"Embrace life with all its frailty and flaws but also with its grandeur and beauty." Pope Francis
When Pope Francis spoke to young people from 155 countries at the closing Mass of the World Youth Day in Panama City in January, he said, "Dear young people, you are not the future, you are the now … And God invites you and calls you to go out and find your grandparent and elders; to stand up and with them, speak out … and realise your sense of mission."
I believe the sense of mission we need is to hold on to the preciousness of life. So often we hear all about weaknesses and frailty, our flaws and inability to live up to the expectations of others. What we need to hear is encouragement, to feel loved and supported as we wander through our lives. Then we will overcome difficulties and gather together to support each other, such as the example given to us from Nelson recently. Fires are bad news, but they were overshadowed by the good news of people helping people.
Abhijit Naskar, a neuroscientist, author and speaker, said in his book Conscience Over Nonsense, "You can never be a first-class human being, until you have learnt to have some regard for human frailty." Instead of tearing the world apart, we need to step aside from petty differences and align ourselves with the peace-loving humans in the world. We need to build bridges not walls.
My Angels suggest we ask for tolerance and conscience to heal the heart of humanity. Voltaire, a versatile and prolific writer, an outspoken advocate of civil liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time, in answer to the question — What is tolerance, replied, "It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly — that is the first law of nature."
