31st August, 2013
‘To aspire to live
quietly, to mind your affairs and to work with your own hands’, is the
practical tip for peaceful living that St. Paul gives his spiritual children at
Thessalonica. It seems that gossip and judgments about others has been a
problem for centuries on. Uncharitable curiosity about others’ lives, passing
judgments and spreading prejudices about others, looking out for an opportunity
to blame my negligences and failures on someone else, villainising someone
merely because I do not agree with him or her – these are fast becoming “normal” in a
society that is influenced by a maddening media craze! Holiness does not
consist of my private life alone, it involves my social relations, my
willingness towards contributing my mite to the social order and my commitment
towards making this world a better place to live! However little, let us do our
part, so that the Lord may rejoice in us, and address us, “Good and faithful
servants!”