From @BldgCatholicMen on Twitter:
“Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”
This is a favorite quote of mine from C.S. Lewis’ “Weight of Glory”.
It is a favorite because it precisely challenges some of my weaknesses. I tend to be a private and introverted person, content to pray, lift, read, and otherwise keep to myself — family life, obviously, challenges this tendency in a huge (and helpful) way!
Here is the thing: God has given you and I many missions in life. But one of the most fundamental is this: To appreciate, encourage, and lead every person you interact with a step closer to Jesus.
When you interact with someone today, be it your wife, children, coworkers, or the store clerk:
— Make eye contact
— Acknowledge
— Smile
— Encourage (Literally: GIVE courage)
— Lead any conversation to what is True, Good, and Beautiful
— Pray: either with them or for them after you part
Don’t miss these moments of grace, however small.
When we meet God, He will demand an account from us for all of these precious moments.
They are the real opportunities God is sending you — moment by moment — to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ.
One more quote from C.S. Lewis to challenge and inspire you in this regard:
“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory