One of the axioms I remember from my youth is Never insult your audience. This little phrase says profound things about the respect we owe to each other.
Living in this world means that we must learn to get along with others. We begin learning this lesson as children (even as infants) at the dinner table, in the playground, in the classroom and most especially in our own families.
Getting along with others teaches us to see that in the end, we're not all that different, one from another. All of us are on the same road, and the sooner we learn this truth, the easier it is to live compassionately, to love deeply and to walk humbly with God and with one another (cf Mi 6:4). Some who have already begun to learn this lesson need to share this good news with others, and if we're lucky, others will also get it, and begin to practice it.
Jesus too didn't want to insult his audience, but he wanted them to learn this lesson (and others like it). Like most teachers (in the classical sense of the word) he was beginning with a bunch of people who were 'diamonds in the rough'. He needed to continue buffing and polishing them, refining their understanding so that they would become sensitive to another truth, that each of them (and each of us) is precious, loved and cherished. This is not always seen in the relationships we cultivate in the world around us, but it is true at the core of our being, at the place where God meets us.
On the outside, it's possible for human beings to become so absorbed in themselves that they lose sight of the opportunity to love, to be compassionate, to help others to find their way. In fact, it is possible to become so desensitized to this truth that we prefer to ignore it or convince ourselves that it doesn't exist. In truth, at the core of our being, at the place where God speaks to us, we all long to be understood, to be loved, and so we are not all that different from the ones we might ourselves choose to ignore.
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