"Pizzaonia emerging" Courtesy of the Pizzaonian Art Institute, Abe Straction, Curator
Within each of us is the desire to go good. Part 2
Again, Brother Giovanni has handed off to me to continue with one of our ongoing conversations: What prompts within us the desire to do good things?
So much of our effort is in attempting to analyze what is the basic motivation that inspires a person to serve others in the first place. For many this may seem over analyzed, but motivation is not always easy to determine, particularly when humans are very good at deceiving themselves on a continuing basis.
Brother Giovanni ended part one with his observations on how service and sacrifice are the driving message of Jesus of Nazareth. The one contradiction that has always fascinated us about Christians, of which I am one, is how we have managed to dilute the notion of complete surrender to love and serving others to a more acceptable form.
For those who are quick to reference the bible as their source for inspiration have merely to ponder the words of Jesus in Matthew 9 -21. “Go sell everything give it to the poor and then follow me.” This is the answer given to the young man when he asked Jesus “what else do I have to do to be a disciple?” Well, for the young man and for most of us, the message was, is, too much to bear.
A question that you may be considering is “What does this have to do with anything, especially when for most of us simply helping somebody once and awhile is standard behavior for most of our charity.” And I would answer; that is the whole point. Consider how far this is from the original Christian message from the “founder of the firm.”*
Granted
there are saints among us; we must make this clear. To paraphrase Thomas Merton, they are the
ones who keep the planet from spinning off into space. But this still begs the
question for the rest of us who are not saints and will probably never be. How do we react and play out what Jesus said
to the young man?
The answer is obvious; we don’t. All one has to do is look at the mess the world is in. Clearly, if the call to sacrifice that Jesus asked of his disciples was heeded by all who wear the label Christian, the world would have changed for the good long ago.
So where does this leave the rest of us? More than likely somewhere in the middle, if for no other reason, it is practical do so, but for many of us, it is the best we can do – it is simply all that we have at this stage of our development.
I suspect a loving God was aware of this, even though he set the bar higher than most of us could ever achieve. So what is the alternative?
Jesus again gives us the answer in Matthew 9 -12. “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’[a] for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Now one has to be careful here. Part of the deal that Jesus was making is the point we cannot stop trying to be perfect even though we fall far short of the goal. However, for those of us who fall short, there is always “mercy.” But, the big caveat that came with this message is that in order to receive mercy; one has to be merciful. And that also is the premise of the original Christian message.
Till next time,
Brother Franco.
*Thank you Andrew Greely for the reference “founder of the firm" (The Jesus Myth).
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