“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations–these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit–immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of the kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously–no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinners–no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat, the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.”

This quote has been a good reminder to me that people I encounter are created by God for eternity and for His purpose and that each is loved deeply by Him.  We’re all the same at the foot of the cross – broken, sinners, some reconciled, some not. The opportunity is there for you to know God personally. No matter what sin you have committed. No matter how good you think you are – the Bible says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We all are in need of the forgiveness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ because it is only through His payment for sins on the cross that we can be restored to God – forgiven and know we are going to heaven!