Brian’s Reflection: Friday, March 16, 2012

Everybody, my friend, everybody lives for something better to come.

That's why we want to be considerate of every man – Who knows what's in him, why he was born and what he can do?

Maxim Gorky, Russian novelist & short-story writer;
he was born on this date, 1868, at Nizhny Novgorod.


We Human Beings are, in my observation, a remarkably optimistic lot. All Hell can be breaking loose - like the World today - but we think it will get better. Well I remember all those men and women with AIDS for whom I had the privilege to minister! It was horrible in those early days, and most of them dealt with dreadful things. Yet, most lived and hoped for a better tomorrow.

Often religion shifts this Hope to what comes after this Life. Well, OK; I can see the possible usefulness of this. But, I like and prefer Gorky’s focus on this earthly Life. I think that this is what God desires, reflected in ideas of “the Kingdom” and “on Earth as it is in Heaven”.

One of the central principles of the Gospel is To Serve our fellow human beings. Jesus made it very clear that He came “not to be served, but to serve”.

I’m with Gorky. I want to strive to be considerate of every person I know … to think, when I see them, “What’s in this person? Why was she or he born? What can she or he do?”

And help.

Brian+