Post Election Sentiment

There has been a lot of negativity in 2008 campaign. Christians on both sides of any issue or candidate seem to lose their minds, their sense of Christian community, even a common decency like the ability to listen with empathy to another human being. Here is a short quote from Jean Vanier, the founder of L'Arche, a federation of global communities for people with mental and physical disabilities. I think it speaks to whatever you define as your community: home, church, state or nation. Feel free to pass it around

We can give people the gift of their dignity. We can help others just by the way we listen to them and speak with them. We can show them by our own trust that what they have to say is important and good. Community is caring for people, but of course as soon as we start caring for people, we know that there are some people who will just drive us up the wall. Some we will really like, because they think like us. Then we risk falling into a world of mutual flattery. We are all so much in need of affection that when somebody give it to us we want to hold onto it. Then we say to the other person, “You’re wonderful! Keep at it! Keep flattering me! You know, it’s nice.’” We’re like little cats who need to be caressed. We then being to purr.

But flattery doesn’t help anyone to grow. It doesn’t bring freedom but rather closes people up in themselves. We are attracted to certain people, and other put us off. We don’t get on well with them. They trigger off our anguish. Perhaps they remind us of our father and mothers who were too authoritarian or possessive. Some people threaten us, others flatter us. Some meetings are joyful, and others are painful. When we begin talking about caring for people, when we begin to see how difficult it can be. In community we are called to care for each member of the community. We can choose our friends but we do not choose our brothers and sisters; they are given to us whether in family or in community.