Mind Your Business People of God

A few weeks ago, I walked through a cemetery and one of the monks buried there had a sign that read "Almost everything is none of my business." I laughed and forgot about it until this week. For some reason, I thought about this sign again. The simplicity of the sign is profound, and I think is a message to us all. This is something I struggle with, because I try to know a lot about a lot. Being well versed in a variety of areas is important to me, so this sign gave me greater reflection and pause.

Religious people, especially clergy, can be especially pedantic. If people don't do things exactly the way we want or in the same way we would, we criticize them. Similarly, if someone believes differently from us, even slightly, we find it easy to condemn or vilify them. This is not unique to any side or perspective. You can do any number of things wrong: liturgy, being too or not enough justice oriented, believing too much or too little in something, wearing something wrong, etc. etc. etc. Instead of asking "well, why do you do that?" to try to understand, many times we just shut down or condemn.

On a forum recently, an individual posted about another denomination "their communion isn't real anyway." I think it is easy to write other people off. To say, "well, they're not like me, so I can say what I want." Or, "I have nothing to learn from them." Or even "they're not real and only I am." The reality is that none of this is new. We have been saying things about each other since the dawn of time. And, frankly, in my ministry experiences it has turned people off. Most normal lay people do not care about the complexities of this or that, they simply want to improve their lives through a reverent and involved faith. To some, this may be a sign of how far we've fallen. However, I think the farther we can get away from burning each other at the stake the better, and maybe this is a step in the right direction.

It seems like a good resolution to take into the New Year to say "almost everything is none of my business." See something you don't like? Don't comment on it. Let it go or ignore it. I think that we all have something to learn from each other--a different way to pray, to learn, to grow. If you shut that down, you have no chance to expand yourself. We all like to think we're the best or we're right or our way is the only way. We can choose, instead, to see the best in people. Now, I'm not talking about when people are being intentionally malicious and cruel. We don't have to put up with that. But for many things, we can disagree but still live in harmony. Or even work towards agreement! We just have to let it go and mind your business people of God.

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." - St. Theresa of Calcutta