Love Your Neighbor

Dear sisters & brothers in Christ,

I pray that you are blessed, safe and healthy. The latter one seems to be more and more difficult with new and more contagious variants of the covid-19 virus. It saddens me to think of how many lives could have been saved if we, as a nation, would have from the beginning presented a more united front. The simple reason why we were able to come up with a vaccine (much less 3 of them) in such a brief time was because we worked together.

One of our problems is that so many get all caught up in “my personal rights.” Some say, “It’s my right not to wear a mask,” “It’s my right not to be vaccinated.” The ironic thing is that they would not have any of those rights if they were not citizens of this country. And, the fact is that those rights were only gained because people stood together and fought together to attain freedom.

It’s true that you have individual rights, but those rights do not include anything and everything you want to do, especially when those actions impact the lives and safety of others. You don’t have a “right” to drive, you need a license to make sure you know how to safely drive and not injure yourself or anyone else. I may know how to fly an airplane, but I do not have the “right” to do so unless I have a license. You don’t even have a “right” to hunt or fish, unless you have a license, so that wildlife can be maintained for the environment and so that there will be animals for others to do the same. You cannot simply decide you have the “right” to store nuclear waste in your garage. Yes, you have certain “rights,” but you can’t simply decide to brake the laws of society. The practice of one’s freedom and personal “rights” always come with responsibilities and exercising those right within the larger community.

I am especially struck by those politicians and parents who argue that they have the “right” to decide if their children are going to wear masks at school. Then what about the “rights” of the other parents to have their children protected from the transmission of Covid? Don’t they also have rights? Does a parent have the “right” to send their child to school if they have lice, or the measles, or the flu, or any other contagious disease?

It is sad to see how polarized we have become. And the divide just seems to be getting worse. Apparently, if someone does not like something, they just have to label it as “fake news” or claim it interferes with their “personal rights” and then they can ignore it and do as they please. I found it interesting the other day when it was reported that the Taliban in Afghanistan issued a statement that all the claims that they were “terrorists” or “mass murderers” or “oppressive of women” or other similar descriptions as nothing more than “fake news.” And, because they say so, we are apparently supposed to just take their word for it and believe they are just a nice group of misunderstood guys.

The worst part is to see how divided we have become as a Church. Now I realize The Church has always had its opposing views, even before the first Council of Jerusalem. But we don’t simply have opposing views, it has become all about judging our neighbors and condemning anyone who does not believe and practice exactly like I do. What happened to, “And the second great Commandment is like it. You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Our Lord never said that we have to agree with each other, but we do have to love one another. We have to be concerned for one another. We have to help one another. We may even be called to lay down our lives for the sake of our neighbor.

I realize that we all bear responsibility for the divisions that exist. Just as most, if not all of us, are guilty of judg- ing others. And so, the solution rests in the hands of each of us. Each of us has to decide to judge less and love more, to condemn less and forgive more, to remember that, “the measure you measure with will be measured back to you.” We are all called to make our world a better, more loving, and more merciful place to live for everyone. So let us set our hands on the plow and set ourselves to building the kingdom of our God.

In the Redeemer, Fr. Rick