COURTESY
Today’s Eastertide word is COURTESY. I don’t often connect it with either Christian faith or Eastertide.
Yet today’s second reading, from the first letter of St Peter made me that. St Peter writes that the believers should be ready to explain their beliefs to those who disagree with them courtesy and respect:
“Reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have. But give it with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience…”
St Peter’s main concern in writing this is that it will help them to prove their opponents wrong. However, there is a deeper and more important reason for courtesy to be a hallmark of our dialogue and conversation.
We are all made in the image of God. This is not only true of people like us, who agree with us. It’s true of everyone regardless of whether they have the same beliefs, cultures, nationalities, appearances or lifestyle as us. Whoever we encounter we are called to treat them with courtesy and respect, however strongly we might disagree with them.
In a world that’s quick to judge and devalue others St Peter’s words have an especially important message. They take me back to Jesus’s words that we should “love our enemies”. We are not called to agree with everyone, or to water down our beliefs.
We are simply called to treat everybody with courtesy and respect regardless of belief because they too are made in the image of God. If we were able to do this the world would look very different even in these challenging times
Where are you being called to be courteous and respectful this Eastertide?