Our duty as Christians

In preparation for an Order of Christian Initiation for Adults Class that I will teach on Sunday, I reexamined the travels of St. Paul as he spread the word of Jesus as the Messiah in the Mediterranean world of his day. He literally traveled around his world spreading the news of The Way - what later came to be called Christianity. His message was the news of Christ and an a way of life that could, and should, be lived. As Christians, we try to live that life. Many times we fail. Many times we fail miserably. But, we keep trying. We pick ourselves up and try not to make the same mistakes again.

One of the hardest realizations of our times is to see people make mistakes in real time. When I was growing up, the news was delivered maybe three times per day, at noon, at the 6:00 P.M. news cast and at 10:00 P.M. It was delivered in a fair and balanced form. Today, we see news change second by second and we are addictively glued to our cell phones to view it. With this access, comes the reality of seeing people especially politicians, make statements or act in ways that are mistakes. And, of course, opposition commentators of every kind exploit any little mistake made.

So, how are we, as Christians, to view mistakes? I think we need to look past the “rhetoric.” Rhetoric used to be persuasive speech. Now, it is just divisive screaming.

As Christians, we are called to see a much larger picture. We are called to realize that every moment is fleeting. We are not bound to a view of space and time that is limited, but should see our lives and our world on a much larger scale. We should think in terms of eternity. We will all die - hopefully not today. We will pass from this world into a world that our imaginations cannot grasp. We don’t know what it is, but we all, deep down, know that it is coming.

As Christians, we are called to work toward Heaven and to bring as many people with us as possible. So, let’s follow The Way and try our best to put the screaming on the back burner.