Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you.—2 Corinthians 13:11
I am struck by how much this scripture depends on my willingness as a follower of the Lord to bend my own will to the good of the group—mend my ways, encourage others, be agreeable, live peacefully. It reminds me of a native American Indian story. An elder tells her grandchild that there are two wolves inside her fighting for control. One wolf is the wolf of love; the other wolf is a wolf of hate. The grandchild asks, “Which wolf will win?”The elder replies, “Whichever wolf I feed.” Belonging to a community is not always easy, even among fairly like-minded people. Disagreements arise about how best to handle different issues. Which wolf emerges depends on my willingness to be open or closed to other’s opinions and/or knowledge. Do I act out of my own interests or am I open to the greater good that I might otherwise miss?
In the Vatican II document, The Church and the Modern World (1965), the Church prophetically recognized the importance of, and responsibilities for, the common good: “Every day, human interdependence grows more tightly drawn and spreads by degrees over the whole world. As a result the common good, that is, the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment, today takes on an increasingly universal complexion and consequently involves rights and duties with respect to the whole human race. Every social group must take account of the needs and legitimate aspirations of other groups, and even of the general welfare of the entire human family” #26.
We must consciously feed the wolf of love—in our family life, in our parish community, in our workplace, in our civic life, and in the greater world. . . . and the God of love and peace will be with you.
