Zero Tolerance

Why should any human being in the world be merely tolerated? What man has ever made a sacrifice in the name of tolerance? It leads men, instead, to express their own egotism in a book or a lecture that patronizes the downtrodden group. One of the cruelest things that can happen to a human being is to be tolerated. Never once did Our Lord say, “Tolerate your enemies!” But He did say, “Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you” (Matt. 5:44). Such love can be achieved only if we deliberately curb our fallen nature’s animosities.” -Fulton J. Sheen, Peace of Soul

There are many instances that we just let the wrong doing of others pass us by.  We tend to "tolerate" it and just keep it to ourselves.  But if we look deeper, we just don't want to be aggraivated by the situation or we just want to evade the person.  As Sheen would put it, One of the cruelest things that can happen to a human being is to be tolerated.

Loving your enemies is the Christian response to those whom we easily despise or to those who have wronged us.  To love is to be in an uncomfortable situation, where our humility is tested and our patience is challenged.  Jesus, despite knowing the criticisms he will get for entering the home of Zacchaeus the tax collector (Luke 19:1-12), didn't mind for love and salvation was His agenda.  Who was Zacchaeus? A rich "publican," that is, a tax collector for the Roman authorities, and precisely for this he was regarded as a public sinner (Benedict XVI).

The love of Christ transformed this public sinner.  Zacchaeus offered half of his possessions to be given to the poor and to pay back four times of whatever was extorted.  Salvation has come for this sinner.

Christ does not tolerate, He loves.  And so must we.

Be a Community Helper

Today, my 4 year-old son had an assignment to go to school dressed up as a Community Helper.  We thought of many things; doctor, fireman, police among others. We ended up with...musician. So Sev brought to school all his musical instruments; a flute, a ukulele, a toy xylophone, and a small bongo. Although being a musician is not the typical concept of a community helper, but then i thought that if no one actually wrote songs or played music for the community, then we would be like robots without artistry, expression, and emotion. Without musicians, then we would have not much entertainment (clean entertainment, that is) that can relax us from a hectic day and refresh us for the next. So we figured, a musician is a community helper.

Are you a community helper? How is the product you are selling or your field of study benefiting the society? More so, are you helping build a Christ-centered society?  I believe that whatever profession or business we are in, we can all be community helpers.

But then, let us not also be blind if we know what we are doing destroys community.  There might be things we are involved in that are environmental hazards and yet we are more concerned of profit.  What are the values that our work or product promote?  Are these products helping others become better people?  Are we justly compensating workers?

As community helpers, we are concerned with justice, love, and peace. 

Justice according to the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church 201 (CSDC) states, "According to its most classical formulation, it consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor ." As a community helper, we give what is due.

When we do things out of love for neighbor, we are building a "civilization of love." Again, from the Church's Social Doctrine (580), "Christians must be deeply convinced witnesses of this, and they are to show by their lives how love is the only force that can lead to personal and social perfection, allowing society to make progress towards the good."  Are we helping the community out of love or out of mere duty?

Peace is the fruit of justice and love (CSDC, 494).  Without justice and love, there will surely be crime, violence, and the failure of peace which is war.  Therefore, as Community Helpers who work towards a Christ-centered society, we carry justice and love as our virtue and our posture.  May our day-to-day work lead us to God's will for our society.