By Ana Perišić, hagioassistant
IF I WAS SOMEONE
This week, the verse of the famous song prompted me to touch on the topic of the human need to be realized in this world. It was just a „trigger“, and the cause is observing the reality on the political scene and among people around me. If you think I am going to „criticise“ others, you are wrong.
I tell you right away: I am sorry for man!
It is so pathetic what is happening to politics today that it is difficult to remain sober about an important fact: Some of these people will continue to rule the Homeland for years to come. I wonder if this is exactly how it should be?
Second, in my environment, I see the symptoms of human misery whose consequences spill over into the structures of society. The same pattern of behaviour is always caused by human stupidity or evil and evil intentions. But the crucial question is what is the cause.
Every man who does some evil or does not do good that he can, sins. That is why we are all sinners, but also sufferers. Namely, if we are not what we can be, we are in short supply, we lose from the values we can achieve or, on the other hand, prevent others from failing to achieve them. We are directed to each other. Our value grows with the value of the people who live next to us.
I will return to the consequences: corruption, greed, the need for power, lying, insulting dissidents, revenge, killing of man. One of the sources of these evils is human stupidity, which is not primarily related to the lack of rational or emotional intelligence but is related to spiritual – value. Those people who suffer from a lack of love since childhood, because of which they did not gain the awareness that they are valuable, attack another to defend themselves or to point out their weaknesses, diminishing their own. Or they „buy“ the praise and commitment of the „smarter“, „more successful“, again to feel well and worthily.
A much bigger problem is when man is evil and uses his „sharp“ mind to stand out as a measure of success, justice and knowledge. This is the state when man himself becomes a god. He does not care about the people, he does not even think about God. Others serve this man to achieve his goal or to please him. Usually, these people also experienced a lack of security, but they are often ideologically turned towards evil, negativity. They live only for this world and from this world.
How do we fight against this evil in society, the environment, and also in ourselves (if we have the humility to reconsider our actions and expectations)?
First, only our focus on Love and a focus on the good can help change. The goal is to first become what we are not now: responsible according to the abilities given to us (not to something else, some desires or „healing“ of the complex), to make our words true, to live ethically and according to God’s laws (because who does not respect the law brought by Jesus Christ he is neither a Christian nor man – it has nothing to do with religious affiliation, especially if a person considers himself to be a believer). There is no change without conversion, and it is preceded by perception – the mental realization that to be man means to be a being of value. It is necessary to decide to live opposite from all kinds of negativity, existentially and consciously. There is no other „recipe“.
Second, our politicians, work colleagues, neighbours, relatives need us changed. We who say we know the Lord cannot say, „As far as we are concerned, or, worse, to bribe, steal, abort children, swear and curse, be lazy, do not give not even our surplus to those in need, cheat our spouse, favour the powerful.
We Christians are the „mirror“ of society, we need to be at the height of moral values and always be like our Saviour: to love man, even if he is our enemy today. With this power of good in ourselves, we can change the world, resist any negative politics and ideology. That is our mission, that is the only way we are someone.
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Born in Split. For many years she worked as a teacher of vocational subjects at the Secondary Agricultural School in Zagreb, for which she previously studied at the Faculty of Agriculture and the Pedagogical Academy, also in Zagreb. After graduating from ITKL in 2004 at the Catholic Faculty of Theology in Zagreb, she took over the position of director of the Children’s Home and head of the Center for Rehabilitation and Occupational Therapy of the CZN. She also led the project Psychosocial and spiritual assistance to people in need in CZN. She currently works as a hagioassistant and mentor at the Center for Hagiotherapy – Split, and is one of the members of the editorial board of Hagio.hr.
