Sunday, August 24, 2008 Alipio: What if everyone imitated you? By Fr. Jose Alipio The Yoke
PAUL realized that he preached with his actions as well as with his words. Like or not, Paul knew that he set the example for what it meant to be a Christian for his converts. They had no other pattern to follow. For that reason, the things he did and said were calculated to set the right example. We have a small example of how Paul's life was affected by role modeling in today's lesson from Thessalonians. He taught his followers to be responsible for themselves rather than to sponge off the community. To drive his message home, he worked day and night, laboring to the point of exhaustion, so he would not impose on any of them for his livelihood. Even though he had a claim as their religious leader to their support, he relinquished that claim in order to an example that they could imitate.
This raises an interesting: "What if everyone imitated you?" What kind of world you live in if everyone acted just like you? Would you want to be part of that world? Would you like to be treated exactly as you treat others? Obviously, these questions go to the heart of what it means to be moral person. The clearest way to arrive at moral duties is to imagine ourselves the object of our actions. Virtually every great religion captures this truth in one version or another of the golden rule: "Treat others as you would have them treat you." Many great philosophers teach the same principle: "Act on that maxim that you can will to be a universal act." If we welcome others to imitate our actions in similar situations, chances are we are living decent and dutiful lives.
