There are no ordinary people

I was sitting behind the Cuirim House this morning, watching the day start on the hillside opposite. I watched people as they walked down steep paths from their homes towards the main road. I watched men, young and old, mix cement and lay block as they added a new room to their small house. I watched the water trucks, announcing by loudspeaker their presence with a catchy tune and an indecipherable commercial message. I listened to the music wafting up the hill.

As I absorbed all of this, I was reminded of a quote by C.S. Lewis. In an essay called “The Weight of Glory” from a collection of essays by the same name, Lewis reminds us of the truth that all human beings we encounter are objects of the Divine Love. They and we are all created beings in the image of our Creator.

Lewis entreats us in the last paragraph of the essay to practice truly loving our neighbors as ourselves. Lewis says “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 can talk to may one day be a creature which… 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. 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 is as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals with whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the most holy object presented to your senses.”

God help us to love him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength AND to love our neighbor with the kind of love that God has for them. I am cut to the quick as I write this. In my rare moments of clarity, when God has gifted me with lucid thinking, I see my family, friends, co-workers and strangers through His eyes. In those moments, I understand the weight of their coming glory or their coming damnation. I realize that I am talking to someone with whom I will forever be intimately connected through the common bond of Christ or someone who will forever be cast from the presence of the God.

Let’s ask God to help us to love those who are hard to love. This is hard and it takes time to direct our minds to see past people’s behavior but we can start with the desire to love them as Jesus loves them and us. Let us always remember that we are not worthy of the love of God. He loves us in spite of ourselves.