Photo by Maureen Kennedy Macel
TREE HUGGERS SUCK. The words were glaring at me in a nasty font across the back of a truck I was driving behind. Nice. This person who doesn't know me thinks that I suck.
How often do assign labels to people so we can categorize and judge them? We look to elevate ourselves above others. Christians and people of good will are called to embrace people and not judge them (Matthew 7:1-5). Humanity is called to be one in Christ (John 17:20-23).
We might be using labels more often than we realize. Liberal... Conservative... Christian... not Christian... etc.
When we use labels to judge, what we think we know about a person, we don’t know.
And so I encourage us to reject the labels and embrace the person. Jesus did this. And Pope Francis has given us a few examples of how to do this, too. When a label has been given to provoke and disparage, he has discarded the label and gone straight to the heart of the matter:
Pope Francis recounted a story: "A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: When God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person."
When critics accused the Pope of being Marxist, Pope Francis responded, "Marxist ideology is wrong, but I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people…"
When the Pope was asked whether atheists go to heaven, he said, "The Lord has redeemed us all with the blood of Christ, all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone," he said. Some may ask, 'Father, even the atheists?' Them, too. Everyone."
Pope Francis recounted a story: "A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: When God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person."
When critics accused the Pope of being Marxist, Pope Francis responded, "Marxist ideology is wrong, but I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people…"
When the Pope was asked whether atheists go to heaven, he said, "The Lord has redeemed us all with the blood of Christ, all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone," he said. Some may ask, 'Father, even the atheists?' Them, too. Everyone."
So, before we slap labels on people to categorize and judge them, stop; and think of the person who is likely to be a decent and unique human being.
"I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person’s life. You can, you must try to seek God in every human life." –Pope Francis
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