There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn: We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance, or indulgence with parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.
— C.S. Lewis from The Weight of Glory (A Year With C.S. Lewis)
1 comment:
yesterday at work I mentioned how I try to be nice to everyone, even though I know I'm not always nice to people, it is still my goal. And 5 out of the 6 people there actually disagreed with me, trying to explain to me, or rather, trying to convince me how stupid that is of me. Isn't that sad? People never cease to suprise me in how different people's outlooks and beliefs are.
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