I have a new article up at NewEvangelizers.com.
In my last article, I wrote about how if you give tacit approval to people who are doing something morally evil then you are complicit.
However, I believe I should also make a bit of a clarification. We want to avoid giving scandal and leading people into sin. But we also want to be careful about cutting ourselves off from others that we deem sinful. Pope Benedict XVI once wrote that the Christian and the atheist both struggle with uncertainty as part of God’s plan. He said that if either could be shut away in their towers of absolute certainty, then they would not encounter each other as fellow travelers on an uncertain sea. God wants us to not only love Him, but love each other. And we can only really love people with whom we share life’s journey.
To be sure, if the company we are keeping is a bad influence on us, we may need to separate ourselves for the good of our own souls. There is no shame in admitting when we lack the spiritual strength to be heroically virtuous. God can give strength to all situations, but we should not be arrogant about our own holiness.
Having said that, if we can, we are called to journey with others, even if they are on the wrong path.
In the movie Speed, Keanu Reeves’ character is on a bus that will blow up if it goes below 50 miles per hour. At one point, they have to get an injured man off of the bus. So the police drive a truck parallel to the bus so that the man can be transferred and taken to safety.
If someone is living a life of sin, they are on that bus to destruction. That bus is going to blow up. The only way to get someone off is if you pull up alongside them and run parallel to them in their life and travel the same path next to them. You cannot save someone from the sidelines and just shout “Stop sinning.” You need to be journeying with them.
It is also important that this journey is one of genuine care. Sometimes people feel like we are simply trying to entice them onto a different path without actual care for their lives. As a teacher, I teach God’s word to large groups of young people several times a day. And while this is an important part of the processes, it is also important to let the students know that you care about them individually as persons. It is fine to talk to groups, but you cannot love groups. God doesn’t not love mankind. He loves each man. Jesus refused to be crowned king by the crowds, because He is not the leader of a mob. Jesus is the King of individual hearts.
God did not simply send life-instructions from His heavenly throne. He became one of us in the Person of Jesus and He journeyed with us as a man.
So how do we journey with others effectively with others?
You can read the whole article here.
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