From Father Grassi - March 4, 2007
My Lenten includes a powerful book entitled By Way of Grace. The author is Paula Huston. The subtitle is “Moving from Faithfulness to Holiness, Eight Virtues that Open the Heart to God.” In the chapter on Justice, The Art of Forgiving, she writes “…when we live in justice, we also protect and honor each person’s right to meet God in the privacy of his or her own soul.” I found this to be a very profound insight. So often I tarnish my sense of justice with a judgmental righteousness that does not allow me to take others where they are in their personal journey. I do not think that I am alone in this sinfulness. So even as I accuse myself, I invite all of us to look at our own struggle with “religious exclusiveness” as Huston calls it. It is there in me and I’ve sensed it in many among us. Often it grows out of a frustration that is a by-product of our genuine thirst for justice for our society and for our church. And that is what makes it so insidious. We want so much for justice to reign that it subverts the right of individuals who may respond differently than we do to issues. In short, we fail to give others their “just” due. Huston also points out that such an attitude can become habitual. We judge everyone and everything negatively without being aware that we are doing it. How do we combat that disposition in our lives? In her words, “The only thing left to do sometimes is to pray that what justice can’t repair, love will.” We need to love those who look, think, and respond differently than we do. I know that I have to work on that this Lent. I offer this reflection to you if it may be something that you need to consider as well.Pray for me. I am in Union City, PA giving a parish Lenten Mission this week.
DJG
Filed under: From Fr. Grassi
