A Very Bad Attitude
In the small town in which I live, we have an elderly gentleman who uses his motorized wheelchair to move about town. He rides against traffic and has a safety flag and reflectors. Everyone knows him and everyone is more cautious when he is on the road. This wheelchair is his only form of transportation, since he has no family here and does not own a vehicle. Unfortunately, he was hit by a car this morning. A driver was pulling out of the bank where I work and did not see him coming. We called 911 and the first responders were on the scene within five minutes. His condition is unknown to me, but I pray that he will make a full recovery.
A co-worker and I were talking about the accident when she said, “Well, I’ve always said that he shouldn’t be driving that thing in the road. I knew this was going to happen”. She expressed no sympathy or compassion, simply aggravation that he dared to drive in traffic. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This co-worker of mine is a professed Christian, yet I cringe thinking about the lack of compassion.
I’m reminded of the man on the road to Jericho. No one wanted to stop and help him, whether through fear or indifference, and I think this story is still very relative today. We must begin to ask ourselves, “Who is my neighbor?”. We are called to love our neighbor as ourselves, but often we talk ourselves out of feeling compassion. Why? Are we jealous? Afraid? I don’t know. But today learned a good lesson on love. Loving your neighbor is rarely convenient and rarely rewarding in a materialistic sense. I am certainly going to try to truly love my neighbor. What if it were me in the road? What kind of help would I expect? What kind of prayers would I expect people to say for me? We need an attitude adjustment because I don’t want Christ to judge me how I saw that poor man judged today.
PRAYER FOR THE GRACE TO HELP OTHERS
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, let me sow pardon.
Where there is friction, let me sow union.
Where there is error, let me sow truth.
Where there is doubt, let me sow faith.
Where there is despair, let me sow hope.
Where there is darkness, let me sow light.
Where there is sadness, let me sow joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
St. Francis of Assisi
