Four Manly Actions to Take Today to Reflect Christ at Work - Part 4
Today we wrap up our discussion of those four manly actions proposed to us men by Father Zimpfer.
Seek to acquire some of Our Lord's patience and kindness, His charity and tolerance, His understanding and gentleness.
I suspect Father Zimpfer knows this will be the most challenging. Notice how he exhorts us to acquire "some" of Our Lord's patience, and kindness, etc. Some.
Maybe he's like most of us. Charity doesn't come easily. While our intellect can grasp the primary importance of charity, our emotions often get the better of us. That's just how fallen human nature works. Had Adam and Eve not eaten the apple, charity would be the norm for us all. (We were made to be like God - "in His image and likeness." God is Love. So without Original Sin, we'd be totally loving creatures.) But they did and it isn't.
But, though we may be fallen, we can't just excuse ourselves each time we slip and think, say, or do something uncharitable. And that applies no matter who the object of our uncharitable act turns out to be.
For example, it's not that hard to realize what a jerk you are when you say something unkind to, let's just say, your loving wife, a woman who sacrifices daily in so many ways to give of herself to you and your children in virtually every way imaginable. Unless you've ossified into a totally self-centered, uncaring, unkind lug who's oblivious to everyone and everything around him - in short, a total narcissist - by means of the occasional salutary lightening bolt of God's grace you've likely gotten a flash or two of insight into your unfortunate lack of charity and perhaps apologized, even made some recompense for your dreadful words or deeds.
On the other hand, when we're subjected to nasty, even evil, words and actions lobbed at us by the more unsavory creatures in our lives, patience and kindness not only don't come easy, they seem absurd. Bad behavior needs to be stopped, not stoked.
But here's where the old "love the sinner, hate the sin," must step forward and rule our own thoughts, words, and actions. A simple way to put it: "Don't take it personally" - even if it clearly is meant that way. After all, if we don't imitate Christ here, we're just going to wind up players in a never-ending unhappy game of "tit-for-tat." As a Catholic, knowing what you know, you just know that's not going to help either you or the offending party get to Heaven. And that, after all, is the entire purpose of our lives, isn't it?
So there we have four manly actions we can put into practice today to reflect Christ at work. They'll test both your manhood and your Christian charity. Here's to us all passing the test.
- Fight for truth as Jesus lived and fought for it.
- Attack ignorance and sham as he attacked it, with no complacence in our own superiority, seeing the difference between the sinner and the sin.
- Develop courage and fearlessness in facing the harshness of men and their deep selfishness, seeing them as ignorant rather than as malicious.
- Seek to acquire some of Our Lord's patience and kindness, His charity and tolerance, His understanding and gentleness.
Seek to acquire some of Our Lord's patience and kindness, His charity and tolerance, His understanding and gentleness.
I suspect Father Zimpfer knows this will be the most challenging. Notice how he exhorts us to acquire "some" of Our Lord's patience, and kindness, etc. Some.
Maybe he's like most of us. Charity doesn't come easily. While our intellect can grasp the primary importance of charity, our emotions often get the better of us. That's just how fallen human nature works. Had Adam and Eve not eaten the apple, charity would be the norm for us all. (We were made to be like God - "in His image and likeness." God is Love. So without Original Sin, we'd be totally loving creatures.) But they did and it isn't.
But, though we may be fallen, we can't just excuse ourselves each time we slip and think, say, or do something uncharitable. And that applies no matter who the object of our uncharitable act turns out to be.
For example, it's not that hard to realize what a jerk you are when you say something unkind to, let's just say, your loving wife, a woman who sacrifices daily in so many ways to give of herself to you and your children in virtually every way imaginable. Unless you've ossified into a totally self-centered, uncaring, unkind lug who's oblivious to everyone and everything around him - in short, a total narcissist - by means of the occasional salutary lightening bolt of God's grace you've likely gotten a flash or two of insight into your unfortunate lack of charity and perhaps apologized, even made some recompense for your dreadful words or deeds.
On the other hand, when we're subjected to nasty, even evil, words and actions lobbed at us by the more unsavory creatures in our lives, patience and kindness not only don't come easy, they seem absurd. Bad behavior needs to be stopped, not stoked.
But here's where the old "love the sinner, hate the sin," must step forward and rule our own thoughts, words, and actions. A simple way to put it: "Don't take it personally" - even if it clearly is meant that way. After all, if we don't imitate Christ here, we're just going to wind up players in a never-ending unhappy game of "tit-for-tat." As a Catholic, knowing what you know, you just know that's not going to help either you or the offending party get to Heaven. And that, after all, is the entire purpose of our lives, isn't it?
So there we have four manly actions we can put into practice today to reflect Christ at work. They'll test both your manhood and your Christian charity. Here's to us all passing the test.
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