Lucas Ribeiro
How impersonal can we get?

I still remember going to the Crosby, Stills , Nash and Young's concert at the San Diego Arena in California. There was a pervasive sense of excitement in the air as we squeezed ourselves through the entrance gate to get into the concert hall.
That was a long time ago, in the seventies, and the famous musical quartet was being anxiously expected by all of us. If you don't know them, they came out of Woodstock's "flower power generation " scene as big stars, almost overnight, singing country-rock music with a beautiful vocal harmony.

Among the well - known songs in the repertoire, they sang a new one that day called "to the last whale". An ode to rekindle our consciousness to the  imminent necessity to save the whales from extinction.

The message came through, I guess I became a little more ecologically correct that evening. I walked out of that place feeling that I could make a difference in society, for the fact that I was more sensitive to the intricate ecological system of our planet. Please, don't misunderstand me, ( and I don't want to loose my few readers after this statement) there is nothing wrong  in trying to save the whales, or any other animal in the extinction list, but the danger I see, is that we can easily "institutionalize" our affections and love and become devout to programs and ideals instead of real people.

Let me quote a famous saying of Jesus Christ recorded in the gospels: " You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." . I firmly believe that loving someone near you such as  your neighbor,  is very hard, because that generates commitment, and eye-to-eye contact. It is so much easier to love humanity and be indifferent to real people, sometimes, it is romantic to embrace a cause that will make ourselves look  intellectual or appease our conscience, but the truth is that, real love, sometimes, is proved to be true in anonymity.

Idealism is vital for us today, and we desperately need it, specially in this country  where everything seems to suck us into the sea of discontentment and distrust, but let me hasten to say that any ideology which brings a dichotomy between  high ideals ( such as "no nukes", "save the whales", etc... ) and the effective love and sympathy for those immediately around us is very dangerous. Dictators, false religious leaders and bad politicians around the world love that, they are experts in conveying the idea that the end justifies the means, in other words, people just get in the way.

I remember preaching about social concern one Sunday in my church, and I read from the Bible this passage: "If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?. I was about to finish the sermon, when a beggar quietly entered the sanctuary and sat in the back. That had never happened before until that day. All of sudden my words got a new dimension, I was at the threshold between mere words of idealism and true love to my neighbor. I am glad we were able to help that person, but the story could've been different.

The opposite of romantic idealism is cynicism and callous indifference, none of those will make us grow as persons. I am convinced that God's will is that we can be able to give ourselves to real people around us, and at the same time, maintain a global view of humanity, keeping our share of idealism, believing that we can contribute to our society, and why not, one day, saving the whales.

Pr.Lucas Ribeiro
The Union Church of Rio de Janeiro
lujomori@yahoo.com.br