Hardness of Heart

The Bible speaks of the hard-heartedness of people. That is the one thing I thing every person can personally be involved with. It is epidemic in our society and in our churches. People hurting other people becuase of their own biases or indifferences and dearth of empathy.

I assume people are hard-hearted in their attempt to maintain a purity, whether in the processes we use to live our lives or in the dogmas used to manage faith. These people are often termed as mean-spirited and some can be very angry and vindictive.

I was saddened by the recent passing of Lucciano Pavarotti. Not only a great singer, he seemed from what I could see, to be a genuinely happy man. Reading about his funeral, I saw what a beautiful service had been given him full of music and the love of those around him.

Then I read this...

That Pavarotti — a divorced man who had a child out of wedlock — was given public viewing and a funeral in the cathedral spurred some debate here. A Modena parish priest, the Rev. Giorgio Bellei, told Corriere della Sera that the move amounted to "profanation of the temple." Other critics noted that last year the church refused to grant a religious funeral to a paralyzed man who had a doctor disconnect his respirator.

The hard-heartedness of the church in these situations amazes me. Churches are not monuments to righteousness. They are places for ordinary struggling people to find God. They should always be a refuge, warm and welcoming. Instead, so many have become closed communities where those deemed less than perfect in behavior or attitude are shut out.

Mean-spirited actions are what drive people from a church. One heartless act will counter hundreds of welcoming ones.

As I see it, we have a choice to be bitter, selfish and angry or magnanimous and welcoming.