What we all have in common...

In this week’s Gospel, for the school Mass, the Disciples tell Jesus about this strange man on the corner, driving out demons, in His name.  Jesus’s reply to them was, “Do not prevent him.  There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name, who can at the same time speak ill of me.  For whoever is not against us is for us.”(Mark 9: 38-40).  Now I am not sure where anyone is in their own faith journey, but today’s Gospel hit particularly close to me, for I have been struggling lately.  Let me explain…

 

Lately, all that we hear on the news, radio, television, conversations with our friends, tends to be around groups of people.  These conversations usually involve people trying to convince others to follow their own personal opinion.  Many of these people apparently believe that if they cannot convince you, then they should shout louder, in hopes that it will convince you to change your mind.  Let me give you just a couple of examples:

 

I am not sure how anyone can listen to the radio, watch television, or drive down the road and not see or hear something political.  Right now our political process seems to be a bunch of shouting.  Another topic of great discussion/shouting is the debate out what bathroom people should use.  We have a terrorist group that is killing people because they will not conform to their beliefs.  This list could go on and on and on…..

 

I am not sure about you, but I have had enough of all the shouting, complaining, and offending.  How can we possibly change the way things are done or said?  I am not sure if we can, but I would like to offer up the following and see if people could give it a try.

 

Let’s talk about dignity.  The google definition of dignity is, “the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect.”  Now let’s add to this the word “human.”  The most basic thing we all have in common is we are humans, regardless of color, gender, height, weight, wealth, beliefs, etc, we all have one thing in common, and that is we are human. 

 

If we were to follow the logic of the world today, all republicans should hate democrats, the wealthy should keep their wealth and turn away from the poor, another list that could go on and on.  However, if we put all the labels of a person to the side, and just go back to the basic common thread, human, it could be so much different. 

 

If you see someone with a political sign in their yard, they are still human, treat them with dignity, instead of hating them for their belief.  If you see the beggar on the side of the road, they are still human, treat them with dignity, even if you do not have any money to give.  If you see someone going into a church, mosque, temple, or any other house of worship, they are still human, treat them with dignity, even if their belief is different from yours.  Imagine a world where instead of arguing or shouting, we treated people with dignity because of our most common trait, we are human.  I wonder what the world would be like….