The urge to stand out

Editorial Staff

I am a young man educated according to Christian principles by my grandmother who raised me, since my parents where always at work. I used to attend Mass with my mother and father and I always made myself available to help in the parish. Now I am an animator of the Catholic Action for children, but I would say that not everyone works for the good of all. There seems to be an upstart attitude, like the one there is in other environments. It seems impossible to me that we cannot behave at least politely, if we are not able to be witnesses of Christ with all our actions, in front of the children for whom we are an example. And from what I hear from my parents, who are part of other parish groups, even there, there’s not much to be cheerful about.

P.B.

It’s really true, sometimes in our ecclesial realities there’s not much to be happy about, because worldliness is likely to thrive even more under the greenhouse of religious appearance. The heart of our being disciples of Christ, in obedience to his Gospel, is our willingness to serve without hoping for any reward or compensation. If it’s any consolation, also the apostles experienced this difficulty, and even during the last supper they continued to argue about «who should be reckoned the greatest» (Luke 22:24). We can say that the disease of careerism and clericalism even of the laity is an endemic disease of the Church at all its levels and from time immemorial. In the Letter to the People of God Pope Francis asks us to fight against this temptation in a radical way. To do this we must begin with ourselves and continually ask ourselves whether the service we provide is for us the reward for our hard work and commitment, or whether we expect some recognition or some snapshot of a position.