We Should Make The World A Better Place

Last updated on: August 24, 2022 at 2:48 am by Henry Karlson

We Should Make The World A Better Place 2022-08-24T02:48:28-05:00 Henry Karlson

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“Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2 RSV).We have a responsibility to the world we live in. We should try to make things better, not worse. The more we look at the world as something to use for the sake of our own pleasure, instead of a good which deserves to be protected, the more we find ourselves conforming to our selfish desires, and through them, what they attain, which is some aspect of the world, instead of the will of God. We are to love the world, as God loves it, and if God loves it, who are we not to do so, so long as our love is of a proper kind, recognizing the relative good of the world in comparison to the absolute good found in God?

How, then, can it ever be said we conform to the world, if we are to love it and protect and preserve it? It is when we become attached to the world and what is in it by losing sight of everything else. We become, as it were, distracted by the world, losing sight of the holistic good. That is, we become so attached to what is before us we ignore the greater, transcendental glory which lies beyond creation. In this way, the more we become attached to the pleasures of the world and make them the center of our focus, we find ourselves becoming more and more centered upon the world and conformed to it and its contours and limitations.

What we need to do, when we find ourselves conforming to the world in this fashion, is to detach ourselves from the connections we made to the world, silencing our thoughts, ignoring our desires. When we do so, we can encounter the world, without those preconceptions or desires which block our experience, not only of the world, but of the transcendental reality which lies just beyond the created order, that is, the reality of God and the kingdom of heaven. Thus, we need to put aside every attachment which would disrupt our experience of the transcendental order, for then we can and will be able to experience such transcendence for ourselves. When we do so, then, we should take what we have experienced, the graces which we have received, and bring them into the world, for then, we become an instrument by which such graces penetrate the world and make it better. Thus, not being conformed to the world, but being conformed to God, must not be interpreted as ignoring the world and our responsibility to it, but rather, it means not allowing ourselves to become attached to the world as it is, and in this way, ignore the way we can and should help in its improvement.

The same silence and openness we have for God, allowing us to hear God and experience the grace of God in that hearing, should be found in the way in which we engage the world. “Know this, my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (Jas. 1:19 RSV). We should make room for others, letting them search for and experience the transcendental reality for themselves, which means, we should not try to force upon others the way we have used to experience the good for ourselves as if it were the only our way to experience the transcendental good. For it is that kind of thought which leads to legalism, and legalism quickly resorts to anger, if not actual violence, when its initiatives are not well-received.

Thus, when we share the grace we have received, we must do so with loving patience and adaptability. Grace perfects nature instead of imposing itself upon nature, and so we, like grace, should seek to aid others without unnecessarily imposing ourselves upon them.. Abba Poemen, for example, was known to do this by listening to others, and praising them for the good which he heard from them: “It was said of Abba Poemen that he never wished to speak after another old man, but that he preferred to praise him in everything he had said.” [1]

We must always act out of love. When we do so, we will make sure our beloved has the freedom they need to receive the grace we have to offer in their own way, in their own time. To do this properly, we will have to find a way to listen to the world, to see the good within it, without becoming distracted by it. This can be quite difficult, because the more we observe such good, the more it will attract us by its qualities, and so, it can lead us to desire to see and experience that good more by forcing it to reveal itself in times and places which are not best for it, as Abba Poemen wanted Abba Isaac to understand:

One day Abba Isaac sat beside Abba Poemen when they heard a cock crow. Abba Isaac said to him, ‘Is it possible to hear that here, abba?’ He replied, ‘Isaac, why do you make me talk? You and those like you hear those noises, but the vigilant man does not trouble about them.’[2]

It is one thing to listen to the world and engage it out of love, it is another to let ourselves become distracted by the loud noises in the world which try to force themselves upon us so as to make sure our attention is focused only them. When we seek after some particular good above all else, and make it expose itself for us so we can enjoy it, we will become conformed, not to the greater, holistic truth, but to a lesser, particular good found in the world, even as we end up abusing that good for our own personal desires. Once again, this is why so many pleasures and joys of the world, which are good in and of themselves, can lead us astray, because we become attached to them and want them to be repeated without rest, without consideration of other goods, including and especially the greatest good coming from and found in God.

Just as we should avoid being distracted by the noises of the world, so we should avoid becoming a distraction for others by making ourselves so loud in the world, we try to make ourselves the center of their attentions. Certainly, we should offer wisdom if we have it, but we must do so humbly, letting ourselves almost vanish from sight after we have done so. This won’t happen if much of our activity is based upon trying to get others to attend to us, such as we see in those who consistently engage in self-promotion. What we must do, in the end, is engage silence, both in relation to our experience with the world, but also in relation to our engagement with others, making sure we cut off all distractions for ourselves even as we make sure we do not become a distraction for others. Then it will become easier for us to make the world a better place, as we will not put up any barriers in the sharing of grace.

[1] The Sayings of the Desert Fathers. trans. Benedicta Ward (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1984), 182 [Saying of Abba Poemen 105]

[2] The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, 182 [Saying of Abba Poemen 107]

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