Golden
Just as my children sometimes please me by simply acting before I ask them to, so too can I, when I follow the Golden Rule…
There is a golden rule of our faith. Christ gave it to us very clearly and it is documented in the Gospels…
We are told about how we should treat others.
“But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also...And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them... Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you... For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” (Luke 6:27-38).
Many people interpret that rule as a list of instructions about what not to do. I should not harm someone else. I should not upset someone else. I should not be cruel to someone else. I should not sin against someone else. I have thought that this was the rule for most of my life. In fact, what we are being instructed to do is something positive – not to refrain from doing something negative. And what does this mean? It means that I am not being asked to stop harming someone else, but rather, I am being instructed to do good…
Christ did not tell me that I should not do to another what I would not wish for them to do to me. Rather, He said that I should do to others what I would like them to do for me. And this means that I am required to please my Beloved by doing what is pleasing to Him.
I have been reflecting on that as I have been thinking about my own children. The times when I am most grateful to my children, and this is invariably when they act without my asking them to act. When they choose to do something good or necessary without my asking them to do it first, that is when I am most pleased with them. And this is what God is instructing me to do through the Golden Rule. Here He is telling me – as His CHILD – that He will be pleased when I take the initiative to be good and to do good. This is why Saints like Mary Makillop of the Cross pleased God and were sanctified. Because this Saint never saw a need without doing something about it.
And I have been reflecting on that today. For this sort of faith requires me to make decisions that allow me to please my Beloved. In this way God allows me an opportunity to please Him – this is such a Grace. And just as my children sometimes please me by simply acting before I ask them to, so too can I, when I follow the Golden Rule…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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