Some
Thoughts on the Liturgy
THE
GOLDEN RULE
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One of the privileges that I have had over the past
forty-some years is to be a senior counselor at the
Student Council workshop of the Kansas State High School
Activities Association
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it is a great experience to work with a number of the
student leaders who, in general, are interested in doing
the best they can in school
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at the end of every workshop, the director has a
tradition of giving a gift to the staff who has worked
the week
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the same gift, every year
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the only thing that’s different is the color
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it is a marble which the company who produces them
simply calls “The Golden Rule Marble”
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the marble reads:
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“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”,
what we have come to translate as “love everyone”
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love is the basic religious concept of all the great
religions of the earth
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And in today’s Gospel Jesus makes it his central
doctrine:
Love
one another… This is how all will know you that you
are my disciples: if you have love for one another.
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the concept remains one of the most difficult doctrines
to carry out
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it simply is not easy to do unto others as we would have
them do unto us, that is to love everyone
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What we tend to do when we have difficult guidelines
like this is to re-write it in softer language
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and with love of others, it is so much easier to
re-write it as being
fair or
just
with
others
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and the Golden Rule then becomes the directive to be
fair in one’s experiences with others
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Obviously, there is nothing wrong with being fair with
others or to use the virtue of justice
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but that was not what Jesus said
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he went much further than that: he
said we should love
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loving means to feel responsible for, really care about
what the other feels, respecting the other for what
he/she is, understanding them
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being fair with someone allows us to remain distant from
people, and one doesn’t have to have any feelings at
all toward their welfare
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This is one of those doctrines that—if everyone
followed it—and as we said, every major religion
professes it,
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if everyone followed it, we would have a different world
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if love of another were the
rule
in marriage,
there would be no separations
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if it were the
rule
in dealing
with one another,
there would be no one hurt by another whether in word or
deed or thought
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if it were the guideline
for nations,
there would be no war
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it would mean that we would try to find the good in
everyone, even people that we name “enemy”, that is
people who don’t agree with us or get along with us
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A couple years ago, I was in one of the work rooms of a
hospital that was not part of any religious hospital
system (and that was what struck me)
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there was a sign placed there by the administration that
read:
“The
Golden Rule is in effect in this hospital. Patients are
to be treated as you
want
to be treated—with love. If you cannot do that, we ask
you to find other employment.”
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maybe such a sign should hang in every office and home
of our world
“The
Golden Rule is in effect in this place. Everyone is to
be treated as you
want
to be treated—namely, with love. If you cannot do
that, we ask you to find another place to live or work.”
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if we would follow it, we really would have a better
world.
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