no mere mortals

Proverbs 9:1-6; Ps 34 taste and see the goodness of the Lord; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58

THese are the words from St. Paul this weekend, "watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord..."

Be alert and attentive to your surroundings.  Take notice as to what is happening.  How do you participate fully in life? Are yo engaged or disengaged with the people you meet on a regular basis?

Here is a few words from C.S. Lewis. Ponder them in light of St. Paul's exhortation

"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 talk to may, one day, be a creature which, if you saw it now, 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. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities [indeed one or the other is an eventuality], it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another… all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no “ordinary” people.

You have never talked to a mere mortal.

Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind), which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.

And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling {that is, heartbreak} for the sins, in spite of which, we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love, as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to {God Himself}, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbor, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ “vere latitat”(truly hidden)—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden."

watch carefully how yo live, making the most of the opportunity!