we are known by our actions--or the lack OF them...

 

You are writing a gospel,

A chapter each day.

By deeds that you do,

By words that you say.

Men [children] read what you write,

Whether faithless or true.

Say, what is the gospel,

According to you?’

-Paul Gilbert

When I was growing up at home, the picture that I had of God was only what I had seen on TV or in movies, think "The Ten Commandments": stern, old, the type of Being who had a good book and a bad book. I pictured Him, bad book in hand as he wrote down all of my four year old transgressions, thinking that I was surely doomed to some eternal place of banishment from which I would suffer horribly. I thought this until I was in my mid twenties.

That is a lot of burden for anyone to carry around!

When I was twenty five years old, I took what is called RCIA classes, integrating myself into the Catholic faith. The more I learned, the more I realized, God actually LOVES us sinners! Oh yes...the realization was quite similar for me as when Sally Field won the Best Actress Oscar in 1983 for "Places in the Heart;" she exclaimed, "you like me, you REALLY like me!" I learned all about the saints and their histories. Peter, who denied Christ three times, was the leader of  the Church. St. Augustine, who lead a pretty wild life of debauchery for the first 28 years of his life was known as the Doctor of the Church....and on it went. I then pondered my own life up to that point. 

All of my young life, my mother instilled in me that I was UNworthy of anyone's love, her own and most certainly, God's. Now it all came crashing down on me....I WAS loved...I was loved by God, who knew me from the time I was in my mother's womb, that I was "fearfully and wonderfully made!"

I wasn't junk after all!

I felt so free when that fact hit me. All of the pain from my life fell away!

This is why, to this day, I look upon others with compassion who, in the eyes of many are unworthy of their time or attention: the homeless, the hungry, the poor, the lame, the ANYTHING! They ARE just as worthy as you or I to be breathing air on this planet, yet they are the marginalized ones, the ones society pretends do not exist.

So when one goes to church, is it with the humble expression of saying "hi" to God...or is it with a feeling of haughtiness? I see many churches who need to decide if a person is the right choice for them. I see many folks who come out of church only to cut someone off in traffic and wave a finger at them. I see many cburches deny aid to another because they don't fit in with their idea of who a perfect Christian is. 

Remember, Jesus sought out the very people many of us turn away from. He dined with the sinners, not the scribes and certainly NOT with the Pharisees! In the end, it was the Pharisees who convinced the people that Jesus was not fit to be with anyone...and thus convinced Pilate to crucify Him.

I cry at that part. Because...how many of US crucify Jesus also?

You crucify Him with your words of hate, your inactivity regarding the poor among us. You crucify him when you fail to teach your children about respect towards others as well as themselves. You crucify Him when you lie, cheat, steal...

...and your own children are watching all of this, absorbing all of this...and then, as they grow up, they will act out the parts that you have shown them, either through direct or indirect teaching, thinking that is the way they are the way to be.

We all have such  a great responsibility, don't we? Despite our efforts, we will still fail at something. It is in the getting back up that we show that we cannot be beaten. If you keep God in the details, He will never trip you up. You will be shown the way

Once a self-righteous, boastful Sunday school teacher was preaching to his class on the importance of exemplary living. With his head held high and chest thrust out, he strutted back and forth across the room. He asked, “Now, children, why do people call me a Christian?”

 There was a moment of silence. Then one boy raised his hand.

“Yes?” asked the teacher.

“Probably because they don’t know you very well,” responded the boy.