My parents, in their early marriage, were somewhat competitive. I won't go into the history, suffice it to say that their dear priest friend sat them down during a visit he was making to our home and told them that they needed a new motto: Presume Good Will. This has been a mantra in our family for a long time, and it certainly gets at that part of me that wants to be uncharitable and suspicious.
Why on earth can it be so hard to presume good will with some people? I think part of it is that I'm convinced that certain people either have it in for me or just don't care one way or the other. Also, there are those whose stated motto is Look Out for Number One. These people make it awfully hard to presume good will about them, since they often don't have good will...at least not for anyone but themselves.
But I don't think that lets me off the hook. I mean, Jesus didn't tell us to love our neighbors *and* our enemies when it seemed like they had good will. He didn't put conditions on it. We just had to do it. And since obedience is a virtue that I'm struggling to teach my almost-4-year-old, it seems right and natural that I would be struggling with this particular command.
"But Jesus, the last time I saw that person, he messed up my day in 12 different ways...before noon!"
"Okay, fine, Jesus, I heard you. Just let me finish venting about how much I can't stand that person. Then I'll be charitable. Just a minute. I'm almost done."
"Can I just set aside one of the fifty things that I was going to complain about? I'll save it for later. Then I can be charitable now, but have something to fall back on later, because I know that person is a no-good sumgum."
I can imagine that Our Lord is getting fed up with me. I can't stand having direct orders questioned, blathered about, ignored, put off, etc. So thank God He has infinite powers, because otherwise I'd be testing his patience this week!
Okay, Lord, I'll work on it now.
