one man noted that when he took a step back on the way to the event and took a good look at the people passing him by, he noticed "how there are no minor characters." Everyone is important to someone.
The U.S. Catholic bishops had a big meeting this month, and voted on some measures that to me seem insufficient for dealing with the abuse scandal that has rocked the Church. But the most important thing they did this month is publish a book called "Rebuking the Devil." It's a collection of many of the things that Pope Francis has said about spiritual warfare, the distractions that divide us and the importance of clear-sighted unity and forgiveness since coming onto the international scene.
I've long thought that the June Friday on which Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict consecrated Vatican grounds to St. Michael and St. Joseph was probably the most important day of his papacy. Francis was pointing to some of the most challenging obstacles before the Church and society: problems of evil and responsibility. We are caught up in the confusion, and instead of helping each other see more clearly and encouraging each other along the way, we are dividing and hating. A spate of recent books has tried to halt this phenomenon, trying to find a solution that wouldn't whitewash our differences, but make for a meeting ground where needs are acknowledged and gifts are recognized. When Pope Francis talks about division, this is what he's getting at: recognizing the common humanity that should bind us all together.
What does this mean in the midst of such fundamentally different understandings about the human person that exist today? It certainly does not mean insisting that politics and law be the conduits of radical and even tyrannical change. We shouldn't be ending relationships, but nourishing them in the common areas of lived experience and meeting needs.
When you do look around, you start to notice the pain that so many people are in. They often walk with it and struggle through it right in front of our eyes, and we don't take the time to recognize it. But we should notice. Notice together. Give them a hand. Lighten their loads. There are much more important things than culture-war arguments to be working together on. Finding those meeting places might just be the start of a modern-day masterpiece that makes our politics, culture and people's lives better.
Re: A People Divided Should Work to Be United
Right - because that worked out so well for the people and the political parties that compromised with Lenin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, and the Ayatollahs.
The Catholic church leadership has so many problems. Most of our new members, 14 families last year alone, have converted FROM Catholic due to all the scandals.
Why?
Go out and convince a few lefties of that, and when they’re ready to stand up to their own party goons who call for hate against us, maybe we can talk.
“...he noticed “how there are no minor characters.” Everyone is important to someone.“
Is God important to them?
“Give them a hand, lighten their loads.”
Don’t speak poorly of homosexuality, illegitimacy, apathy, fornication, ignorance, adultery or faithlessness. Do NOT mention the Ten Commandments.
Got it.
One group worships Mother Earth, supports mentally ill men in believing they are women, wants to destroy my culture, values, morality and religion. The pope sides with these people. How can there be oneness with people that seek my destruction?
Do you ever take a look around when you’re commuting or running errands? …Why yes; I still do that even though I have not lived in a city for sixteen years, in case someone is seeking to rob or assault me.
It’s not “poorly”, but truthfully.
Would anyone accuse God of speaking “poorly” of such things, since He called them “abomination”? (Well yes; the communists would.)
‘Cause someone said “should”. That settles it. /s
Rather pie-in-the-sky article. For instance, how is one going to unite pro-choice verses pro-life forces? Now they’re talking about aborting babies AFTER they are born. And still they cannot see how horribly wrong this is.
One can’t unite people who are irrational. For them there is no compromise. Thinking we’re going to appease these people is simply giving in to their agenda either quickly or slowly. We’re foolish to think we are going to compromise with these people.
“...the Ayatollahs.”
Funny thing about the Ayatollah Khamenei. In college in 1979 when the Shah of Iran fell, the dozens of annoying Iranians who had been protesting the man who was paying for their education changed tune fast. They all wanted to stay. I asked one guy why they didn’t want to go home when they suddenly had what they wanted. He said, “Not that guy, we didn’t want him.” Well, I asked, what did you want? He couldn’t answer. They had protested and protested against the guy paying their bills without ever having a clear image of what would come next. When they got their heart’s desire suddenly it was too late to be careful what they wished for. Turns out they just wanted to be allowed personal freedoms like smoking and not wearing the hajib or being beaten for talking to a woman. The Shah already had that on offer but it wasn’t good enough because the Shah had secret police, or something. My impression was they were all political idiots living in a fantasy world.
“...political idiots living in a fantasy world.”
Sounds just like our rat voters.
There’s no uniting with the reds. It’s either us or them.
Liberal article?
Do I need to read it? Or is it full of the same usual Koombaya crap?
Thanks in advance!
The same.
Unity is overrated.
The German people were “united” in the 1930s, how did that work out?
“My impression was they were all political idiots living in a fantasy world.”
“But this isn’t what I meant!” That was heard millions upon millions of times in the 20th century. Usually just before some poor bastard was shoved up against a wall and shot, or hanged, or beaten to death, or starved in some work camp.
Most people don’t want freedom. They want a just master.
And there aren’t any of those.
L
I have often wondered what happened to her family and to her life after the Shah was evicted.
Hopefully, they were able to start over again in Israel or the USA.
The very bedrock of the Democrat party is SOLIDARITY. The unity is a concept strictly enforced by striking unions to repel scabs. Scabs are people crossing a picket line. There is no greater Democrat sin than crossing a picket line.
The irony is that the concept still lingers in an age where there are no striking unions with picketlines forcefully denying entrance to a plant. However, Democrats pretend that unions are still a major source of their political power. Solidarity or the lingering memory of solidarity is etched in granite
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.