“Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Joy
Tag Archives: Zephaniah
The weight of many little acts of kindness
More and more, I am convinced how little our politicians, in this country and in the world, can do for us ordinary people. We are the ones who spread the good news of love and forgiveness, not merely by words, but by our interactions, our interconnections with our neighbors, whether we know them well or not.
Despite terrifying acts of violence we can still choose our response: to pray, to restore, to heal.
By creating us in His image, God has shown us His deep and abiding love. Together, we can outweigh, and outlast, all that distorts this image.
Stephen Gould captures this idea most eloquently:
“Good and kind people outnumber all others by thousands to one. The tragedy of human history lies in the enormous potential for destruction in rare acts of evil, not in the high frequency of evil people. Complex systems can only be built step by step, whereas destruction requires but an instant. Thus, in what I like to call the Great Asymmetry, every spectacular incident of evil will be balanced by 10,000 acts of kindness, too often unnoted and invisible as the ”ordinary” efforts of a vast majority.
“We have a duty, almost a holy responsibility, to record and honor the victorious weight of these innumerable little kindnesses, when an unprecedented act of evil so threatens to distort our perception of ordinary human behavior” Stephen Gould
celebrating new life
At a time when this nation debates whether to say “merry christmas” or happy holidays,” banners are already up in China with the words, “Merry Christmas.” And Marshal, our Chinese student, tells us that in Mandarin, Christmas is translated as “holy birth festival.” So, China, a nation that does not particular support religion. is willing to use the word Christmas with its religious meaning. Interesting to say the least.
Regardless of one’s religious or non religious beliefs/inclinations, celebrating the birth of Christ does give us the opportunity to consider our lives anew. God came to earth clothed in human flesh so that we could be clothed in God. What an amazing gift!
I like what Brennan Manning writes: “Christmas is the promise that the God who came in history and comes daily in mystery will one day come in glory. God is saying in Jesus that in the end everything will be all right. Nothing can harm you permanently, no suffering is irrevocable, no loss is lasting, no defeat is more than transitory, no disappointment is conclusive. Jesus did not deny the reality of suffering, discouragement, disappointment, frustration, and death; he simply stated that the kingdom of God would conquer all of these horrors, that the Father’s love is so extravagant that no evil could possibly resist it.”
