By Cathy Ramsey
Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. (Romans 12: 9-13)
To behold one another is to seek the mystery of God’s presence working within and among God’s people. In this simple recognition, God graciously draws us back toward himself and into deeper communication with one another. By God’s grace, such beholding gently transforms our lives and the world around us.
Amid our recent past and current crises (COVID 19, the war in Ukraine, the political divisiveness, the shootings, personal concerns), it is both difficult and necessary to “turn our eyes from the wars waging in the valley and look to the hills.” The strong pull of the distractions of the valley makes it difficult, though, to turn our eyes to the hills, to behold others in whom the mystery of God’s presence dwells. In the midst of so much going wrong, God’s presence is not only available, but generous, personal, and stabilizing.
I find myself united to Christians seeking His presence. In beholding others, I find stability in the midst of God’s presence.
Behold those we know. As you reflect on the goodness of those around you, practice pausing when your heart is strangely warmed by the way someone cared for you or cared for another person. Consider more than the abstracted virtue, consider the manner or the tone with which the act of love was carried out.
Beholding others. Love is everywhere when we really look. Saint Ignatius challenges us to find God in all things. We do this when we behold the holiness in others. Behold the holiness in the doctors and nurses that took so much risk and put their lives on hold to care for so many suffering from COVID, law enforcement and firemen who risk their lives to save those in dire situations, wildfire fighters, and those in the military that sacrifice so much for our freedom. As an example of small kindnesses we experience quite often and seldom recognize or acknowledge, to notice if a grocery clerk takes care in how they pack your groceries to make it easier for you to put them away, helps us to behold the holiness in others. It provides an opportunity to wonder where this sort of care comes from and feel a sense of gratitude that this sort of goodness exists and is generous.
On top of our basic vulnerability to the personal challenges we face on a daily basis, anxiety is compounded as we try to bear with our own evolving responses to the crises of the pandemic, racial unrest, and social unrest, in conjunction with our fears related to horrible things going on in the world and our need to find a way to help those going through these catastrophes.
In times like these, turning for a moment away from our anxieties and questions to behold holiness in others offers formidable stability in the mystery of God’s presence. It would have such a calming effect to consider the gentleness and courage first responders exhibit when they arrive in unknown situations, in the thoughtfulness of servers in restaurants as they do their best to ensure we enjoy our meal, in the kindness shown by fellow drivers when they let us merge in traffic and don’t tailgate, in the special love shown by those you know when they pay you a compliment or pay a special visit when you are struggling with health issues. (We never know what someone else is growing through, so our patience with difficult or judgmental, critical people is showing our own holiness.)
Heavenly Father, we know how much you love us even though we don’t always focus on you and your love for us. Father, help us to love each other unconditionally. Help us to see the holiness in those who trust you with all their hearts and shine your light on this earth. Help us to recognize the small acts of love and holiness in our everyday dealings with those we interact with. Help us to honor those who give so much to bring comfort and healing to those who are suffering in some way. We understand, Father, that recognizing your holiness in those who help others in some way, will bring us closer to you and help calm our anxieties. Dear, dear God, help us show our holiness to each other and the world.
Angels Among Us
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MONUVPD2S1Y
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