Dear Folks,

The central challenge: to love God and our neighbor. One of the easiest things to say. One of the hardest things to do.

Love is to seek the good of the other. This requires first, figuring out what is the good. Second, how to accomplish it.

We cannot benefit God, but we can please Him. We please Him by being in a good relationship with Him and by helping other people.

The good begins with life, even if it is a difficult life. We are called to serve the life and dignity of everyone from conception to natural death. This includes the rich and the poor. This includes those who came here from other countries, including those who came here illegally. The question becomes what this the most loving thing to do with them. We find a lot of attacking what others are doing, but what should we do? It includes criminals, including those on death row. It includes the victims of crimes. It includes struggling families. It includes people all over the world. It includes human trafficking victims. It includes people victimized by the pornography industry.  In includes the pre-born. It includes those which terminal illnesses. It includes those who hurt us. It includes everybody that I didn’t mention.

This does not always mean doing what people want. Sometimes, it means doing the opposite. Sometimes it means speaking a truth that people don’t want to hear. It does not always make us feel good.

There is a lot of disagreement about how to accomplish the good. What we want to avoid is “You don’t believe in doing good the way I believe in doing good, therefore you don’t care about doing good.” I see a long of that around. There are some contradictory narratives about what will accomplish the good, and it is important to get underneath them and get some more agreement on what is going to be helpful. Trading insults is not helpful. Presuming that the conversation has been had and that what we believe is obviously true doesn’t seem to be working either.

Of course, it is no good to be concerned about political issues if we do not treat the people around us well. Once again, this does not always mean doing what people want. Every time we encounter someone, we can look for an opportunity to give some positive energy. Being aware of others and seeing things from their point of view is a skill that we can work on throughout our lives.

We won’t get it completely right in this life. We will make mistakes, and sometimes that will put us on the wrong side of various issues. Sometimes we will try to bring good to a situation and wind up making it worse. I’ve done that countless times. The question is, when God judges us, have we done the very best we can to love our neighbor?

Blessings,

Fr. Jim