Aim High and Expect Nothing

I've been struggling a bit recently with some health problems that may possibly be related to the treatment I received over 25 years ago for a lymphatic cancer that almost killed me. I am nonetheless extremely grateful for that treatment. It is pretty much a miracle I am here at all - I really was brought back from the brink. I remember at the time people called me brave which used to annoy me tremendously. "How is it that someone with cancer automatically becomes brave?" I would snap. "I didn't choose this - if I had, I might be brave!" To this they might respond "but you cope with it - I don't know how you manage to cope with it" to which I would reply even more grumpily "and what's the alternative? Not coping? What would I have to do to not cope? Die presumably - well that's not an option. I put up with it because I have no other choice". I saw things very simply when I was 13 years old.

But it got me to thinking this morning about how we have to be grateful to God for all the good things we have. Even if, as one doctor suggested, ANY part of my recovery were down to me and how well I "coped", none of that is actually my doing because I didn't make me. But I know how atheists might retort - if that is the case how can I ever condemn a wrong action? If everything is predetermined anyway - God must be responsible for everything. Yet we know that is not the case - we know we have free will that we can use for good or ill.

The top and bottom of it is that if we "aim high and expect nothing" as I used to say, we can be happier, more productive and more useful people. I know there are many hedonists who would ask why we have to try - why can't we just seek pleasure? Why can't we just be totally selfish?

But the truth is we know that we can do BETTER. God has put on our hearts the knowledge and ability to aspire to something greater than that. If we are grateful for every blessing sent our way AND attribute all of our successes to God rather than to ourselves, this process produces the kindest and most helpful people on the planet. The world becomes a more benevolent place as a result. In this sense, we can be said to be made in God's image. We know what we are capable of and this removes any excuses we might have had for not trying to be good.

Now there will be those who say that this is what makes us distinct from animals, but I am not such a person. I would say that human beings are the only species we can speak authoritatively about in this regard. It is like, the Catholic Church does not say that only Christians will get to heaven. They recognise that there are truths in other faiths and sincere believers in those faiths who surely do get to heaven. But the Church can only speak authoritatively about Catholics. In much the same way we can only speak authoritatively for ourselves. We should not expect animals to live in the same way we prescribe for ourselves.

This probably also teaches us that we can only really speak for ourselves as individuals - we should not condemn humans who behave badly because we do not know their motives. But this somewhat contradicts the call to "rebuke the sinner".

Well, we are told to forgive each other "70 x 7 times" which is a poetic way of saying we should be indefinitely forgiving. But I suppose we also have to recognise that we are free to speak up and if we didn't make people aware of how they could live, then they are not going to know. The messages that liberal, pleasure-driven consumer culture sends out are to be selfish and greedy, and we have to present an alternative. We are as free to live our lives as they are to live theirs. We can no longer assume that people will know what Christian values are.

Of course in this respect we have to lead by example. We have to live lives others will be inspired by for them to listen to us at all. As St. Francis put it, we should "Proclaim the Gospel and when necessary use words".